Zoom H2, Marantz PMD 620 And Sony PCM D50: Interior Vs. Exterior Recording

March 27, 2008

For rounds two and three of the Field Recorder Shootout, Owen O'Malley tests out our three recorders [Zoom H2, Marantz PMD620 and Sony PCM D50] to a large indoor shopping mall, and to the tracks. . . the train tracks! We will still be taking bets, however. On anything.

Owen also explains why we didn't put a windscreen on any of these recorders, and it's not because we're totally ignorant, we promise.

Visit Zoom's official website, Marantz's official website or Sony's official website for more information

Presenter: Bill Holland, Gearwire

Location: Chicago, IL

swbg

By: blindeddie (not verified)

Stop Whining Be Gruntled!!! LOL

Thu, 2008-03-27 22:31

ha ha.

By: bholland

Yeah, I forgot about the ads on the train. woops.

Fri, 2008-03-28 10:26

oohhhh no.

By: :-) (not verified)

these videos of "testing" the Zoom H2, Marantz PMD620 and Sony PCM D50 are - sorry - very incredibly badly performed. pleast tell me that these tests were intended to be a joke, right??

and there is **FALSE information**: ie that the volume of the marantz PMD620 cannot be changed during recording, that's wrong - since it can.

and why did you not make ANY adjustments on the devices?? it maaayy help to adjust the device to the environment of recording (mic-sens, level of rec etc, not that complicated in its basis) just a bit...-or is this a test for totally technology ignorant people seeking a recorder and not willing to press any button???

PLEASE: either a good review or nothing. don't waste peoples time, there is enough brain-pollution on the web. thank you.

AND REMEMBER PLEASE: you are talking about some sophisticated products here, so your approach -if you dare to "review" or "test" them - must be also at least a bit sophisticated.

(no worriest, this may take some time but can be learned.)

Fri, 2008-05-30 06:18

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Story Transcription:

OWEN O'MALLEY: Okay. So now we're going to test some interior ambience. We're in a large, indoor, Chicago market and we're going to listen to the Zoom H2, and here we go.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE ZOOM H2]

We're really picking up the Muzak. I'm about to dance. [LAUGHING]

I'm here with the H2 from Zoom. We're waiting for the train. I could be wrong though.

Okay. Let's try and get this train again.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE ZOOM H2]

Okay. Not bad. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of wind distortion on that. You can hear a little, just at the end there as the train was pulling in, and now you can hear it even more. Yeah, just good to know, out of the three field recorders that we're testing to day these two days, this is the only one that ships with a windscreen, which as you have probably been able to hear so far would definitely come in handy if you're recording outdoors at all. We didn't use it because we thought it wouldn't be fair for the shootout, okay?

So now let's listen to the Marantz PMD 620.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE MARANTZ PMD 620]

I'm going to turn off the record sensitivity a little bit.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE MARANTZ PMD 620]

Wait a second, I can't do that while I'm recording. Good to know.

Now we'll do a little train recording with the Marantz PMD 620.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE MARANTZ PMD 620]

Here it comes.

[OWEN O'MALLEY RECORDING WITH THE MARANTZ PMD 620]

So I've been trying to take the record sensitivity down because, you know, in the wind and there was a lot of sort of like really intense bass coming from the train here. There's a lot of clipping in the mics but you can't do it while you're recording, and you can't actually hear what the microphone input is unless you're recording. It's a little frustrating.

And now for the Sony PCM D50.