Zoom r8 review - none:.All user reviews for the Zoom R8
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Zoom R8 – Thomann UK
If you just can't wait to show off your track, why not create a mix of it on the R8? With built in effects and plugins, and on-board hardware faders, the R8's mixing interface is intuitive and fast! In short, the Zoom R8 means you can create wherever, and whenever, without limitations. Great for home studio users, musicians on the go and those who flit between the studio, rehearsals and the stage.
With a Zoom R8 in your gig bag, none of your musical ideas will ever be forgotten again! Zoom takes the turbocharged design of the R24 and scales it down for an ultra-portable music production solution.
Like its predecessor, the R8 combines four production tools in one versatile device. In addition to being an 8-track recorder that utilizes SD memory, the R8 is an audio interface, a DAW control surface and a sampler complete with drum pads and a rhythm machine.
The R8 is the perfect tool for capturing audio on-the-go. Record live music performances, rehearsals, songwriting sessions or even audio for film and video. You can even mix down completed songs inside the R8 and save a mix for each project. When combined with your computer, the R8 becomes a powerful audio interface. If you use the A dedicated control lets you adjust the mixing balance between the DAW playback sound and the direct sound for monitoring.
The R8 can be used as a control surface for DAW transport functions play, record, stop and mixing operations. In addition, you can easily move multiple faders at the same time. No more mixing with a mouse! The R8 makes mixing a pleasure. The built-in sampler functions allow you to loop audio data on any track. You can play the pads in real-time and combine loops to create a performance for an entire song. When setting loop intervals, you can see the waveforms for visual confirmation. Time-stretching, which allows you to change the tempo without changing the pitch, and trimming the unneeded parts of loops, is also possible.
I think it is a problem with internal soldering because playign with the switches a bit will tipically solve the problem. In term so portability, it is small enough to fit in a small back pack, or even a guitar gig bag pocket. But it is not rock solid, so a protective pouch is very necessary in my opinion. The backlit display is visible enough even with sun light. It only records in Wav, for certain applications I would prefer MP3 as an option too.
It is not very suitable in performance, i you need to switch effects quickly, of course. But it does allow to connect a click pedal, which is mainly useful for recording and overdubs, I found. However, I never managed to use Zoom's asio drivers.
So I am always used Asio4All instead. It should be noticed that, when using it as a soundcard, the R8 will not allow using the internal effects unless set to a low sampling rate. Also, every single time you switch it on, or switch the computer on with it connected, it needs to be told to work as a soundcard, because it always start as a standalone recorder.
It supports Mackie, meaning quite a few apps can use it as a control surface. I use Reaper as a DAW and it works great with that. The sliders and wheel are fine enough to adjust things on the fly. I also used it with video editors and even photo editors.
My only complaint is that I would like more of the buttons to be usable, including the soft pads, which would be very useful for one click operations. Backtrack can be either imported as wav files, not mp3, which is a pain, and set and cut as loops. Or one can rely on the internal sequencer to lay drumtracks to play over. I like that among the effects there is a guitar to bass one, so you cna also add some bass and come with something good to jam on.
Adjusting the tempo without changing pitch is finnicky, but can be done. Again, you cannot convert everything to MP3, it is just wav. Importing and exporting files to the unit is done by removing the memory card, which is not great, direct USB connection would be better.
Of course, one could also plug into one mic input a mobile phone and play, or even record, the backtracks like that. If I was stuck on a desert island with my instruments and only one device, I would probably choose this one or its bigger brothers, R16 and R24 , because it has it all one way or another. But admittedly, being stuck on a desert island is the only reason I would consider spending the time and effort to become sufficiently proficient with it to perform all of that easily.
It is way easier and faster to use a computer, or even ipad, DAW. With the R8 maybe as a soundcard and control surface. But I cannot immagine many people in wanting to do it all on the R8. The idea of being able to record a riff or an idea quickly anywhere, without having to switch on the computer, and save it there to go back to it. It works for that pupose, but it is not necessarily immediate. In that respect, my boss micro is faster to setup for a quick recording and more importantly it is smaller, so mor elikely to be around when inspiration strikes.
