My New Songwriting Tool – Zoom H4 Handy Recorder

As a songwriter, it’s always important that I have some sort of audio recorder on hand to put down any songwriting ideas that come my way.

As you would’ve gathered from my previous blog posts, I believe that songwriting ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere.

Until now I’ve been putting my guitar and vocal noodlings onto analog tape. From this, I have boxes and boxes of 90 minute tapes full of works in progress that I can look back on and complete when the muse pays a visit.

The problem with using tape is that, being an analog medium, it’s a very time consuming process putting stuff onto computer. As I’m now computerizing my songwriting process I need to have a digital way of capturing my songwriting ideas.

I initially tried a digital voice recorder however, I found that I didn’t like the sound quality of the end result. I wanted something that I could record my songwriting ideas and put them online straight away.

Hence my new toy.

Recently I purchased a Zoom H4 Handy Recorder and, even though I’ve just started to work it out, it’s an amazing songwriting tool.

I was turned onto the H4 by a songwritng friend of mine who had the model below mine, the H2.

I was really impressed by the fact that the H2 is a digital recorder which was easy to use and small enough to take anywhere.

The difference between the H2 and the H4 is that I can also use it as an audio interface and, as a 4 track digital recorder.

Wow, perfect for my songwriting studio.

My initial goal with the H4 is to re-record all of my analog songwriting ideas and start cataloging them onto my hard drive.

This will give me lots of opportunities to practise using the H4 plus the Cubase software that comes bundled with the package.

Once I have some recordings under my belt I’ll post them online for your listening pleasure.

Let me tell you, saying that I’m excited is an understatement. My songwritng process has been enhanced 1000% with this new purchase.

Now, let me see, how do I turn this thing on again…

Until next time, happy writing,

Corey Stewart
Singer/Songwriter/Musician

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Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 Songwriting Tools

8 Comments to My New Songwriting Tool – Zoom H4 Handy Recorder

Shamir says:

May 22, 2008 at 5:55 pm

Awesome Corey! Loving it.

How much is it?

Shamir

songwritingzen says:

May 22, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Hi Shamir,

In Australia it’s retailing at $499.

That’s about $122,288,718,432.33 Zimbabwean dollars.

I’m loving the new toy too.

Mark says:

May 22, 2008 at 11:59 pm

Hey Mr. Zen….

I bought one a couple of years ago. It is invaluable. Although I find the 4 tracking tedious sometimes, it still is ten time better than having a bunch of tapes. I still find myself using tape for the immediate quickness of running downstairs and catching an idea. Old habits die hard I guess.

I’d be interested in hearing more about your attempts to use it as an interface for recording into your computer. I’m on PC over here, but have trouble with the vocals crackling sometimes? Uggh…but it is still darn nice. Here’s a forum site (if you haven’t found it already) for various topics. And if you need to update the firmware and drivers. http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/index.php

Peace,
Mark

songwritingzen says:

May 23, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Hey Mark,

What a cool forum! Thanks for the link.

Yes, it’s going to be interesting hearing how my attempts at home recording are going to go. For me, the most important part about my songwriting studio is how easy my ideas can be translated onto the hard drive. I, like you, still use tape.

Thank you also for your encouragement, I’m excited and a bit scared about this home recording thingy but there’s nothing like a great leap forward to stir up the senses.

Corey

JP says:

May 25, 2008 at 9:38 pm

Yes, I have the H2. Wonderful tool indeed! I have easily doubled my production of “cool ideas” for songs…

….if only there was a market for song “idea snippets”…. I’d be a damn millionaire by now!

songwritingzen says:

May 26, 2008 at 11:15 am

“….if only there was a market for song “idea snippets”…. I’d be a damn millionaire by now! ” I’d be right there spending money with you JP.

There are some website that deal with “online collaborations” such as:

Rifflet
Free Sound Project
Kompoz
Soundsnap

Marketing unfinished songwriting ideas… What a great idea. How would it work???

Songwriting Zen» Blog Archive » Corey Stewart - “We Can’t Be Together Anymore” says:

May 29, 2008 at 11:15 am

[...] that I’m learning more about recording audio and using my new Zoom H4 Digital Handy Recorder I’ll be putting more stuff online in the near [...]