Getting Correct Levels on Zoom H4N

[Anna Castiglioni]

I can’t seem to find any way at all to adjust my gain level on my H4n Zoom. I am told in previous version this was a simple button on the side, but doesn’t seem to exist anywhere on mine, button or menus. My noise to sound ratio sucks, and with thing I should be getting pristine sound. I was told by an audio guy to have mic level 76.

He said: “there will be two gain stages, one is analog mic signal and one is digital post analog gain
you want to turn the analog mic signal up as high as possible and the post digital down”

Please any help would be appreciated. This thing is near worthless if I can’t fix the noise. Thanks.

[Steve Crow]

I think this brief tutorial video will help you

Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com

[Eugene]

i’m using the sennheiser ew 100 g3 series. i have the transmitter set to -12db, the receiver to -12db, and the H4N to 77 input level. It sounds pretty good to me. The levels on the H4N are ranging from -30db during silence and -12db to -3db when i speak. I’m no expert so i don’t know if -3db is enough headroom for post. Plus these settings are me just in my room testing. Numbers might be different in different surroundings i would assume. personally i’m going to use this as my base point, and if i need higher/lower input, i’ll adjust the input level on the H4N. Is this wrong?

[Keith Miller]

I’ve had the same problem with my h4n.

I’ve got the new firmware and can adjust inputs 1 and 2 separately, however, even with zoom gain set to 100 I get such horrible signal to noise that it’s barely usable.

I’m using two mics: Rode Videomic Pro and AT-3350 wired lav mic. Both are 3.5mm TRS jacks I am converting to XLR with a converter cable.

I’ve scoured forums and found many H4n users suffer from this roadblock. Apparently XLRs are not that sensitive and TRS cables are not that hot. Maybe someone can fill in the fine details on this point…I saw the exact dB specs on both somewhere and the difference is–I think a loss of maybe -10 dB if I remember right. You’d think you could easily just boost this in post but by that point so much noise is already picked up it’s too late in the chain.

Here’s where I’m stuck: How to remedy.

There’s a great demo by JuicedLink showing how irrelevant the h4n is if all you’re trying to do is get high quality signal to tape. https://vimeo.com/45043808

I’m sold on this and will bypass my zoom in the future to write audio directly to the dslr and avoid the post audio sync circus. However the JuicedLink box costs $399.

What about using a direct box instead of my 3.5mm to XLR cable adaptor? Apparently these knock the signal up to the necessary line level for XLR input.

Do I need the preamp or the direct box to boost my signal to the zoom? Thanks!