ZOOM Digital Multitrack Recorder (H8)

Very flexible and accurate with recordings. It’s a bit awkwardly shaped which limits its portability but the capabilities and the recording quality are excellent. It does consume AA batteries like crazy, wish it came with a wall power chord. I still consider it worth it.

This product is great. It does everything as advertised and sounds great. Once I spent some time exploring all of it's features I was not disappointed.The Zoom H8 is versatile, and customizable. Its LCD screen is just large enough to display the software controls.The only thing that needed improvement was the ability to slide the headphone volume slider control smoothly. But that was a small nusance. (Zoom addressed this concern in their latest firmware 2.0 update). The headphone slider is much more responsive now.The Audio Interface can be complex to set up in Multi-Track Mix Mode. After I spent some time, as there is no documentation on this, I was able to think it thru by trial and error. All of the recording frequencies must match the Zoom H8 frequency setting. If your Zoom H8 is set to 44kHz, 48kHz, or 98kHz frequency. All three settings on the H8, computer sound card, and your Digital Audio Workstation software must match exactly or it will not function.In your DAW Multi-track software you will see 12 inputs from the Zoom H8 available when set up correctly using the Zoom H8 ASIO setting. The top four listed are for the detachable microphone module on top.Ignore the top four inputs listed unless you are using a detachable module as a source in your mix. The bottom 8 inputs you will see listed in your DAW correspond to the Zoom H8's 6 XLR inputs and 2 channel stereo mix.(Many modular microphone and expansion options available from Zoom).There is no documentation or video on setting up multi-track mode at this time. Perhaps I may produce a video to help explain this to new users, as myself. I would have found that useful to learning.I contacted Zoom tech support and took them to school on this topic. I simply shared what I had learned. Tech support suggested I return the unit thinking it was maybe not compatible with my AMD processor. That was not the case. I am glad I persevered as I experimented.There are 2 software licenses included: One for Steinberg's Cubase LE and one for WaveLab Cast. They are included in the purchase and can be installed for just one instance each. Cubase is a Digital Audio Workstation (single and multi-track recorder) and Wave Lab lets you polish your tracks and finalize your mix before uploading to various outlets and podcast. Link's to podcast outlets are included in the WaveLab Cast software. Guitar Lab software is also included and allows users to create customizable effects for electric stringed instruments. Guitar Lab offers several built in effects and ready made patches to make your instrument really sing.I also own Adobe Audition, NCH MixPad, and Cubase 10.5 LE. The Multi-Track Interface Mode works perfectly fine on all thee of those DAW programs. They each recognize and perform flawlessly with the Zoom H8. I am running the included software on an (circa 2009) AMD PC running under a Windows 10 Pro OS with no problems at all.Yes indeed! I would highly recommend this product purchase, especially if you own an AMD, Intel, Mac computer, or i-Pad tablet.The H8 is worth every penny spent as it produces affordable, professional sound quality in a small portable package.The advertised battery lifespan is more or less 15 hours in the field. At home I plug my H8 into a usb port on my computer. With USB it powers up and stays on without a drain on battery power.

Coolest gadget ever.

Very versatile recorder. Awesome features!

I have been very happy with this unit. The one big flaw is that it can't be left unused for more than short periods with batteries left in it. It drains them down even when off. So every time I use it I have to re-insert the batteries, then reprogram the date, etc, etc. That's quite annoying.

I use this thing for field recording! Sound is amazing. Ive tried both 90 degrees and 120 degrees. Battery life is great with just the stock mic. Battery life shortens when adding mics that use phantom power as expected but still has good battery life. The touch screen works good. Everything about this Zoom H8 is nice I love it.So far I have used it to record nature, cars, rain, cooking, and stuff like that! I'm tellin you the sound is fantastic! Don't waste your money on the Bluetooth adapter lol the app only monitors the inputs and gives you no control features whatsoever except record, stop and play.All in all, I recommend this rig for sure.

Lots of connection options and durable. Wasn’t fit for my needs but for the right application it will be awesome.

It works great, everything as expected, and it's really versatile with it's inputs and features. I'm using it mainly as a film recorder and audio interface. Is a jack of all trades without any important compromise found in the tasks I put it at. Pre-amps been great with no issues. As Audio interface lefts to be desired a separation between the line and headphone outputs, but maybe Zoom could add this feature with a firmware update, which leads me to say that is being suported and Zoom has firmware updates up to V2.0.0 at the time of this review.