Zoom MRS-4 Digital Multitrack

Once you get used it, you'll learn the menu system and it gets very easy to use. But it's a little confusing at the start. It could really use more buttons and knobs on the front to make it easier. As it is, there are two menu trees and you have to remember which tree contains the option you're looking for.

Also, the manual is fairly good, but it's rather vague when it comes to how to bounce tracks. I still haven't figured out how to do it, and if you can't bounce tracks, the virtual tracks are useless because there's no way to get them to a primary track where they can be used during mixdown. I'm sure if I spent some time working on it I could figure out how to do it (4 tracks is enough for me so I don't worry about it), but it's annoying that it isn't explained better.

Another complaint is that when I first bought it, I opened the manual and tried to record something. It wouldn't work because there's already a demo song on the card, and it's write protected. There is a piece of paper in with the literature that explains this, but I didn't happen to see it and spent a good hour getting frustrated because I couldn't get it to work. It's an easy enough matter to turn off the write protect and delete the song, but not so easy when you've only got 5 minutes of experience working with it.

I use this for recording my guitar, Fender American Strat, through an amp sim, and then into the MRS-4. I just can't give it high enough marks in the sound category. I was using a casette based 4-tracker before I bought this, and the difference is like night and day. There's no background noise at all, and punch in and out is utterly quiet. Using the mixdown controls allows you to get sound quality that's as good as I hear on professional CD's. There are several very useful EQ controls for mixdown, both for each channel individually and all channels globally, which really take the sound to the next level. You can even put a bit of delay on the rhythm track and it sounds like you did a perfect job of double tracking it. The other effects and stuff aren't very good but I don't really use them anyway, and for this price that's not a complaint.

I wouldn't go dropping this thing on the floor.

Never used it.

I love this little box and use it all the time. One of the best features is that I can hook it up to my drum machine via MIDI. No need to waste a track for the bass and drums because the drum machine starts playing automatically at precisely the right moment. I use it for practicing all the time as well. You can record a track, loop it, and practice along as it plays over and over. Minor complaint: to set times for things like loops, or punch in/out, you actually have to set the elapsed time of the song, down to the 1,000th of a second. Get out your calculator. It would have been much easier if they gave you the option of using the beginning or ending of each bar as a reference point.

You need to get a bigger memory card, the one that comes with it only has 16 minutes on it (4 tracks X 4 minutes). I got a Viking 128 MB smart media card from Amazon for $22.00 ($32.00 - $10 rebate), and it's worked perfectly.

Very easy to use. The manual is basically ABC 123 literally walks you thru each step.

Sound is great.Effects are relative to what you are trying to do. Me personally, I try to take my equipment as far as it will go. People tend to expect the machine to do everything for them. Well, if the artists you like did that everything would sound the same. Remember, the reason you probably like those artist is because of the sound they have. Believe me when I say that most artists get they're on sound by tweaking their equipment. If you expect the machine to create all the subtleties for you then your sounds are going to sound generic. Always explore and be creative. The machine is just a tool.Effects are only as could as the user.

very dependable and portable. It makes for easy transport for spurr of the moment recordings. The battery feature is what intrigued me. Me and the fellows can record anything anywhere anytime. For heaven's sake, it fits in my backpack. Never had the unit fail me. 4 years strong, 6 albums and several mix tapes but, I guess it would not hurt to have a backup.

Hip Hop is my first love but, there is no realm I wont try.I have been playing for more than 10 years. Gear: 2 Technic 1200 TTs, 1 Pioneer cdj 1000, Vestax pro 05 mixer, Zoom rythmtrack 123, Zoom mrs4 multitrack, Zoom 224 Sampletrack, Roland phantom keyboard, Mac G5 with Protools, Shure condensor mic, Panasonic powered condensor mic, Sony headphones. I would probably upgrade to a Zoom recorder with a built in cd burner. I love the price to worth ratio. Zoom packs alot for the buck. Yes I did compare to others like the Boss and Tascam versions. I chose Zoom over others because the user friendly manual I experienced with the Zoom rythmtrack 123. The Philosophy of Zoom's manuals has yet to surpassed. I wish I had Protools HD.Very helpful in making music.

This thing is so easy to use, have a flick through the manual and you know it all, it's simplicity is similiar to a casette four track just turn it on, plug in the instrument, select the track and press record and off you go! It's that simple

The sound quility is 32KH cd quility is 44KH but it's acctually a scientific fact that the human ear can't tell the difference, the tone is always good whatever setting and the effects sound great! I use mine with a pair of cheapy earphones and it still sounds good.

This machine is very reliable and I have had no problems so far.

Havent needed to use it yet.

overall this rules in it's price range if your starting in a band like I am or just want to record it's perfect nothing else matches up to it's simplicity. (Oh and the built in tuner is great!)

Just got the Zoom Mrs 4 and began recording almost immediately. I use background tracks as my music (rather than live instruments such as a guitar) and had some difficulty getting the sound vibrant (as it was originally recorded on my CD). After playing around with the levels and coming to the realization that headphones should be used to listen (rather than an amp which sometimes causes feedback and a tinny sound), I eventually got the sound quality to be just about as good as the original. My mic is amped and the voice quality is superb! The more you use this little device, the more you figure it out.

Again, the more you use it, the more you realize how to set the inputs. In the beginning, I would have rated this unit about a 3 but as I figured out what knobs and push buttons did, the sound soon became fantastic.

Too new to know.

Called two times. First time I got through to support in about 15 minutes and the second time someone called me back.

I bought this unit to do basic recording. I have premade CD's which where created in a studio for me. I simply have to take those sound tracks and overlay my voice onto them. This unit allows me to do just that. If I need to re-record a particular part, I simply do the old punch in and out. It is simple and works quite well. I was considering purchasing a larger Zoom such as the 1608 but decided to start with this one (as I am brand new to recording digitally). I think that this unit will do just what I need and probably won't bother purchasing a larger, more complicated Zoom. I suggest that you purchase a 128 MB Smart Card because the 32 MB Card that comes with it is just not large enough to effectively store the number os songs I'd like to store.

