Ask Steve Ep.4 - H4n Questions, Depth of Field, Recording Audio

In this Episode of Ask Steve the Filmmaker, I talk about the love/hate relationship with the Zoom H4n Recording device, what Depth of Field is and how to achieve it, and I answer an important question about Recording sound on a shoot.

[DiCasaFilm]

I agree with you. The Zoom H4n was originally designed for musicians. I'm mostly arguing two of your points 1) "ive never seen it as very good for the film industry" and 2) "film making is never one it would excel at" My argument to that is that I've seen it on 10 times as many film shoots than recording sessions, and it indeed excels at capturing audio for film. Most recording artists I know use much more expensive equipment. ;)

[cantrac]

i bought my zoom h2 & h4 about 3 to 4 years ago, and all the advertising showed famous musicians who'd endorsed them & used them on tour to record.
everything was aimed at musicians.
that's zooms market.
zoom realised quite quickly more than musicians & pod casters were buying these devices.
it excels for the function it was originally designed for which is studio quality musical recording..
since the video equiped varients of this device appeared, zoom has widened the scope of its advertising.

[Nasha]

Another great application of this thing (H4N) is recording voice overs. I used to sit next to my mac to record voice overs and hear the hum of the fans all through everything OR I'd set a mic up far away and have to walk back and forth every time I wanted to stop or start. Now, I just take the H4N and a mic and copy stand and find a quite spot in the house. The H4N is silent.

[chomps]

Same as Divaki7 down here, what's your lavalier mic?, I just love people people that is whiling to share their knowledge, and you my friend are one of those subscribing by the way!!! keep it up

[mhmpos]

Hello Steve you are doing a very good job with you tutorialas and answers. I have a question for you. Can you make a tutorial about lenses for your 5d or 7d a would like a review and your opinion on what to buy (lenses) about 3 or 4 of them the whats the best you think? greedings from greece!

[terrencejablonski]

Steve, love your videos. I have used the Zoom H4n for some years. Just upgraded to the h6 but I am ptetty dismayed so far. Sound is gteat, but finding it a bit of a nightmare to use. Wondering if you had any ecperience with it.

By the way, I am sute ypu realized long ago, but in your reply to question sbove from the guy who had music in the background that he wanted to get rid of - the only solution would be to get the actotz together and do an oberdub of the dialogue. Tricky, because he needs to match the ambient sound but it happens even in big budget Hollywood movies all the time. Othetwise he had to re-film the scene.

[cantrac]

well zoom is a company that traditionaly specialises in musicial products, and these devices were originaly targeted as such..
the original designs were aimed at musicians.
they have tried to expand the scope off the device, but what does ZOOM make peedle effect boards, guitar and bass modeling units, 4track recorders etc for the MUSIC industry

[TheNeFlo]

Hey Steven do you think you can show us a tutorial on how to do 3 point lighting?

[Nasha]

It has external XLR inputs, 24bit 96kHz sample rate, phantom power AND a very clean input when used with good mics. Its the best solution to field sound recording. About the only thing that disturbs be is any affiliation with Samson which I had always equated with Crap. I remember trying to use a samson wireless mic in the late 90's and it was utterly useless.

[srinivaspadala]

I have an idea for the last one, if both loud music and speech are recorded in same track, you can get the music track from internet, phase shift it 180 deg, and mix them then due to destructive interference, the music is cancelled and you have only the speech.

[TRAKNOX]

LOL The Fart Sound was great! Good Vid

[cantrac]

not saying it cant be used succesfully but the points raised about its limitations are because it was a device designed for a a different applications.
but if it can give studio quality audio its a useful portable recording studio at a very cheap price...
and i can see why film makers are attrcated to it

[DiCasaFilm]

All I can say to you is go to this link and scroll down to the section "The Audio Solution for DSLR HD Video"

samsontech.

This comes directly from Zoom's website. So you see, even the company that manufactured the zoom promotes the use of it with HD DSLR's.

[cantrac]

not knowing about f stops as fractions in a camera lens or reviewing this device for a job its was never really design for, i would have to question the validity of your video.
for its purpose either in a quite room recording a lone vocal line or acoustic performance or in a rehershal studio with extremely loud amps..it handles the recordings extremley well, very well balanced and a quality that before these devices were avilable was not possible in any hand held device

[divaki]

Hi Steve! What type of Lavalier mic are you using in this video??

[dinoatcharterdotnet]

What's the best way to set up the H4N outdoors? I am having a small speaking event (one person at a time) and was thinking of propping this up in front of them on a tripod with a windscreen to record their speeches. Would that work?

[ChuckBricker]

Are you using make-up? What's your opinion on that? For a person who is primarily goal for making videos for business purposes, is this necessary, or the 3 point lighting good enough?

[feranonono]

hey i got a zoom h4n then i tried to connect it to boom mic. why the sound is so small? whereas i already maximun the volume. help me please thank you steve :)

[y]

Hi, which Lav mic are you using in this video?

[cantrac]

the main point off the zoom products is specialist music product to record on location to capture a live recording of a band. or music of some discription and as a mobile mini studio.
ive never seen it as very good for the film industry.
but it was never made for the film industry, its main market is musicians
its a specialist musicians recording tool, obviously it has cross overs out side music.
but film making is never one it would excel at.
my band uses one, & it excels in that enviroment