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Problems can arise when your hardware device is too old or not supported any longer. Zoom HD16 Recorder Firmware 1. Description Free Download. The only thing it isn't possible to do is change the order of the effect blocks. At the moment, the main competition the HD16 faces is from the Tascam MkII which has a track count of 24, even in bit recording mode, and sells for not too much more money.
The Tascam certainly doesn't offer anything like the rhythm tools of the HD16, but it is very user-friendly and has some rather good monitoring and navigation facilities. Yamaha's AW is pretty much unrivalled in the mixer department, having dynamics on every channel and impressive signal-routing options, and it even has a pad sampler and MIDI controller mode to compete with Zoom's HD Nevertheless, it doesn't share the HD16's rhythm facilities.
The BRCD is the only thing Roland currently present as competition, but it sacrifices tracks for its drum machine and bass synth, and costs more. Operationally, the HD16 seems very solid. Although it's a little ponderous when starting up, shutdown is almost instantaneous. Moving in and out of non-recording modes, such as the USB and Control Surface modes, is swift, although it is necessary to Exit before getting on with more general work. The screen, integrated into the meter panel, is very small, but Zoom have worked extremely hard to reduce its importance, providing a well-designed set of illuminating cursor keys for menu navigation, and a row of seven LEDs to the left of the screen indicating which effect processor, pan setting or EQ parameter is selected for editing.
In particular, the four cursors left, right, up and down, with an Enter button in the middle are really good for getting you around and providing information as to whether or not there are other menu options or editable parameters available. Simply put, if an arrow light is on, it is showing that there are more menu options or editable parameters to be found in that direction. Despite these good points, learning how to operate the HD16 is not as easy as it could be, primarily because there is a lack of consistency in the way that the programmers have split operations between the panels of soft keys and allocated tasks to the various Function, Exit, Edit, Enter and Cursor keys.
I found it difficult to recall exactly what button combinations were needed to get me back to certain menus and had to repeatedly refer to the manual to refresh my memory. My experience of more intuitive systems is that it quickly becomes possible to second-guess where a particular menu or parameter can be accessed and how to edit it, and it is therefore less necessary to rely on the manual for help.
Inevitably, programming the drums and patterns takes some getting used to. Having to duck in and out of menus to audition kits, switch banks, create patterns and edit sequences is not very conducive to the creative flow. It is possible to build complex patterns and song structures, but it is all made hard work by the sheer number of screens that the user has to flick through, and, once again, it is hard to remember the various button combinations.
Admittedly, it probably isn't as arduous as programming my Roland MC50 sequencer, which now seems like second nature to me, but such familiarity comes from years of use. On the plus side, recording quality is pretty good and machine noise is very low. The effects, particularly the reverbs and guitar amp simulators, are very effective and will be more than sufficient for most demo projects.
The only issue is that a mastering processor cannot be used on the stereo mix if insert effects are being applied to individual tracks, so it is necessary to bounce mixes down beforehand. The EQ also does its job well, exhibiting no zipper noise, as is occasionally the case on budget products.
It is actually quite flexible compared to many three-band designs, which tend to have fixed-position shelving bands, but not being able to view all the settings associated with a channel in one screen is frustrating. Things would be different if there were physical controls, as they would show at a glance the status of each EQ parameter, but here it is a case of toggling through gain, frequency and Q pages of each band to find out.
To use the HD16 as a control surface for Cubase LE it is first necessary to copy a control surface file from the supplied Factory Recover CD to the computer's hard drive. From within the Devices Setup page this can be loaded as a generic controller template, and then just about all the controls have a use. The one thing really missing from the HD16 is an undo function, as this makes digital editing a risky affair. Zoom have implemented a track capture feature but it is no replacement for having a proper record event history.
Or set up a larger system to coordinate the HD16 with other computer DAW software or additional multi-track recorders. Disc-at-once writing is supported, which is great for producing live albums or mixes without gaps between tracks. Capturing the audio data of a CD for use as V-takes is also possible.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. In general, I'm not a big fan of technology that's driven by extensive menus that force users to navigate through page after page of little used options.
It comes in a nice, metal case and all of the meters, faders and switches look like they are built to last. Many of the other Multi-Track HD machines - even ones that cost much more - are housed in plastic boxes and have the look and feel of toys. It took me a couple of hours to familiarize myself with some of the basic settings required to use this recorder- and there are some strange, "round about ways of setting specific parameters" - but I was able to record a quartet with three condenser mics on the drums, one on the sax and a direct bass and electronic keyboard input while utililizing reverb send and entering some basic track EQ's.
Not too daunting a task on the ZoomHD16CD for this non-technical recordist As a musician, my primary interest was in purchasing a simple multi-track unit to record live performances of jazz combos. Hey again bud. Local ZOOM user at your service First off I understand you have decent mics you are satisfied with so that isn't the preob. Here's something to try out just as a startoff point: don't change the multi-band compressor frequencies, change their threshold settings.
And either up the level output of the compressor algorhythm sorry sp? Then the limiter is your friend. Compressing everything makes it lose its 'touchey-feely' ness of playing dynamics. The Limiter quite simply just doesn't allow levels allow it past a certain point, which is good for digital audio files because it absolutely wont let them get ugly So here's just an idea to try: put in a limiter to the effect chain, at the end, then change your mastering effect so that the threshold is higher and the ratio is lower.
Threshold is the point where your compressor starts to drop high signals, ratio is the dramatic amount of that drop. A lower ratio would make playing nuances more apparent, but when this is chained into the limiter, it means that you can't overblast it by keeping the thresh too low and the volume too relatively high. What this makes is the possibility for most of the playing nuances and a loud signal and it won't distort because of the limiter at the end of the effect chain.
You don't want to be pushing everything on the limiter because it will all end up jammed up together, just the peaky points.
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