Product: Zoom HD8CD
Price Paid: USD 499
Submitted
11/22/2007
at
04:22am
by
Max
General
:
10
Strictly speaking, this is a recorder, rather than an interface, but it can be configured to act as a control surface for PC based DAW. This is a desktop 80 gig hard drive recorder with an on board CD burner, about the size of a laptop, although I wouldn't regard it as a portable unit since it has no battery power feature. The Zoom HD recorders are available as 8-track with 2 track recordable at once or as a 16-track with 8 tracks recordable at once. It has a meter bridge built in, with LED readouts for each track and the main out and clip indicators and level controls for mic or line level signals at the inputs. The case is metal, nice build quality and there are faders for each channel and the main stereo outs. The inputs are XLR/ 1/4" combo inputs. There are also a pair of stereo headphone outputs, and the main output jacks are RCA L/R. There are also, on the back panel, MIDI in and out, S/PDIF and USB connections. All other adjustments, editing etc is accessed through menus read out on a LCD screen, and there are transport controls resembling those on tape machines.
Connectivity
:
10
Again, the HD8/16CD has a built in USB 2.0 interface, S/PDIF and MIDI I/O as well as RCA audio outputs.
I/O
:
8
I've found the preamps to be very clear and warm sounding and one is switchable to accomodate HiZ signals (guitars, etc) as well as mics. The S/PDIF output is optical and there is a MIDI in/out. There are no FX send/returns or channel inserts. The headphone outs may be used as sends to external signal processors during mixdown, with the stereo signal returned on 2 empty tracks (although this might be rightly regarded as a "work-around" strategy). There are 2 headphone outs, each with it's own volume control. On the HD16 one of the headphone outs doubles as a sub out. This recorder is designed to be used either with it's own internal signal processing or in conjunction with PC based DAW software, which in the latter case, it's mode is as a control surface and USB mass-storage device. I give this an eight because the preamps sound so good...although I would like to see a dedicated send/return for external FX.
Power
:
No Opinion
The HD8/16 is AC powered, with a detachable in-line power supply. There is no battery power feature. One of the two mic/inst. inputs has 48v phantom power.
Technical specs
:
9
This recorder stores all data as 16 bit/ 44.1kHz .wav files (a very nice feature in that file conversion is not necessary for transmission or burning) although processing is 24 bit. Direct monitoring is possible either through the headphone outs or the mains
Other
:
No Opinion
HD8/16CD is bundled with Cubase LE, which I haven't tried, since I got this in the first place to get AWAY from PC based DAW. I find this much more direct, less distracting than managing a computer while I'm trying to make MUSIC. It's likely that I will eventually need to transfer my mixes to a computer for conversion to MP3 for uploading to web...other than that, I'm pretty much DONE with trying to use my PC as a recording studio.
Overall
:
10
The recorder sounds fantastic, has a huge 80gig storage capacity and burns mixes in .wav on it's own CD burner. It's build quality is excellent and I have barely scratched the surface of it's editing capabilities, it's on board sampler, programmable drum machine, programmable bass, mixdown algorithms, 24 bit FX, pitch correction and time correction/adjustment...this thing is DEEP!
I would recommend it without hesitation to anyone who writes and records music, and I would replace it immediately if it were lost or stolen. The only things I find lacking are that it has no external FX send/return, and the fact that I find the manual to be rather poorly written.