This is very easy to use. Bouncing is a bit more tricky but overall the interface is easy for a fairly small device.

I am mainly using this with voice mic and acoustic guitar for recording song ideas and uploading to my PC. Sound is good enough for what I'm doing. I bought a 64MB media card to replace the one that came with it, but if you use all the tracks 128MB is better.

It's plastic. Need I say more.

No need yet.

I specifically bought this unit because it did not include allot of preset effects and other junk. I was just looking for a clean and simple 4 track recorder. I have had my MRS-4 for about a year and I love it. One thing I wish it had was MIDI input capabilities. I just bought Cakewalk's Home Studio so I am hoping I can use the MIDI output from the MRS-4 with it. Also it could use a travel case.

This thing is really easy to use. Except the instruction manual doesnt really make much sense, i still dont know how to bounce the tracks on it. So that brought the score down a little bit, but apart from that very simple.

You actualy get a really good sound out of the recordings on it, make sure your microphones arent too cheap though otherwise you'll get some really crackely guitar, bass & cymbols. I suggest to never plug a gutiar straight into it, it sounds terrible, & the onboard effects dont help it either, they are also terrible, but this doesnt bring the score of it down really. The actualy recording quality is near CD quality. But seems to have trouble recording a 'fat' guitar tone overdrive, comes out quiet bad, but overdrive with alot of treble sounds great on it.

Well, the buttons seem ok. But the outer case is made of plastic, if dropped it or transported it without its box i think it would end up in peices. As everyone else has said the input jacks are really dodgy. The headphone jack is already on its way out on mine, but the actualy 'input 1 & 2' are fine at the momment.

For such a cheap price for a digital recorder you cant give it a bad overall score. It isnt as dodgy as some other zoom products ive encountered. The card supplied with it is only 32mb big though, which gives you around 4 minutes recording if you are using every track. Best thing to do is upgrade to a bigger card, preferably 64mb or 128mb. But overall a good product from Zoom for the price.

This unit is fairly intuitive, but I do refer to the manual often. The manual is simply and logically written, so you can be up and recording quickly.

I use a Gibson Les Paul Special with P-100 pickups with a Behringer V-amp 2 or Zoom 505II for guitar sound. I use the Zoom MRT-3 drum machine, which works spendidly with the MRS-4. This unit has pointed out that my mikes are lacking in quality, so I usually run everything direct.
The onboard effects are average, but usable, particularly for mixdown. The EQ works well. This unit is dead quiet...bounce away to your heart's content with no added noise or loss of clarity. As far as the sampling rate, I would never have known unless I read it. Not being a tech-head, all I know is that the end product sounds great.
The drawback for me is the LCD display. For me, at least, I have a much easier time with a graphical display of what I am doing (like with EQs) instead of numbers on a screen. So I invested in Cakewalk Sudio Pro software, and now record to the MRS-4 and then load it to the computer to mix it down. But I will say that the recordings I made solely with the MRS-4 were very nice indeed.
A note about levels: if you are accustomed to pushing levels on your analog recordings into the "red" to get that punch, don't do it with the MRS-4 or you will be disappointed. I have learned (the hard way) to never, never let my levels get into the peak area. If you have to run the onboard limiter, I would advise it. If you peak your levels, you will have a nasty distortion to contend with. This has been the number one key to getting nice recordings in my experience with the MRS-4.

I have only experienced one unexplained data "crash", and lost a little work. Considering I have recorded for hundreds of hours on it, I would say it is very reliable.

I have never dealt with the company.

My experience with the Zoom MRS-4 has been great. Of course, the more I use it, the more I learn, and the quality of recordings just keeps going up. If you want to hear some recordings I have made, go to http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/kenevansproject.htm
All of the recordings on the site were made with the MRS-4, except one studio track that I put on the MRS-4 and added some guitar parts.
I love this unit's ease of use, sound quality and reliability. The only change I would make would be to move up to a 12 track Zoom or something when I finally wear this one out. Contact me if you have any questions at all about this unit.

I bought this about a year and a half ago, moving up from a Tascam tape unit. It's extremely easy to use. It's intuitive enough to record multi-tracks without reading the manual, though the manual is helpful in deciphering smallish LCD display and working with the more advanced features.
I've not used this with the ST-123 drum machine but would like to see how they interact. It would be nice if the machine had XLR inputs, but it's a mild consolation that you can record on it's 2 inputs simultaneously.

At home I can record straight from my pedals into the unit with fine results. In the studio, I have two amps mic'ed that run into the unit, also with great results. Even though it records a hair shy of CD-quality, you can make very nice recordings. I'm not a fan of the internal amp models, but it's probably a nice feature for some.

I keep a couple of 128MB storage cards around to swap out when one fills up and they're much nicer to work with than cassettes. You can master tracks directly on the 4-track or use a card reader to export your card data as a WAV or AIFF to your computer as well. A bonus of this is that you can save each individual track you write. So, you can record 4 tracks, copy them to your computer, erase 3 of them and then keep recording on the machine, ad infinitum. You can then assemble the pieces on your computer (Apple's Garageband, for instance). It's a great, if slighly inefficient way to layer tracks without bouncing and losing your stereo panning.

It's holding up strong for now, but I wouldn't drop it. When it dies, if that ever happens, I'll stick with the Zoom line, but move up to something bigger-- maybe their 12 track.

I wish Zoom made a version of their card reader software to run in Mac OSX instead of the OS9 shell. The file format they use is proprietary, so make sure you can run the software before you rush out to buy a card reader.

I don't know why Musician's Friend or Guitar Center won't sell Zoom products, since they seem every bit as good as any Fostex I've ever used. A friend of mine was switching to digital and bought the fostex MR-8, which is a decent machine, but using all 8 tracks burns through your media in one song. You can actually fit a decent amount of material on a 128MB card with the MRS-4 which is important if you're using it as a scratchpad. Mine fits in my guitar case and comes along to each practice to record thoughts as they happen.

