Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Anyone here have any experience with these?

I want to use something like this for two purposes:

(a) Getting songwriting ideas down before I lose them; as the inspiration happens.

(b) Recording our band during rehearsal so I can listen for mistakes and fix them.

An older friend of mine owns a music store and plays in a classic everything band (he plays a B3 with a Leslie). I stopped in to see him and he had an H2 there on the counter so I asked him about it. He uses it for exactly what you were wanting to do and he loves it. He said that if he had the extra bucks he would have gone for the H4 because of some extra features, but the H2 does a great job. Plus he had gotten a good deal on it. He also has been running sound systems for years now. I would definitely take his word on it.

I think Sanshou had one of those, he posted something a while back about it I think. Maybe he will see this and chime in.

I have the H4. It has a lot of features I will probably never use.
It works well for what you seek. And that is in essense what we use ours for. Set on MP3 mode (and with the new larger card I purchased) I can record over two hours of band rehearsal. Fire and forget.

Hey sans, does it have a USB out to load into your 'puter? I may hafta look into one of these if I ever start making bucks again!

I've heard a lot of good things about these gizmos. I'd like some info from users too please.

H2 has a USB out, so I imagine the H4 does, since it is supposed to be the more feature-heavy version.

The USB is one of the reasons I'm interested in it.

I really need something I can get ideas down on without a lot of trouble. Recording band practice - a great bonus.

I'm probably going to get one. I just keep reading nothing but good reviews about them. And for the price point, they seem like a great deal. Probably not something I'd normally spend money on, but at the price point I think it's worth it.

Yes sir it has USB. I just plug it in click on it and send it to Audasity.
I have not used it to multi track yet. But for recording live off the mic or the two 1/4 " inputs it works well. Loaded with features and effects.
Like I say man much better more versitile piece of equipment than I have the ability to use.

Forgive my lazimess...I know I could look it up...but how much is it?

(b) Recording our band during rehearsal so I can listen for mistakes and fix them.

I don't recommend it for louder than acoustic rehearsals. It's just not powerful enough to record all of the sounds at all frequencies. But, as far as, simple ideas "on-the-go:" yea it's good. Band practice, no.

Sources: friend bought it; we tried it.. we came to the above conclusion.

Looks like they run about $270.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH-cyTvnEaI

Amazon.com has the H2 for $157. You have to put it in your cart to get that price.


@Andragon - I am wondering about band practice recording. The H2 has a line level in. Can I use that for recording the band? We've got a P.A. and a mixer that is setup during rehearsals. We only use it for vocals, but it wouldn't take much to mike up the rest of the band. Can't we take that output from the mixer then and run it into the H2 and record that way?

Colors, what's the brand and model number on your mixer? I can look it up and I'm pretty good at coming up with different ways to get the most out of a mixer.

That is what we do. It is not as simple as it would seem to get the sound right. But It works.
I dont know about the H2 but the H4 has the ability to control the input levels automaticlly or manually. Just a matter of getting the settings right.