The simple answer is that it depends on what you will do with the recording. All converters are tweaked a bit to favor a particular notch. However, unless you will be using the zoom professionally, your concerns will be the final format.
In this case, you will want 48/24 unless you wish to make a CD recording, for that you need 44.1/24. However, I don't think the zoom is suitable for CD recording. If you wish to experiment with the extended frequency response, you then double the 48 to get 96/24. However, it is unlikely that your microphones will generate anything but harshness at this rate, and you may introduce artifacts when you downsample for MP3s (or the better MP4). Only a very few and very expensive mics generate smooth, usefull upper partials when recording early music due to the complexity of the harmonics. Another way to look at it is that moving the microphone a few inches will affect the sound more than doubling the sampling rate. Now the 24 bits is very usefull because one bit is roughly worth 6 db of sound. That means when you normalize the audio for web streaming, you get free gain. It's like zooming (pardon the pun) on a really high quality digital photo. If you accidentally record too low, as in a live recording, or if you mics cannot produce enough gain, you will need to boost the level digitally. If you want true line level, then you must look to the Fireface 400. That box has enough gain to record the lute or even a clavichord at line level. If you have recently purchased your zoom I would recommend you compare it to the Fostex FR2 LE. The converters and mike preamps are outstanding, and though not as quiet as items costing thousands of dollars, they are extraordinary. It also has a design that records early music well. However it works best with good microphones--as do all recorders. After you have captured your wave file you will want an audio editor that can go directly from 24 bit to MP3 or MP4. Here, Samplitude and Sequoia are the best choices, but there are less expensive and free options as well. I even use virtual dub with the lame mp3 encoder for a free solution, and the Nero codec is very good as well. You will have to decide whether to apply noise shaping to the final product. Here I recommend that you do not apply noise shaping unless you have the POWR3 conversions as the process simply adds more noise to the final product. A minimum bitrate of 48/260 for MP3 is recommended, and 320 is even better, MP4 is better still. Never set your workflow to convert 44.1 to 48, or vice versa. It degrades the sound. If you are using your recorder for a video track for youtube, you must set it to 48/24 or the video software will resample it. dt t 12:56 PM 3/14/2008, you wrote: >Hi folks, > >Martin Shepherd wrote: > >here are now so many of us with the Zoom H2 we should share our > >experiences with this machine. Which settings did you use? > >I just got mine and have been playing around with it instead of working. > >I'm rather impressed with the quality of the out-of-the-box settings. But >there are so many settings that I'm wondering which to use for WAV recordings: > >WAV44.1kHz/16bit >WAV44.1kHz/24bit >WAV48kHz/16bit >WAV48kHz/24bit >WAV96kHz/16bit >WAV96kHz/24bit > >What do you guys suggest for recording a single instrument or a small group >of two or three? What are exactly the specific effets of bit rate and >quantization? > >Thanks, > >Dennis > > > > > > > > > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