It's a well-thought out tool that has great creative potential. And having one means never having to rewind a tape ever again.

es muy facil obtener un buen sonido, el manual de instrucciones es muy claro y editar las pistas es muy simple. sinceramente con solo leer el manual un par de veces puedes dominar todas las funciones.demasiado facil de usar.

tengo una telecaster, un big muff, un phase boss y un ampli marshall, pero generalmente grabo las guitarras directo a la entrada del mrs4 ya que no tengo microfonos decentes, pero el sonido que obtengo es bastante bueno. en general estoy contento con el sonido, lo que si no he logrado es sacar un buen sonido de distorsion pero se que se puede con un buen mic. los efectos que trae incorporado creo que son lo justo para dar una idea, pero siempre sera mejor un pedal. al final uno graba las pistas y despues las trabaja con algun programa como cool edit y el resultado es bastante bueno.

Las perillas plasticas que tienen son lo peor, da la sensacion que en cualquier momento se rompen, igual con las entradas de linea, yo conozco otros productos zoom y tienen el mismo problema. el resto esta piola, solo hay que cuidarlo un poco mas y si se transporta llevarlo en su caja.

no creo que aca en chile haya algun servicio tecnico autorizado, espero que no se me eche a perder por que no sabria donde mandarlo a arreglar.

Me gusta harto la musica lo-fi por lo que no soy muy exigente con el sonido y con la pureza que deba tener, eso se los dejo a los metaleros. me lo compre hace un a?o y creo que no le he sacado ni el 20% de su capacidad. si me lo robaran me compraria el mismo sin duda. me gusta el tama?o, el hecho de tenerlo en tu pieza y poder grabar cualquier wevada que se te ocurra en el momento, no me gusta que las entradas de linea esten por detras, deberian estar al frente para un acceso mas facil. no conosco otras portastudios. deberia venir con una tarjeta smartmedia mas grande, la que trae no sirve para nada, tambien un transformador, aunque son baratos pa comprar. me haservido para hacer musica y para grabar las ideas que van saliendo en el camino, yo recomiendo grabar y despues trabajar las pistas con cool edir u otro programa y con eso estay listo, pa que mas.

I have access to a Roland VS-1680 and it is extremely difficult for me to use. Too many buttons to push before you can begin recording. The MRS-4 is so easy to use. After bringing the unit home, I was recording MULTIPLE tracks in less than 20 minutes.. this includes patching in and out and using the built in various effects.. NO JOKE. The manual takes the guess work out of operating the unit. No assumptions are made at all, meaning that you do not need any previous experience with any recorder to get instant results. I even sync it up with the Zoom RT-123 drum machine. Nothing could be finer for what I need!!!!!

I play vintage Ibanez basses and have a Dean 12 string bass. This unit takes all that my basses gives it. It puts out what you put in. The MRS-4 is not noisy at all. The effects are not the best sounding at all, but I did not buy the unit for its effects. I bought it for what it is.

I must say that this unit is reliable, at least for what I use it for: a device to capture musical concepts. This unit never failed me nor powered out for reason(s) unknown to mankind. I would have no trouble using this unit live without having a backup device.

I have never had to contact their support team, so I have no idea if they are helpful.

If I ever lost this unit, I would buy another immediately. No questions asked.

I am very good at coming up with melodies/rhythms/ideas and forgetting them. NOT ANY MORE!!! This unit is so easy to use, that it takes me longer to plug in the instrument cable to the unit and to my bass before setting up the MRS-4 to record.

I only wish a larger sized media card accompanied this unit. It takes not much time to fill up the card which comes with the unit. And the cards are not cheap at all.

As far as digital recording goes, this is pretty damn straight forward. Spend 10 minutes reading the book, and you're recording. A friend of mine has ProTools (not apples to apples here), but when we sit down to concept, it's just so easy. We both plug straight in and record. It's simple. Don't expect to make the next OK Computer with it...but it's a helluva nice scratch pad!

With two types of quality, it's fantastic. I mean, when you compare this to tape, it's night and day. If you want anything better than this, you're going to spend some bank. It is what it is...

The built-in effects are pretty lame, and limiting...not like you can really make fantastic-sounding recordings with this using their built in effects...get your sound before you plug in if it's important to the recording.

One of my jacks is getting fickle - but that's normal with anything from Zoom.

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Like I said - I really dig this thing. I work out all my parts here, and then record elsewhere for the finals. I think that's the perfect use for the Zoom...

Remember, as FDR said, "There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still..."

Let music carries us forward, and bring us together.

You'd have to be short a chromosome or two to have difficulty with this unit. The manual allows you to work away in no time, but there is so much it can do that the machine will keep you learning for some time.

The digital technology gives clean-as-a-whistle sound quality, and the onboard effects are decent enough at this level. I'm monitoring it via a Marshall G80R at the moment and it sound great, although I will get a separate monitor system, as you must remember to turn the reverb off when using an amp - which changes your regular guitar sound of course.

I bought it with the RT-123 Rhythm Trak and use them with a midi cable, which syncs the metronome. Sounds perfect.

The thing seems sturdy enough for home use, but it has a lightweight feel. There have been no problems with the smartmedia cards, aside from the price.

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I play many common styles, and have played for around 15 years. This is my first 4-track and I fnd it a blessing to use - no tape to fiddle around with, just immediate usability and flexibility.

The value is great - especially as I got it in a 20% off sale! After a few days' ownership, I'd already miss it, as I can use it to record songs or just jam with. Perfect for my needs, and seems a better bet than a JS-5 or the like.

Very easy to use. I have been in plenty of bands but never actually recorded beyond a mike and a tape deck. It's also easy to punch into recordings to clean up one line of vocals. Just play the song through, then hit the record putton when it comes up to the overdub section. Easy. Button controls could be better. One button has several actions depending on what you doing (effects, eq, input, metronome), but then it's a small unit low on space and you soon get used to it.

