Zoom R4 Multitrack Recorder - First Impressions

Quick overview of and first impressions from the new Zoom R4

[guitargod]

I could only wish that every manufacturer of tech products produce this type of truly helpful video! So helpful and supportive. And I am impressed by the R4 performance!

[trashtbyghosts]

best overview ive seen on this so far, thanks plamen

[Kdm]

Thanks for this review. I've bought/sold multiple 4 track recorders because the mixdown, bounce, and export functions require so much time in a maze of drop down menus and confusion. I want simple when I'm in a creative headspace, like an old cassette 4 track. Have you had time to record, mix and export any files and how did that go?

[Studio_to]

Thanks for that amazing video.

Could elaborate on editing and overdubs/punch in?
I was wondering if one could, say, record several times on the same track without erasing anything? Like, recording A from 0:00 to 1:00, recording B from 1:30 to 2:00, recording C from 3:00 to 5:00, etc?
And is it possible to navigate through a recording by bar or beat increments?

Cheers!

[diogomp]

Hello, can you comment on the track effects, the reverb and echo? I can't get an answer from them on the reverb and delay type? Is it a plate? A hall? Tape delay or digital type delay? Do you get a sense of this?

I was also wondering if you tried plugging the headphone output to a set of speakers with a Y cable?

Thank you.

[SynphamyMusic]

Hi, great video! I've been looking at getting one of these mainly for recording vocals and acoustic guitar so I can record in a different room and then bring it over to the DAW for mixing later, what I really want to know is, could I put my song on this and load it onto a track to use as a backing track while I'm recording?

This would be really useful because I can set up a microphone in a room that has better sound.

[ADANDURAN-bl]

Have you ever pressed record, only to find that the track doesn't appear on the memory card with no sign of recording? I shot a wedding and reception in a day, but the clips from before the reception aren't showing on my memory card, despite pressing record and stop.

[charleswind]

After you’ve recorded on the mini sd card, what do you do either the card, for playback ?? When download to your computer, you’re still left with the same issue. I want to play my music in the car ! An sd card is not going to work. I feel like the only one that’s asking this question..

[dozzaz]

A question about case material - does it have non-slippery rubber coating, like some other zoom devices? ir is it just plain plastic?

[jmudd]

I purchased this product and have experienced some issues when trying to record a backing track from a device (both PC and iPhone) to one of the tracks using a 3.5mm audio cable with 1/4 inch adaptor (multiple cables and adapters so I have ruled out those pieces as malfunctioning). When I record using this method, the volume is low and has some sort of interference. I have tried input A and B with same results. I was able to use this method with my old Zoom MRS-4 without issue. It is almost as if the backing track is too much to handle. Any ideas?

[charlesgraham]

Thanks for video a nice little recorder

[bigbizz]

Does it connect to the computer to extract as a wave file

[Sunshine-Light]

Excellent video but please demonstrate the item

[azimutazimut]

is it possible to record a track while listening to another track ?

[jackcimino]

Would it be better to get this or the Tascam DP-008EX?

[incaroads]

I've been in contact with the unapologetic reps at zoom about this device. We live in the future now, not 1986. They had almost everything right when they built the MRS-8. That was a decade and a half ago. There is no reason for this device not to have a function as fundamental to home recording as auto-punch in the year 2023. Yet it does not have this function. Zoom claims that all of its engineers are musicians. I would like one of those engineer/musicians to explain to me how you can punch in and out while simultaneously playing an instrument. Additionally, the R4 has zero midi capability. So it cannot even sync with an external sequencer such as the Circuit Tracks or MPC ONE, etc. It also has no ability to shift/nudge a track forward or backward in time, which would allow someone, at the very least, to pseudo-sync an external sequencer or arpeggiator. Why not? These are not hard asks. They are, in fact, no-brainers. I'm sorry. I'm a big fan of Zoom products, but this is an incredible unforced error. We have the technology. Guys are building their own space ships these days; but Zoom just took a dive on a digital recorder that they could easily have gotten right out-of-the-box by including nothing more than an auto-punch feature. It's appalling. It's infuriating. It's disappointing as hell. I would gladly have given them the extra ten, or even twenty, dollars per unit that it would have cost for R and D to implement this one feature alone. And before you say something like, "they'll probably fix this with a firmware update", I urge you to take the advice of guys like Gabe Miller, who implore us all, to never buy equipment that fails to meet our expectations at the time of purchase. Never expect a corrective firmware update; much less, one that will correct the issues that concern you in particular. Frankly, I don't trust the assertion that Zoom's engineers are all musicians. Anyone who has ever touched a musical instrument would not have missed such an easy goal. Phooey ! ❤

[infnloopmusic]

How are the FX on this? Comparable with the zoom multifx pedal everyone uses for synths?

[neftalianthony]

Is that have looping the track is going playing when the record stops

[BAND-MAID-USA]

1 of these days these companies need to incorporate a way to actually send what you’ve recorded to someone via email or WiFi or cellular. It’s absolutely insane to me that function isn’t available on all 2023 recorders. Does anyone know of one that when I’m done tracking and mixing ON the device, I can then send it to someone’s phone or email?

[EdwardKilner]

I was interested in seeing a well done review of this unit. Didn’t happen. After a long recounting of recorder ownership, replete with left hand rolling over and an occasional glimpse of the bottom two inputs, you didn’t do the expected thing of saying what the four inputs were, and what kind of inputs they had. That imagined list should have been followed by a similar list of output connectors and their possible uses. But, you chose to push buttons while making out of focus views of the display.

Tuner? Yes, it has a tuner you say? What does it tune? FM, perhaps?

Suggestion: if you are using a bedspread as a background, put the unit on the bedspread and get your hand off the unit, except to turn it over or otherwise position it.

😢 unlikely to watch your promised next video on this product completely, unless the first minute proves your technique has significantly improved.