R4 MultiTrak SD Recorder and USB Audio Interface

Old dude on a soap box time – I think I would have passed out if this device had existed back in the day. Finally - a quick, quality way to sketch out sonic ideas or lay down and layer (via the well implemented bounce feature) a complete composition. In a conveniently portable package. Seriously. The wonderful fidelity AND almost hassle-free setup of 32-bit float recording. While I love twisting the knobs on a synthesizer, dinking around with the settings on older mixers and recorders can be a real pain, especially if you encounter a signal problem (level issue, clipping or other unwanted distortion, etc…) somewhere and need to hunt down the cause. This thing is a BREEZE to set up by comparison. I appreciate that the R4 maintains a separate wav file of each track you record, plus each successive bounce, though I guess that this aspect could get a bit confusing depending on the complexity of your project and your file handling savvy. I mean, the option to import the files into a DAW and work with them further is there, but I think for a lot of musicians including myself, a great sounding “bounce” track will suffice as the final product. To keep things even easier, I’ll most likely just put each project with the R4 on its own separate SD card (8GB cards will have more room on them than I’d probably ever need for one project). The manual states that the R4 can handle cards with a capacity as low as 4GB, and they’re cheap enough at the moment, right? I could go on and on about all wonderful features that they packed into the R4 that I personally won’t use, but other musicians will love. If you are still on the fence about whether or not this is for you, just check out the mostly positive reviews on YouTube. But heck, if it’s good enough for Jordan Rudess, it’s plenty good for me. :)

Being a songwriter/musician/producer I have owned many multitrack recorders over the last 30 years or so and they're mostly all good but this one stands out from the rest as the most straight-forward, easy to use of them all. It gives you the capability of pocket multi-tracking at any time as simple as taking it out, making your settings (which is extremely easy the way it's laid out) and pushing a button and if you run out of tracks, just bounce, and you've got more. Super simple to add insert or send effects, assign inputs to tracks, and everything else that's required and to boot there are plenty of built-in effects and even a drum machine. The best part is you don't have to worry if your input settings are good because the 32 bit float recording feature assures that you won't have to discard tracks for clipping. My only criticism is no separate fader for the bounce track but that’s a minor inconvenience. If you want a great multitrack machine that’s easy to use on the fly BUY THIS ONE! You won't regret it.

Zoom R-4 Review I recently purchased a Zoom R-4. Here are my thoughts and things I think should be improved. The Strengths: It functions and sounds excellent. I love how well thought out it is. The built in mic sounds great and is way more useful than I expected it to be! The built in effects are ALL very useful and can achieve a great sound! The built in Rhythms are very useful, and I love how the count in syncs to the start of the measure! The bounce track is super cool and I have achieved great mixes for songs with 12+ tracks on this little device mixing four tracks down at a time to the bounce track. The bass and guitar amps are extremely useful and handy! Simple operation. YES!!!!!!! Tiny Device- Great for grab and go! Can run on rechargeable AA batteries, and they can easily be changed out when drained! This is HUGE. 32 Bit Saves individual tracks even after they have been bounced for later remixes! YES!!! The Weaknesses: No Undo for the last thing recorded. Undo only works for the last bounce. This has cost me a lot of work when I accidentally recorded over a track I had spent so much time recording, and there was no way to get it back. THIS IS THE BIGGEST WEAKNESS OF THIS DEVICE. No auto punch in/punch out points. Zoom, we need this. No ability to select which of the four tracks will be bounced. So if you want to bounce three of the four tracks you have loaded you need to turn the volume all the way down on the track you don't want to bounce and then reload that audio file to that track after the bounce. (you will have to reset the channel settings for that track as well after the bounce- EQ, pan, reverb, delay.) No Mastering Effects. A Simple Four Band EQ, 30hz low cut, and Maximizer for the bounce track would be better than nothing, and would suit most of my needs. The Processor in this device is a little slow. When you get 10+ tracks deep into a song it chases its tail for over 7 seconds every time you press the stop button while recording. That really slows down workflow on big projects. Nice to haves- these things could improve the device further. Ability to add input effects to both channels, and also add them to already recorded tracks. (So they would no longer just be input effects) Better preamps. The one's built-in are ok, but Zoom could put their better preamps in a device like this and take it up another level! Ability to mute the bounce track so you can solo something you just recorded to check for little flaws. Ability to use input effects, EQ, and send effects when running as an audio interface. I LOVE this little device and hope it does well enough for Zoom to improve it further! It has been so nice getting away from my computer and putting the focus back on my musicianship!

La verdad es que es un GRAN producto para grabar, alta calidad.

H4n used to be able to do what you now need 2 devices, H4essential and R4, for recordings with built in stereo microphone and then doing overdubs. It was disappointing when I realised that unlike the H4n which allowed overdubs, the H4essential wasn't able to and the closest device that could do this was the R4. At least now both the devices have 32-bit float technology and optimising gain settings to strike a balance between noise and clipping becomes a thing of the past.