I thought that laptop studios weren't going to be very good, but it plays back what you put in, which is as much as you could ask for. It made me want to buy a better vocal mic, which is a good thing, because my guitar sounded good plugged directly in, and realised how cheap my mike sounded. I'd give it a ten, but only because I hear you can get higher than the bit rate this works at, but most folks couldn't tell the difference.

Feels lighter than it should be, but that'll probably encourage me to look after it a bit better. Never broke yet though, so 10.

Never dealt with them. Website navigation is bad

I play acoustic folk-hop singer/songwriter stuff and this suits me just fine. It reproduces the same sound I play and I've never sounded so good, in fact it makes me want to sound better, so I think it'll help me as a musician. I'd recommend it as excellent for the price and has a good preamp, so you can play your electric guitar straight into it, although you might want to get a multi-effects unit, because the effects in the MRS are limited. You can have echo, delay, chorus, etc, but not distortion or any two effects at the same time. You might also want to get a better mic, because the sound reproduction is excellent. You can bounce tracks very easily to give yourself more layers (get at least a 64Mb smartmedia card) but if you're recording in stereo, like from a stereo drum machine, you'll be adding two tracks at a time rather than one, so you'll be bouncing down each time you add an instrument, so you'll have to be careful when you mix down. But for the price, it's superb. It it were lost, I'd have a good cry, pull myself together, write a song about it and buy another one to record it on. If I had more money I'd buy similar, but with more tracks, USB cable and a built in minidisc or CD player and MP3 converter, but the most important thing is the sound and this machine has got it. If all you want is excellent laptop recording which you can set up from drawer to coffee table in 3 minutes flat, then you won't go wrong. I give it a 10 for value, ease of use and overall sound.

This machine is best viewed as a digital take on the tried-and-tested cassette-based portastudio theme. It is extremely easy to use, especially if you have had previous experience with a portastudio (I used to have a Fostex X-26). However, the graphic interface can seem rather strange and fiddly at first, so it is a good idea to read the manual before using, and then keep it close by for reference. True, this isn't great literature, and there aren't many laughs, but it is simple, clear and does the job.

I use this as a songwriting tool with a Korg M1 synth MIDI-locked to a Yamaha Clavinova CLP820, with the outputs of both coming through the Yamaha's stereo outputs. WIth this rig I quickly found an important difference between the Zoom and a cassette system. With analog, you can whack everything up to eleven and get the great, saturated sound of tape compression that digital cannot hope to match. With digital, my first lesson was that you have to be VERY gentle with the input gain to avoid overloading the system, and digital distortion is not nice. I guess that the MRS4 is optimized for cheap, low-output guitar pickups -- blasting away at it with keyboards requires care, though the resulting sound is fairly good. It is noticeably inferior to the signal from the keyboards themselves, though for the price -- and purpose -- this hardly matters. The onboard FX would be very useful for guitars and vocals though they can seem rather raw and brutal.

This looks pretty chunky to me, though I probably wouldn't gig with it.

The Zoom MRS4 does exactly what it promises, and no more: it is a convenient sketchpad for ideas, not a bells-and-whistles recording studio. As such it trades features and overall sound quality for convenience. I use it as part of a songwriting project with a friend who has a ROland VS880 and all the trimmings. As such, the Zoom is a convenient way to add vocals to backing tracks created on a sequencer, and make simple demoes to send to my friend who will then re-do the whole thing properly. It would be a mistake to worry overmuch about sound quality with the Zoom, and get all screwed up about the inability to burn wav files made on a MRS4 -- that's not what it's about. I use my Walkman Professional as a mastering machine, and then play the cassette into my computer (A Dell PC) using a CD burner program from Roxio. My next trick would be simply to use my computer as an analog mastering machine, cutting out the walkman altogether. Result -- a good result and no headache about sampling rate compatibility. Given the limitations of the machine, and what it is used for, the results will be just as good as an all-digital transfer.

Piece of cake.

Plays back precisely what you put in.

It's for use at home on desks and tabletops. If you're gonna kick the thing around in a club, don't use this website to complain that it breaks!

Never needed it.

I'm not keen on the SMC format. I don't have a PC, and I record 4 track songs mostly around 5 minutes. So every song needs it's own 64MB SMC. The supplied 32MB will give you 4 minutes of music if you use 4 tracks, which is no development on a 4-track cassette recorder, where a C60 tape for #2 gave you 30 minutes!!

The deviice really does need a send/return effects loop. The on-board effects are inflexible and thin.

On the plus side....

Give it a good sound, and you get one back. And the track editing functions are a godsend. Having the counter displaying bars and measures means that you can punch in/out and copy/past verses, choruses, solos etc VERY accurately.

Probably the best piece of kit in it's price range... but I miss the send/return loop.

It took me a while to know how to use all the functions since I'm a newbie to home recording. I mainly use it to record originls with my band. Ocassionally I record a few bars of chords to work out a solo.
The unit is pretty easy to use although there're some limitations. For example, bouncing tracks limits to pairs. The operation is a bit slow. It takes awhile for the smart media card to load after you finish recording. Also, you can't cut out a section of the song. (say it takes time in between pressing the rec. button and actually start recording. You can can erase the noise before you start playing but you can't actually cut out that few seconds, which makes it a bit annoying.)
You cannot input names for the songs which is a bit annoying. When I upload the songs onto my computer (you can download a program for backup from the net for free, providing you have a smart media card reader to upload you files.) all the takes get mixed up and I forget which is which. The interface on the program is different from the actual mixer which makes balancing different tracks a bit complicated (I actually send songs to other people on the net). You can't change the volume of different tracks in the middle of the song on the program like you can using the recorder with the faders.
Anyway, I guess the program isn't really designed to be used as the final mixing process. It is probably designed just as a back up.
Basically the recorder is convinient to use. It's just that I expect too much from the program.

