Freesound Forums

Hi. I use my Zoom H2 to record the nature sounds. I am mostly satisfied by my results, but... Maybe could I improve the sound quality by using the external cardioid mic ? Could you suggest something affordable ? Should I be really worried about the noise level of the mic input on the Zoom ?
Thanks
Bart

changing mike won't help with noise level - you must use external mic preamp and plug it into line input - noise level is lower then with any kind of mike.

Perhaps your line input level is set too high! Try setting it lower and getting closer to your subject.

Cheers

David

In fact I have never tried to connect an external mic to my Zoom... I have just seen a few opinions on the Web of people claiming that zoom H2 has a strong noise on its mic input... Anyway, could I expect any improvements of the overall sound quality by using the external mic like edirol cs 15 or audio-technica ATR55 ? Or should I use more expensive mics ? I am curious if someone have tried recording using the external mic with Zoom H2 ?

I've tried - noise is still too high with any kind of mic. Too high to record nature sounds of course with louder sources it's ok.

Robinhood76

Thanks. So maybe I should start to think about a new recorder...

The pre-amp for external mics is quite hissy. I resort to using a seperate pre and record to line-in with external mics.
I really wouldn't bother recording nature sounds with the Edirol CS15, it has a relatively high self noise itself.

A comparison with the last mic being the Edirol
http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=72726

Typically I use a cheap Sony ECM-719 stereo mic with the H2 (mostly just to avoid the handling noise while the H2 is in my pocket). As has been mentioned, for quiet sounds the preamps in the H2 are not good. Hell, even the built-in mics and internal preamp is far from ideal for noise characteristics.

External preamp to Linein is the way to go.

Benboncan

I have just listened to your samples recorded with a zoom h2 - preamp fel - rode ntg2 configuration.
They sounds great ! - birdsongs with no environmental noise . Very nice.

Glad you liked them.