best external mike for zoom h4n recording voice & percussion

davgtrek

hi all.
I have a zoom h4n. I want to buy a decent external mike ( €100-200 ) to plug in for vocals and hand percussion etc.
From reading there is mixed views on dynamic ( sm57/sm58 ) v condenser.
Dynamic with h4n seem to have hiss. Now i would get some use out of a sm57/58 as i gig regularly enough but this is for home recording mainly.

if i went with a sm57 or 58 would i also need a pre-amp ?

any help for a newbie to recording .

thanks

Ahbegob

Hi I have four zooms- used for recording musicians and wedding audio.

As you know the zooms already have built in mics. They're now used by RTE Radio One by all their reporters to capture audio/interviews as is.

When out at a gig, I use a good headphones to check levels after I place the zoom on a cheap mic stand (using the mic handle) and away I go.

Sometimes, if the musicians have a mixer, I can run an input directly into the Zoom from it.

Therefore, I am not sure why you would want to get an extra mic when the built in ones are excellent. All you need is a maplins mic stand, a few assorted cables for all the weird and wonderful setups you encounter and a good pair of cans.

If you want to use them for interviews- screw in the mic handle and away you go- dats what they do in RTE

Remember the zoom was originally designed for musicians- we've used it for choirs, percussionists, singers- with top quality results.

davgtrek

yes some fair points there. I probably had a scenario where I would be playing a conga eg. and wanting to sing also. I could use the h4n for conga and then external mike for voice. But I see your point. Close monitoring of levels and setting up on a stand should yield good results.

have you used an external xlr mike lined into h4n ?

I wonder what the results are like ?

Thanks

Ahbegob

Ah I see what you want to do. Record two separate tracks on separate channels in the Zoom.

To be honest, we don't do that- we're taking in several audio sources as it is if we are recording a wedding for example.

Sometimes if there are singers and musicians nearby- we'd place the Zoom on a stand and face the musician with the rear mic turned on- creating two separate channels. This usually gets very good results. e may then adjust levels of each during the edit.

In your set up, the zoom close to your voice should catch both you and the congas well- unless your arms are 30 feet long...

That said, I am sure there could be marginal gains to be had by micing up the congas separately- but perhaps only you would notice? If this is recorded for domestic use- maybe better to spend money on drapes or some such to insulate the room. The zoom can make your work sound like you're in a studio if you've eliminated the 'noises off.'

Just opinions

davgtrek

thats all excellent advice. there are indeed plenty of other things to spend the money on !!! i will give what your suggesting a try regarding zoom position for voice etc. thankfully my arms are normal length but what do you mean by facing the zoom at band and turning on "rear mike" ? whats the rear mike ?

thanks again

Ahbegob

Och my bad. You are using the Zoom H4N. We're using the model that preceded that. The Zoom h2 has mics to front and rear- the built in nature of this was why we opted for these babies rather than the H4N. Portability and fast set up is essential for us.

The advantage of the H4N is that it does possess a mini mixer (that appears better than that of the H2) and a second mic can be connected to it to capture audio on different channels.

I suspect that unless you scream into the mic that the bongos will be heard just fine.

I am sure you can perhaps play around with the placing of the Zoom on a mic stand (Maplins do them for about €30-40) using a pair of cans to get the optimal position to record both voice and percussion.

Hope this helps- sorry for not noticing the specific recorder you meant.

davgtrek

thanks again despite calling my congas bongo's!!! for that. yes the h4n is a good machine for external mikes alright!
thanks for maplin code.

FewFew

I think you'll get much better answers in Music > Music Production.

H4 built-in mic is pretty good for just capturing the sound of an event, I use it all the time for recording songs during band practise etc. If you want something more specific (and it sounds like you do) you'll have to use two mics (as far as I know the H4 doesn't give you the option to use 1 XLR and the built in stereo mic.)

The preamps on the H4 are pretty poor for a lot of dynamic mics, I've used them for interviews with an M58 and I had to throw on way too much gain for the required volume. Having said that, the lower volume audio was always quite good.

The music production forum is probably the place to go, they'll be able to get nerdy withcha, but you may find an sm57 & beta58 being the way to go.