Sound quality is good enough for me since I'm no expert in this area. I usually record directly through boss Gt 6. I have used the MRT 3 for drums once and that sounded great. It didn't sound really good when I use a mic to record the drums and bass at the same time, but that's just because the mic I was using was a cheap one.

The plastic jacks and the faders are a bit fragile, but it's not a great problem since I'm not too rough with my equipments.

Overall, it is good enough for home recording and my four-piece band. For the price it is great. I also looked into the Korg PXR4 when I bought this but I decided that I'd go with this simpler thing without built-in effect. I bought the MRT 3 as well to go with it and the combo costed as much as the PRX4. I need to be able to create my own drum track and PRX4 doesn't have that function.
I wish there is name input on the songs and that I don't have to wait that long for the song to load after the recording.

I bought the MRS-4 for doing a radio dj demo cd. I'm a complete spaz when it comes to recording lingo and the like the manual took a bit of time to figure out. But in no time I was off and blabbing.

As I said, there isn't much I can do to screw up simple voice work, so I had no complaints with this at all.

I'M not going to be running around to much with this bad boy so I don't thinjk there'll be any probs. However, I think anything over and above kid glove handling might screw it up.

Any help from anyone else just using it for vox would be appreciated.

I bought this unit to use in live performance, playing some beats instead of a laptop.... it's very simple to use, the manual helps when you're lost... After 10min in front of it, you've tried all blinking lights and submenus :) ... The v-tracks were less intuitive to understand but all ok after reading 2 pages of the manual :) .

It's better than a multitrack tape recorder.... it's digital :)

well.... its 32khz, and stores it in a SM card.... not what you've dreamed about but does the job. The audio compression of the files is very good...don't use 32khz audio waves from the computer....record it directly to mrs4 and you'll see the quality is better. Lo-fi quality only to record some ideas i didn'twant to get lost. Hi-fi is a good choice to get a good sound....at 32khz :). The sound is warm and you can process it with the booster of the built-in effects. Don't expect great quality for drum (i use drum machines)... they get a little bit degrated...but you can get a good sound for guitar and voices.
The built.in effects are nice but only to get an idea of what you want....they are a little bit limited to the presete values....can't get many expressions of the same effect.

sometimes when i'm recording occurs an error... it's due to the lack of free space im my card. the SM cards are not cheap and only stores few musics....unless you'v got a 128MB card. I've a 64 and need to backup very often... In live concerts i've use it 3 times (untill now) and works fine. Not a good sound processing for power sound, but does the trick :) . all the hardware is very fragile. I've bought a tool hardcase (for hammer and stuff at a local drugstore) and never had a problem. My cat usually sleeps on top of it and sometimes the buttons get stuck....NEVER LET YOUR CAT SLEEP ON YOUR MRS4... :) to get a good sound you may need to cut bass frequencies or the sound becomes messy.

zoom have a software in their site... that's ok. there's not much helpfull information than the given in the manual.... never contacted zoom.

....doesn't come with AC adapter....but it's cheap and you easily get one.
It's a good unit for the price... don't think you can record an album in this....but you see it as a promo cd recorder or an idea recorder for future musics... you'll be well served. I use it to record some pads and drum patches and play it live and with my band. Works fine. It does the job and it's the cheaper digital 4-track recorder. It's little, easy to understand, not very fast, and the midi works fine with my material. I'm happy, but if i had more money bought a better one. I hate zoom, but the mrs4 is a good piece of equipemt... it's very portable and functional. if you don't need good sound quality and you're looking for a cheap digital recorder....maybe this is the one.

ps: sorry for my english...but i'm portuguese. Obrigado.

overall,it is quite easy to use.i have spent most of my days as a live performer,but the zoom mrs4 made recording easy.my only problem thus far has been the inability to record more than one song on the 32 smartmedia card.i generally record three insruments,bounce them,then use the remaining three tracks.this uses up the 17 alloted minutes per song.only thing is,i cannot get it to give me more time,if i don't erase the already recorded song.if anyone can give me some assistance regarding this dilema,i would be forever indebted to said individual!!!

i can easily get a quite wet sound,using the mrs4 and an 8 channel mixer.the built-in effects have been effective;pardon the pun,lol!!

definetelt reliable!!!!

haven't used it yet,but hope they,or someone,will have an answer for my above question.

i have recorded strictly original material thus far,and the style range is everything from delta blues to grunge.the machine works great for me!!i dig the gig!!

Very easy to use. Just plug some instruments in and hi record! Manual is what you would expect for a company like Zoom, decent. Doesn't get you bogged down in techical mumbo jumbo.

It's not CD quallity, but for digital recording, it will do. Records at 32khz on SmartCards. Effects are simple and I don't use them much.

Eh, I wouldn't depend on this thing. It's built really crappy. The jacks on the back feel like they are going to break everytime I am plugging in or unplugging cables. For being a device that is meant to be portable hence the batteries and the size, you think they would have built this thing a little more solid. But then again it costs $200.

Never had to deal with them.

Does not come with the AC Adapter, which I think is really really lame!!! You can get universal adapters for like $9.00, so I am not that annoyed by it... What I do find really really annoying is the fact that it records at 32khz, so when you convert your audio into .wav files using their Card Manager software, you can't burn them to CD. Oh, and don't think about converting the khz to 41 because that will change your pitch/speed of the recording. WEAK!
It comes with a 32mb Smart Card, but if you plan to do any serious recording with this thing, I'd recommend a 128mb card. Size of the recorder is so small! I love it. I can take it with me anywhere with the batteries and record whenever I want.

I can't say a bad word about the simplicity of use. I read the manual online before I bought it and spent about 45 minutes learning it up. Once I had recieved it I instantly made a track with vox, bass and guitar and the only problems was me getting the input balance right. The other useful features were learned in 5 minutes when I needed them. I've had the MRS 4 for less than a week and I'm already really at ease with the thing.

