Digital Multi-Track Recorder / Control Surface.
69 People rated this product : 7 out of 10
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19 People wrote reviews |
Read all Zoom HD16CD Multi-Track Recording Studio reviews... |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 10 out of 10
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zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us. |
Feature:
I live trigger my own drum samples by hand on a remote keyboard, and play my own bass lines so I haven't fiddled with the built-in rhythm sequencer. This Zoom is a work of metal art, nice and heavy. It would have been cool to have dedicated knobs for Pan, Low/Mid/High per track, but hey, it's no real big deal doing it this way - at least there won't be any of those knobs getting dirty and crackly!
Quality:
It seems great.
Value:
When you've grown up in an era when 16 tracks meant tens of thousands of dollars and huge 1" tape media, desk-sized mixing boards, rackmounted outboards even for simple processing, and separate mixdown units like a 1/2 track, or DAT, the $599. for this unit is ridiculously cheap. Like discovering you can get a new Bentley at the car lot for $5000.
Desirability:
It's brushed metal, not gray plastic. It's compact and meaty. It does what you want...
Sound:
As one who has spent some 30 years tracking with those who have put $15,000 and up into their Tascam and Otari open reel project studios, sat in with those who've bought time in quarter mil.+ studios with 2" tape machines and 6 foot tall rack mounts, and fiddling endlessly (and often haplessly) with cassette machines, I've got to say that the initial 2 weeks I've just had with my new little Zoom HD16 has been my most magical and best sound experience, bar none. My purchase of this thing came in a very weird way. Some months back, I learned that my coworker's son was getting his start to become a pro wrestler, and was already doing arena exhibitions. I asked if he had entrance music, and since he didn't I offered to get something together. In the process I'd gotten so frustrated with the results I was getting that I nearly tossed my Portastudio 414 across the room. The Zoom was a spontanious midnight purchase, whipping out the plastic... The next day I thought, "What the heck have I gotten myself into!?! I'm a analogue guy! A linear tape and dedicated-knobs-on-the-board type dude! I'm too old for this...Can I even live beyond tape hiss?!" I'd long suffered a horrendous "learning failure" with my dust covered Boss DR5, which for me has always been a soft button nightmare...It would probably be more realistic for me to somehow become a Kung Fu master and horizontally walk up the side of a tree. Anyhow, after an initial slight freakout, I read through a few key sections of the Zoom manual, plugged in my elderly Ensoniq VFXsd and kept getting those "ah-ha" moments. For my initial project, I've just used a little itty bit of it's features, keeping it to an analogue deck mentality; not even trying to use the built-in rhythm feature, or digitally ping-ponging, etc. Trying to think along the lines of just filling up some tracks while presetting the internal effects for each; learning I could keep it simple by just plugging whatever instrument into the 1st jack ("activating" the jack with it's on/off button)and assigning it to whatever track by pushing the button to whatever track (red glow=active/record; green glow=monitor/playback). Every track then automatically feeds and stacks into the Master track. Simple. Those of us who've used analogue Portastudios know the often futile struggle that it takes to get those tracks to sound truly "musical", beyond what otherwise sounds like four cheesy cassette boom boxes wired in series. Not so with this Zoom! I feel I could actually go ahead and burn a respectable and actually quite "presentable" CD for live auditorium mains playback right from the raw unpanned/unprocessed tracks! It seems to be that stinkin' good. But I'm gonna fiddle with it some in mixdown mode, do my pans and assigned processing and see how much further it can progress. To me the unit sounds pretty warm, and not at all digitally harsh and "gatey".
Ease of Use:
This unit seems to be EXTREMELY musical, even right out of the box, in comparison to analogue cassette. The learning curve for using it LIKE one would an analogue deck is not all that bad. Make sure to read up on the basic operation sections in the manual before turning it on. You have to fiddle with it a bit, but do it wisely.
Support:
I've so far had no contact with Zoom.
Overall:
This Zoom meets all my needs.
Submitted: 4/7/2009
Style of Music: Rock, electric blues
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 9 out of 10
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zZounds has verified that this customer bought this product from us. |
Feature:
Lots of features, many of which I won't use, but the ones I have tried have been excellent. I like the drum kit feature.
Quality:
The first thing you notice taking the unit out of the box is how solid it feels. It does not appear to be cheaply made at all. I plan to use the unit at home, but would not hesitate to take it on the road.
Value:
This is not a professional recording studio, but for the price, you would not expect it. Very good value for the price. I was impressed with the sound quality for the price.
Sound:
For the price, I don't see how the sound could be better. Once again, the sound quality is going to depend on the skill of the operator. Knowledge of mic techniques is imperative.
Ease of Use:
As an amateur hobbyist recordist, I found this product fairly easy to use, given its many features. The controls are intuitive, and the manual is very good, written with the beginner in mind. I was recording and mixing in very little time at all, with a finished product on CD faster than I had imagined.
Support:
I have not had to deal with support, since I have had no problems as of this date.
Overall:
I plan to use this unit extensively and am looking forward to investigating some of the features included which I haven't had time to examine yet.
Submitted: 6/30/2008
Style of Music: Rock/Praise & Worship
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36 of 36 people (100%) found this review helpful. Did you?
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