Microphones - thinking of either Zoom H2 or Blue Yeti?

To Posterity and Beyond! · Post by **Cori** » April 23rd, 2011, 7:37 am

How about this link? http://www.youtube.com/user/cajun5454#p/u

Post by **philchenevert** » April 23rd, 2011, 7:55 am

Cori wrote:How about this link? http://www.youtube.com/user/cajun5454#p/u

Wow. where did that page come from?

It looks very nice Cori; Thank you (and everyone with vast technical knowledge!).

Phil "Adrift in The Technological Sea with no GPS" CHenevert

Post by **philchenevert** » April 23rd, 2011, 7:47 pm

As some of you know, because of the increasing number of LV people who use the H2 Zoom recorder and their strong endorsement of it, more and more newcomers are buying it. But it is NOT a 'plug and play' piece of equipment; you must actually learn some technical details before before recording can begin. It may be cute as a puppy and work wonderfully, but it has lots of buttons, settings and dial thingies. (Not to mention a darling little hat that mine always wears

)

Because of this increased usage, there has been more and more talk about it (like this thread) where users share their knowledge about it. Since usage of the H2 will probably only increase as the price comes down, I am trying to gather in one place as much of this wisdom as possible.

OK. My question is where to put this information as it is gathered. Currently, the link to the H2 ZOOM on our Wiki is kinda obscure. From the main page you must go to
"2. Volunteering",
then choose "Recording"
then the sub topic link to "user-recommended equipment"
then '2. alternative recording equipment"
then "2.2 Portable Recording Devices"
then "H2 Zoom" the 7th device listed.

The link there is to the Samson site (manufacturer) and includes a nifty video of how to use it as well as good pictures of it. There is currently nothing written by LVers of instructional nature. So, if the information was added to this site in the WIKI do you think it would be useful and easily found? Is there a better place? Please dont suggest my refrigerator door, it's already full of my grand children's pictures.

Elizabby · Post by **Elizabby** » April 23rd, 2011, 9:46 pm

philchenevert wrote: OK. My question is where to put this information as it is gathered. Currently, the link to the H2 ZOOM on our Wiki is kinda obscure. From the main page you must go to
"2. Volunteering",
then choose "Recording"
then the sub topic link to "user-recommended equipment"
then '2. alternative recording equipment"
then "2.2 Portable Recording Devices"
then "H2 Zoom" the 7th device listed.

The link there is to the Samson site (manufacturer) and includes a nifty video of how to use it as well as good pictures of it. There is currently nothing written by LVers of instructional nature. So, if the information was added to this site in the WIKI do you think it would be useful and easily found? Is there a better place?

Ah, interesting! I got as far as "user-recommended equipment" and looked at the devices listed there and didn't see it. I didn't look at 'alternatives' because I assumed I wanted to use whatever the mainstream people were using. So how about putting it there - as the H2 seems to be "user recommended"?

Hmmm. If it isn't pretty simple "plug and play" I'm not sure it is going to be good for me. Working out how to upload Audacity was about the most technical thing I've ever done!

To Posterity and Beyond! · Post by **Cori** » April 24th, 2011, 12:58 am

Until the forum software asploded, there was a lengthy thread about another portable device (the Boss BR-600.) It was such a popular thread, and the people curating it were so knowledgeable and happy to share, that it actually generated its own little community, of people who used the mic, not necessarily ever for an LV recording, and people would sign up to the forum to ask for help, specifically around its technicals.

http://forum.librivox.org/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=3927

I think something like that for the Zoom might be relevant again -- the distilled knowledge could be put into a wiki page (and linked from the first post of the thread, so it's super-easy to reference) ... but I don't like trying to make wikis do too much. Wikis are encyclopedias ... fellow LVers are the librarians which save folk a lot of time in hunting around for stuff, add personal experience or links to other forum discussions, and make the whole process seem fun rather than a terrible slog.

[PS. if someone were massively organised, I'd suggest reserving the first 2-3 posts of the thread as indexes, and again, going back later on to link to important discussions within the thread as it grows.]

Post by **annise** » April 24th, 2011, 2:49 am

Elizabby wrote: Ah, interesting! I got as far as "user-recommended equipment" and looked at the devices listed there and didn't see it. I didn't look at 'alternatives' because I assumed I wanted to use whatever the mainstream people were using. So how about putting it there - as the H2 seems to be "user recommended"?

Hmmm. If it isn't pretty simple "plug and play" I'm not sure it is going to be good for me. Working out how to upload Audacity was about the most technical thing I've ever done!

If you are after "mainstream" the most common one would be the Logitek desk microphone - it's cheap, USB and seems to give good results. It's more difficult when it is a gift I suppose -the offer may not be made again but if you haven't done much recording it is quite adequate - and when you have had a chance to find out how you like to record , how many problems you have with outside noises and finding sometime to record etc. etc., I would stick to it. Different microphones suit different voices - and the more fancy ones require more fiddling to get them right. Most of the answers you get are from experienced readers and they will tell you what suits them , but it may not suit you. And you won't know what suits you until you have done some reading.

Anne

Starlite · Post by **Starlite** » April 24th, 2011, 5:00 am

As for plug and playability, the H2 is not too bad. When I started, I knew nothing about recording audio (other than the old tape players). There was little to no help available as it just came on the market. I did fine. Just started pushing buttons and lo and behold, I got a decent recording.

Esther