I recieved this as a christmas present so I also recieved a shure vox mike and a 65W Laney bass amp. Vox was crystal clear, like real speech. I don't have a great basis for comment on guitars because the guitars I used to play on it were bottom of the range squiers which were getting old !$%!&$# Static Chaos $!(#&#_%!". The actual effects in built were solid and accurate though I felt that there should have been an external FX loop option as reverb, double, delay and EQ boosting was not enough for me (I could have used my brother's Zoom FX pedal). TIP: You need an adequate monitoring system for it, i.e. one that can handle highs and lows without horrific resonance [Don't use #20 PC speakers like I did].

I haven't been put in the position where the plugs have come loose etc. I guess it's because I don't drop the thing or kick the cables out of the sockets. I did have a problem with powering the damn thing though. When I recieved it I only had 4 nearly-dead batteries which powered it for 20 minutes. I managed to scrounge an AC to AC adaptor which was a big mistake (the MRS-4 accepts DC), using an AC prompted the unit to flick on and off mains power which was particularly bad for the unit and meant I couldn't record for long periods becasue the unit wasn't recieving enough power. I remedied this by buying batteries and subsequently buying a universal adaptor which was just as good as the recommended Zoom adaptor and #8 cheaper. The MRS sucks up batteries like a pump assisted mega-straw used by the world's fastest straw sucker 2002.

MRS-4 is an excellent piece of kit and for a 15-year-old like me looking to get some music recorded with myself and other people at a higher level, I think it's Ideal (The last recording I made was recording my voice, a bass and guitar through one long-range mike, it sounds like arse). I've used software mixers and tried every sequencing program possible and it seems that the only thing pratical and efficient enough is the MRS-4 for Dance tracks and rock and blues (my main recording base). I did have a look at a tascam tape multitracker but the facilities were far inferior. Poor effects, no metronome, Basic EQ managment and no copying and pasating functions (sorry, that sounds a bit like an anti-plug for tascam). I'm thoroughly pleased with the MRS-4 and although I don't have enough cash to buy a replacement if it were stolen, I'm sure that someone would gladly buy it back for me. Everyone I've asked about the MRS-4 has said nothing but praises for it's value and quality, and at #165 for such a great bit of kit I'm not at all surprised.

Oh my god- this is simply 'SIMPLE' to use just take my word and everyone else's here. Everything is designed with the user in mind.

Im mainy going straight DI from my Ovation double-neck, or maybe electric guitar via my GFX8. sometimes use the emulated DI from my Marshall TSL100 Jcm 2000 and also DI keys straight in. Excellent results everytime

Again- forget what everyone else days here about the jacks. C'mon I mean if your into music gear- surely you must have picked up a soldering iron before eh?- just simply whip the back off and solder/ warm the joints of the jack legs should they become faulty over time. Ive previously owed a zoom 1010 and 3030 which I encountered this problem with. However it was soon fixed. You can easily downscore a floor FX for being flimsy but c'mon, this unit is for sitting on tables and being tweeked with by your fingers not size your 12's.
Imcidently- the unit hasnt faultered in the sightest way yet

not needed to contact them yet- but may need to coz i keep encountering font problems in win 98, when using the zoom downloadable software- (The MRS4 Cars Manager & GFX-4 Patch editor)

I bought this unit after reading all the reviews on here, and if your like me and have used the tascams/ fostex 4-track tape recorders- then you'll love this. forget all the negative points that people have listed here e.g no fx loop etc- coz this unit is simply amazing and is everything I could of asked for. You will be laying down any demo/ideas you might have 10 times faster than using tape 4-track. Oh yeah and the last time I spent that long on tape 4-track, the tape chewed after 4 hours of work...... NICE!!!!!! THUMBS UP TO ZOOM ONCE AGAIN.

Really really easy, i'm pretty stupid and i got up and running within 20 mins.

ok, but my humbuckers sound poo. may need to fiddle a little more though

dodgy dodgy connections on the back of my Zoom mrt3 but this one seems ok so far

????not yet needed???

Very impressed but for 1 thing......
I recorded 2 songs with a drum track and bass line and ran out of memory. both tracks were only 4 mins long each and using the 32mb card supplied. Bit bad i thinks so will up the spec to 128mb.

That's my only moan, oh and i didn't make my voice sound any better.

Any Questions contact me on alex.stepens@thewebdevelopers.com.

You need to read the manual once. After that you're off to a flying start and don't really need the manual too much except for the odd in-depth tweak. I'd say don't try anything until you've read the manual. It's brief and to the point and will take you 30 minutes. You'll love the MRS4 once you've done that.

I'm recording backing tracks for my solo work. I use many ways to get sounds in to it. It handles everything I can throw at it. The MRS4 reproduces everything to excellent standards. Using the insert to maybe compress vocals or guitar. Using post eq to tweak tracks when mixing down. Using a mastering setting when recording to mini disk. It does it all. No problems bouncing. The position marker is excellent, especially when recroding backing vocals. Just mark the points and then skip between them. Dropping in is also a breeze! This is the best #200 you'll spend on home recording equipment - believe me.

No problems so far. Been using it intensively (many hours at a time) for over a month.

n/a

Excellent! I bought a few extra things to go along with it (mostly from Ebay) although I got thr MRS4 new. Bought a 128MB smart card and reader (for laptop - to back up to). I use a Spirit Folio Notepad mixing desk for vocals and drums. I actually use a Zoom 504II to record bass thru! Guitar is mic'd using 57 or 58 from a Laney 15 watt all valve amp. Also use an Alesis Microverb for drum fx to add a bit of space to the kit sound. Use a Boss DR-5 for midi driven drums/keyboards/organ etc. The MRS4 is just one of those excellent pieces of kit you come across every now and again that you find really hard to fault. Feel free to contact me with any questions you have about the MRS-4.

Within 30 minutes of owning this I was laying down tracks, the manaul is great, and everything is laid out so well you rarely need to look at it again.

