Zoom H4N digital recorder issue

[Chris Shaw]

No worries, ultimately you’re right. Just like we need to manage our clients expectations I need to do manage my bosses (although he took the job on before letting me know). Have you ever heard of someone being sacked for something like this?

Also I just spoke to my friend who has a mate who edits TV commercials. When I recorded it the guy told me to record it in stereo mode, even though the Mic would only be connected up to the left channel. He said I could just duplicate the channel onto the right channel to give a proper mono sound. When I import the files (and also on iTunes etc) it seems that both left and right channels have audio. His friend thought that maybe theres a chance that the audio from both channels have “mixed” or something like that. I know you have better things to do but could this be why it played perfectly in one earphone when I listened on the Zoom and then poorly on my Mac as there seemed to be 2 channels when there should have just been 1? Or is this a sign of me being exhausted after no sleep and getting desperate?

[Mark Barroso]

You may, in fact, be listening to a mix of one “bad” channel and one “good” channel.

I don’t know what you don’t know, Chris, but in FCP you should see 2 channels of audio. Put the file in the browser window and see if there is two tabs labeled 1 and 2. (The zoom always records two channels, unless you force to record four) Click on one of the tabs and then the other. If you recorded a mic on one channel, it will look very different from the other channel with a healthy waveform.

In FCP, de-link the channels and delete the one that has the weak waveform, based on the above tabs. Play the remaining one and get happy.

This is basic in all audio editing software, but since you mentioned FCP I used that as an example.

[Chris Shaw]

Thats pretty much exactly what my friend said. Im at home now (I’m in the UK and its almost 11pm). Are you in America?

I tested the above idea on a good bit of recording from a previous project and I couldn’t see the tabs you mentioned. I know this is painful for you and I really appreciate this, but would it be worth taking screen grabs or even emailing you one of the files?

When I listened to the recording files on the zoom the left channel sounded perfect and the right channel was silent… so is it possible then that the wav file has mixed both channels together… even when I play it in other media like iTunes?

[Mark Barroso]

Yes. I-tunes will play the two channels together. FCP can play them separately if mute one channel. If you have the file in the FCP timeline, double click the audio and it will appear in the browser. Follow the above steps.

[Peter Groom]

Just a thought. Your poor audio levels couldnt be caused by out of phase audio in mono could they.
Drop off 1 channel and pan the remainder centre. Still a problem, then its just plain quiet.
Re sacking.
Any boss who sends out a gfx designer to do a sound engineers task without the necessary back up and training needs sacking himself. hes ultimately culpable as he made the crewing choices (wrongly).
Solution. If you survive (and im sure you will as i dont think hell be able to hear his arxxe from his elbow) make sure you tell people clearly when youre being asked to do tasks outside your training, skilset knowlege etc so they know that youve tried to steer them. Then if it all comes crashing down, they know they created the monster.

Peter
Post a sample of the problem audio so we can download it and see if we can help out.

Post Production Dubbing Mixer

[Chris Shaw]

Its sorted! When I tell you what it was you’re never going to believe how dumb it was. It does show that 2 sleepless nights really does make you less alert etc

Basically I recorded it on the left channel and due to the ways its all set up at work I listen to it on the right hand side… the left hand side is fine, other than being a little low and the mic picking up a few rustles its fine. I will try and clean the audio up in soundtrack pro but its a much better solution to what I thought the problem was.

It still backs up what you said: with no experience things like this WILL happen. Next time I’ll be more prepared.

Thanks for all your help… Im not as dumb as I sound (no pun intended)

[Chris Shaw]

Pete I only just saw your message. As you can see its all sorted now and it really is dumb, although Im so tired after so many sleepless nights preparing for this that its slightly understandable that I would make such a mistake.

You are right though, I need to manage my bosses expectations. Im going to ask for some training on the audio sides of things.

Tonight Im going to be in bed by 10 finishing off the Steve Jobs biography whilst having a cup of tea and get a good nights sleep.

Thanks for all your help guys 🙂

[Ty Ford]

Hello Chris, and a belated welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

I’m glad you got it sorted out and it wasn’t a disaster. What may have been missed here is knowing what the levels are when you record. You need to know absolutely how hot to record. “I heard it in the headphones” is an all too typical response after you realize there’s a problem. You need eyes and ears and all the time, not just at setup.

Regardless, the waveform on the OK left channel should have been of proper height. I think you said it was flat. I don’t get that. Did you see waveforms for both channels on the time line?

On the setup at work, only the right channel plays back? How do you mix that way? You need to do some work there to get acceptable 2 channel sound, even if your result is mono.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
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[Matt Campbell]

Chris, I realize this thread is way old and hope you have things figured out by now but your best bet is to take that file copied over from the Zoom and convert in STP (Soundtrack Pro).

What follows is based off of what you said about only hearing audio from the left headphone. This is normal when recording with an external mic, as that is mono. Bring it into a Multitrack project for mixing, double click on that file and open the file it into the File editor. Go to Process menu, Convert to Mono. Then select, Use left channel, hit ok and boom. You have essentially deleted the empty right channel and extracted the left channel and converted your stereo file to mono. Which is how you’ll want the dialogue anyway. Save that file and switch back to the Multitrack tab.

I use this method all the time when recording VOs in the Stereo mode with an external mic. When shooting with a DSLR like your 5D, record in 4 Ch mode. Record stereo sound via the onboard mics. Record external audio from either Line 1 and/or Line 2, depending on how many mics you have. Then in post, you should have 4 channels of audio. 1 & 2 will be stereo (can use as reference sound and then throw away when mixing the final, 3&4 will show up as separate mono channels as long as you have Link 1&2 turned off in the menu. Use those mono channels for your audio mix.

You mentioned export in your posts. You shouldn’t have to export anything. The files on the Zoom are what you want to use. Record at 48kHz, either 16 or 24 bit WAV files. No exporting is needed. If you tried to export your file, that may have been why you heard soft sound. That export was probably mixing the left channel with an empty right and threw things out of wack. If you record between -20 & -6 you should be all set.

OSX 10.7.5 with a 3.39 Ghz Intel Core i7 on a built up Hackintosh
16 GB of RAM with OSX on SSD, (2) internal HDDs RAID’d 1 for project files and External RAID 5 for all project assets (media, GFX, stills, etc.)
BMD Decklink Studio 2, FSI BM210, KRK Rokit 5s, Mackie 802

[Sade Joseph]

Hi Matt –

I did the same thing as Chris. I accidentally recorded all of my audio on my H4n Zoom today on STEREO mode and it won’t play/I can’t hear ANY sound coming from the files or its EXTREMELY low. I am in Africa shooting a documentary. As you can imagine, I am freaking out. I am trying to download STP as you suggested, but have no idea if its the right program or how to use it. Could you please guide me through this?

Also, tomorrow I was going to hook up wireless lav mics to the zoom and record audio that way for my interviews. Should it still be on 4CH mode? Or Mono?

Ahhh. Please help!!! so desperate.

Thank you!