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[Brad Richard]

I burn backing tracks I record onto cd's for my live, one-man shows. I play through a dvd player. It works fine, but I'd like to downsize. My main pro audio dealer suggested using a Zoom H2 for either wav. or mp3 playback. It's an interesting idea, but I have concerns about a 1/8" jack out to my PA system. Does anyone have any experience with this little unit as a playback device for live sound?

Thanks,
Brad

[Jordan Wolf]

Brad Richard wrote on Sun, 23 March 2008 17:42

...I have concerns about a 1/8" jack out to my PA system.

Brad,

If you can use the H2 for playback, then by all means do so.  Don't let a little 1/8" jack intimidate you!  Get a Whirlwind PCDI (http://www.whirlwindusa.com/dirbox.html)or a ProCo iFace ( http://www.procosound.com/?page=viewprod&cat=242&id= 791)

Hope that helps!

[Matt Johnson]

Do you own an iPod?  Why not go with one of those?  I think a 1gb shuffle is something like $79 and would definitely be a down-size.  

[Paul E Fenelon]

Hi Brad

I used one about 3 weeks ago and the quality was great. Mini jack headphone out into line level 1/4 jacks worked fine. Make sure you record and playback at 320kbt (best MP3 quality for longest play time). 2gb card is also essential. They sell with a 512. If you want use 2 x DI's. I have seen a few Touring Pro BE plug their iPod into 2 x DI's for walk-in, pre show music.
I do think that mini-jacks do have a short life tho.

The H4 has XLR ins but still the mini jack out.

Good luck
Paul

[Mac Kerr]

Brad Richard wrote on Sun, 23 March 2008 17:42

Does anyone have any experience with this little unit as a playback device for live sound?

I don't have any experience with the H2, but I do with the H4. I would not use an H4 as a live playback device, the controls are too small. I sometimes use the mini jack out on my laptop into a PCDI and have had no real issue, but a laptop is less likely to move around than the tiny H2.

Mac

[Brad Richard]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll give the H2 a try. I'm going to check out the iPod shuffle, but have some concerns about sound quality.

Brad

[Matt Johnson]

My experience w/ the H4 would lead me to steer you more towards the iPod.  The H4 is rather cheaply made and tough to navigate.  But I haven't used the H2 at all.

You can choose very similar settings on the iPod when you import the music, I think?....  

[Ned Ward]

For the money, the H2 is a fun little unit, and can do duty as well to record a show either with the built-in microphones or line in from the mixer. It's not going to replace  a touring truck, but for $299, not bad! I'm liking it. Mounts on desktop (mac) no problem like a flash drive. Also good for rehearsals, etc. to see what the band is doing well (and not).

Regardless of what you put on there, you can use uncompressed WAV files on the H2 or uncompressed AIF files in iTunes to ensure fidelity.