I use a JMP1 one's speaker simulated ouput for guitars, and a roland u20, and boss dr5 for most everything else, they say its not CD quality, but you can't tell.

seems fine, people have been moaning about the jacks, but mine are fine, I suppose its how much you abuse these things

Never needed it

Exelent, if stolen I would get another no trouble

Well, the first time I tried using it I almost went crazy and wanted to send it back (you now how it is when you have no idea how to do something yet you think it simple enough to do anyways) but after going step by step with the manual I got a song going (without effects - that came on my third try) with two guitars, lead vocal and backup vocal. Later that day after looking through the manual though I was able to make an excellent rendition of my first attempt this time with effects and bass (bounce feature). I've been showing it off to casual listeners and they've thought I did it in a studio and also they were quiet surprised at the time i alloted the whole session...half an hour to record and mix "Thin Air" by Pearl Jam.
My only suggestion to new users (me...) would be to go through the manual step-by-step after that you'll be able to do it on your own, using the manual merely as a reference.

The sound is great! I'm not a sound technician so I'm probably not hearing something wrong but I don't care if it sound CD quality to me and everybody else I show than who really cares.
I'm using my American Series Fender Stratocaster either directly into the machine or I mic my Traynor CVX40 w/Cab and it sounds great also I use my mic for my vocals and that comes out crystal clear. Just make sure you've got your "imput senisivity" and the proper level and you'll have absolutly no problem.
The effects... hmmm... they get the job done, but then again I've never been a big fan of effects, nothing really spectacular hear, the reverbs are o.k... the delay and chorus are fine I guess... the cabinet simulators are fun and offer an interesting sound to you instrument.
The EQ is fine as well. I use a mixer when recording to the master so I don't use the EQ that much it's fine though and you'll get along just fine if you don't have a seperate mixer.
But this machine is made for recording and that is what it does best, like another person on this page said, it's effects happy, its not and effects machine, it a recorded!

It seems pretty breakable. No transporting this without a case of some kind. The jacks like everybody else has said suck big time!!!

Haven't dealt with them yet.

This is an excellent recording machine. It's great for all types of musics... well for me, I play a whole range of music from 50's folk and rock all the way to nineties grung and alternative (meany Nirvana, Pearl Jam ... Foo Fighter's etc...) none of that new 2002 garbage rap/metal or whatever they call that garbage now... sorry but its a disgrace to music!!! Go listen to some Cream!!! YEAH!!! or SOUNDGARDEN!!!! oh well, but back to the point. This thing is great the only thing you'll need to do is my a new memory card... i purchased the 128mb card which helps alot!!! The 32mb that it comes with is only good for 17mins of recording.

like stealing candy from a baby....

use it mainly through a nice pair of head phones and the sound is very nice.... had it running through a friends mixer and amp and it sounded superb but it was a v. expensive set up.

i had a problem with the copy/repeat function a few times but apart from that.....

?

check out the only zoom mrs-4 forum on the web!:

www.network54.com/hide/forum/213407

Ultra-easy. If you've ever had your hands on a multitracker, throw away the maual. You won't need it :)

this unit sounds amazing for it's price. I just record my songs for fun (guitar, pedal-steel, bass, drums, vox) and even with bounced tracks you get more than decent results. The microphone-preamps have a very big range so there is no instrument who's output is too little. Also, they are very silent, even if you have to amplify a lot.

The FX sound absolutely o.k., they are not editable but you can choose each fx in different levels. The EQs are not to write home about, but they're better than on tape-based multitracks.

Well, I'd expect this unit to be around me for quite some time, but the jacks and connectors plain suck. I expect to break some within a year if I'm not carefull.

I tried to download the cardmanager for MAC from the german website, wich did not work. Wrote a mail, they responded within one days and gave ma a new ULR, wich worked. Seems to be o.k.

For demos or just for fun it's perfect. I wouldn't record a real CD on it, but for other applications it's perfect. Sometimes I also get demos from songwriters to add some pedal-steel to it; so I record the track to the ZOOM, add pedal-steel, mix it, and send it back. It it was stolen, I'd buy it immediately again.
The only thing I'd love it to have would be an USB-port so you could easily back the card up.
I used to own a Roland 880EX and also had to sell it since I wanted to make music and not become a recording engineer first. This little unit is the first product where I thought it was designed to my needs. What do you want more...?

First confrontated with its User Interface,I thought this must be a pain to work with.Was reminded to the two button parametersalsa of the
eighties digital synths like DX7 or VZ1.
After trying it out my sorrows were blown away.The Menu and functional
buttons are optimized for a fast work.
There are still limitations for fast work,caused by its design,but the
engineers found a great way to eliminate the Parameter frenzy.
Congratulations to the Zoomstaff...
The manual is well done and explains each step very well.I missed only
some more examples how to work with it.Bouncing to two tracks is well
explained,but it would not have been bad to expain the bouncing to
one track for example.

For a device with a maximum samplerate of 32kHz,this machine sound
brillant and crispy clean.The AD/DA converters are of good quality.
The long Modus is also useable.It sounds a little bit like a track
of the third generation of bouncing from an MC Multitracker,so no
complaint.To avaoid aliasing a Low Pass Filter should be used at a
frequency of 8kHz.
The build in effects are useful.These are more Preset effects,but
that's OK,complete programmable effects would prepare a nightmare for
fast work.Parameterfrenzy !!!
The effects are choosen from a practical view and so they work in 90%
with satisfaction.
What I miss is an effects loop for external FX-devices.For me such a
loop could be more useful as the AUX In function.

Nevertheless a fine and marvelous Multitracker.
A lot of functions and sound for a small money.
Recommendable.

Still new,but it should handled with care.By normal useage nothing
will happen.This is not a stompbox....;-)

Not yet needed

I have choosen this one for several reasons.Firstly it can be used
with batteries.So it it a kind of Notebook to me.The soundquality is
very well for a device of this pricing.
Flexible in routing.Small and handy.
A practical device.I don't need a Software Harddik recorder for my
Mac for Demos.I hate this softwaresolutions.They are only working
well,if you buy additional hardware.To work with Mouse only is horror.