Of course, one could create a project just for that, with tracks already setup, to make it faster to get to the moment you can record, but it is not ideal. I see from a quick web search that this is still available which should immediately tell you something in this day of advancing technology.
See the outstanding review with photos by Rich Menga; a good takeaway is that he makes this comment, which I fully agree with:. I looked at several from Boss and Tascam but settled on this unit.
It can actually be battery powered with AA batteries! The recording medium is an SDHC card. I copied the loops to the larger card and there is tons on room now for projects and takes.
Two tiny condenser mics are built right into the device. The audio effects and processing options are very good. Of course, this means that certain decisions regarding the rhythm have to be made early on. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to drag and drop loops and patterns into place — as many of us are now used to doing with computer software — so setting up rhythm tracks quickly and efficiently takes practice.
For some, it will seem like performing keyhole surgery, but having grown up using hardware sequencers fitted with even more basic displays, I know that familiarity does eventually breed speed and efficiency. When reviewing the R24, I eventually gave up trying — even though there is a Sonar-specific plug-in option in the Driver Installation.
Hoping for better luck with the R8, I was disappointed when I experienced the same problems. It is even possible to apply the on-board effects either as inserts during recording or to the return path for monitoring, although only if recording at the lower sample rate of For the purposes of testing the R8's own recording abilities, I worked up a demo song I'd been meaning to for some time, and was really pleased with my results.
Zoom must surely have cut costs somewhere in the design, but no matter what they have done in this respect, it is still possible to get great-sounding recordings from this little device. Not quite studio quality, perhaps, but not a million miles away from it.
When recording vocals, I was able to find a suitable limiter from the range of options, and for my guitar and bass there were plenty of good-quality effects to choose from. Even the standard rhythm sounds are pretty usable, although this is understandable, given that Zoom have long history in manufacturing stand-alone rhythm machines and effects processors.
As for the process of recording, it really is a no-brainer. Using the Auto Punch-in feature to amend segments of audio could not be simpler, and assigning inputs to record tracks is equally straightforward.
If, for example, the LED is green, a track is turned on and playing; if it is flashing red, it is armed; and when it stays red, audio is being recorded. Similarly, adjusting the preamps and applying phantom power requires nothing but common sense.
The biggest problem with the R8 is that each of its operating modes inevitably compromises the others a little. I've only fiddled around with this thing for about an hour, but so far I'm thrilled. If you have ever tried recording acoustic guitar and vocals at the same time you may have found it mind-numbing because the mic picks up too much of the guitar and the whole mix can just get really messy.
The R16 has a function that I don't remember hearing about in any of the reviews or in the product details, but easily makes it worth the price of admission. I enabled this feature on the channel running my condenser mic and the result was a sense of seperation in the mix.
This is a good thing. It causes the sound to come from where it's supposed to come from when you record an acoustic guitar using a pickup. The sound of the guitar bleeding through the mic is greatly reduced and the guitar and vocal tracks have better source isolation which creates a cleaner, tigher mix. I could add to the chorus of other reviews about other things that have already been told again and again, but I'd rather point out what is missing from other reviews.
The menu navigation leaves something to be desired, and that's my only real gripe. If you intend to use it as a controller the system requirements call for a 4 gigahertz processor. This is not going to cut it for most of the computers that consumers have in the home. It just cuts out some of what you hear in the headphones so you can hear what you're recording in a way that's more clear.
The better you can hear yourself when you're recording the easier it is to do it right. You are still going to have any noise the mic picks up in the room. It's a useful feature to have. Just don't expect miracles. Very portable and the built in stereo mics sound great recording the room. As far as multi-tracking goes, its very good but very limited in available tracks to MIX.. When I get a bigger one, this will be the one I take in my suitcase when traveling All advertised effects only possible 24bit Control surface mode not possible when daw recording enabled.
Other than that mess!! Good stand alone 24bit Get fast answers from reviewers. Please make sure that you are posting in the form of a question. Please enter a question. Need customer service? Click here. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations.
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