I still have my old Fostex280 Multitracker.A nice machine.With a lot
of knobs and routing possibilites plus Midi.Bouncing is the only problem,because it is based on MC.

I use the MRS for prerecording and bouncing.The quality will be the same,how much you will bounce.I bounce at least 64 tracks,to one track.Each song will have then at least 4*64 tracks.So totally 256
tracks.this one will be recorded to the Fostex280,wich works as
Master.
Why so many tracks ? Because I use the MRS4 mainly as a kind of analog Fouriersynthesizer.Experimental music....

And the Fostex as Master is used for quadrophnia sound.Plus its effects loops and amazing Mixingsection.Not to forget that tape
saturation produces a warm and compact sound.
The best of analog and digital world are used here in a practical way.

A great,helpful tool with a fair price.

A cheap digital Multitrack recorder.The manual explains all in a fine
way,so that the MRS4 can be used very quickly from scratch...

It has some limitations like the old,cheap Multitrackers of Fostex or
Tascam at that time,wich were analog with MCs.
Only can record two channels at once and so on.The User Interface
is simple but OK.
Fortunately this thing was designed only to record something.A lot of
functions you can find in the upper digital class are missing here.
And this is no con.Some people only want a device where they just
record to,without all this gimmicks of the digital Multitracking of
today.
Nevertheless the MRs4 has a lot to offer,wich the analog MTs had not.

A practical device,with the necessary things in recording,but not with
the overhyped functions like a Roland VS offers.

The sound quality is fine and good for digital devices.eventhough the
sampling rate is maximum at 30kHz.High class systems work with 96kHz.
But 96kHt is nothing new.Nearly 20 years ago,the Synclavier had already that resolution.

Nice gimmicks are the build in effects.This is Zoom.

For Demos this device is fine.But also only as simple recorder it
makes a good figure.I use mainly the bounce function.What a joy,if
compared to the old analog stuff.
also the MIDI out is very useful.start a drum machine or sequencer with it.No problem.
Besides all this oversized digital Multitrackers of nowadays,I was
waiting for such a rudimentary MT.Offering bouncing,a FX Loop,maybe
Midi,no need for FX build in(but nice that it has it).
And a good sound quality.And this has this machine.A good compromise
of 30kHz and playing time.In long mode you can work with 16kHz wich is
still acceptable for guitar demos.

From electronics I trust this machine,from the Hardware not.
Jacks can easily break,so a careful use is recommended.Use it in a fixed wiring and without any movement,then it will survive for years.
Handle with care.It is not a stompbox.

Never used

The MRS4 is a puristic Multitracker,with some nice-but not needed-
goodies.Important for me was a good sound quality(it has),bouncing
without loss(it does),Midi,battery usage-a kind of Music PDA-small
size.
Nice are the build in effects and tools.Also the EQ is not bad.
For my own needs,I don't need this EQ or effects,but they don't
disturb my work.

Great device,for a really small money.

Fairly easy to operate once you get your head around it. The manual (like every other Zoom manual I've seen) is very concise and informative.

So far I have only used the unit in Hi-Fi mode, as opposed to Long Play, which is of poorer quality. Crystal clean recording, provided you don't get any buzzes from your guitars etc. The effects sound great, even if there are no tweakable parameters. From a guitarists viewpoint, it would be nice to have a few effects aimed at guitarists, though for something in it's price range, its only a minor gripe.

Well it's a little to early to see how well it lasts. Still very handy for capturing takes, wherever you may be.

Too new.

I have recorded many styles with this unit, but the results are always the same - great. It's a great thing for ease of use, and it sure beats tape based recorders any day. I would strongly recommend the purchase of a larger Smart Media card, as the one that comes with it doesn't allow for much recording.

The new Zoom MRS-4 MultiTrack Recording Studio. Incredibly easy to use. I owned one of the Roland VS840EX digital workstations until I sold it last year because it was an absolute nightmare to use. It was the most creativity-stiffling piece of gear I've ever owned! Getting to know this little MRS-4 is less complex than an analog tape 4-track deck. You simply turn it on, and press record. The manual is excellent.

I'm using this to record light Jazz with my wife who plays piano. We need to record piano, bass, drums (the Zoom MRT-3 in our case), and various guitars. The sound quality is as good or better than the Roland VS840EX. The Roland units certainly have far more variety of features and effects, but the MRS-4 has excellent quality effects, though they are few and somewhat limited in controllability (then again, you won't be spending the better part of the day getting all 10 parameters of a given effect to sound right). You get great Compression, Two band Parametric EQ, great Reverbs, ok Choruses and Delays, etc. Has Cabinet Simulators for guitar, but no preamp sounds. Has a built-in Tuner and Metronome, Auto Punch, A/B Repeat, etc.

Just bought it a few days ago, so I don't know. The input jacks themselves are nice and tight for inserting cables, but the way they are fastened to the chassis or PCB doesn't seem as solid. I would be careful whenever connecting/disconnecting cables incase the jacks are soldered to a PCB, or they may break from the board over time. I find that this is basically how everything is manufactured these days, so it's not uncommon. Other than this, everything seems solid enough.

I've been playing guitar for 23 years, and like many styles. This unit seems to have everything necessary to create excellent sounding demos. It has 32 "virtual" tracks (tracks 1-4, plus 7 "virtual" tracks for each), for multiple takes on a given track. There are limitations such as there are only two inputs for a maximum of 2 simultaneous recording inputs. However, this unit has a MIDI output to connect to a drum/rhythm machine, so you don't have to waste a track for synchronization. Also, there are two auxillary inputs where you can route the drum machine's stereo outputs back into the MRS-4, which then goes to the master fader so no external mixer is necessary. I highly recommend the new Zoom MRT-3, because it's was designed just for the MRS-4. If this were stolen, I'd run right out and buy another. Because of its simplicity and ease of use, it's great for times when you're suddenly inspired and just want to pick up an instrument and record. Again, it's not a $1,000.+ unit, but it's an excellent value for people like me who just want to create quick demos and record sudden inspirations.