If I Could Start Over ...

[Nathan Lowell]

I was chatting up one of the other authors yesterday and the question came up, "If you were just starting out, what would you do differently?"

For me, I think I'd bite the bullet and buy a Zoom H2. It's about $150 on Amazon but it has several things that would have helped me get off to a better start.

A. The mic is built in and it's good enough for what a beginner needs.
B. The recorder is silent. There's no sound card noise being introduced by the system and there's no fan noises as you'd get from some laptops.
C. It's expandable. When I'm ready to move up and invest in mic/etc I can still use the recorder in the H2.

The H4 (not the H4n) might be a better choice. The mic set up is excellent and the interfaces are much more flexible -- offering XLR inputs as well as mini plugs, but it's $100 more. A great value at the price, but you'd have to be thinking seriously about investing $250 in an activity that might or might not pay off in the long run, so I question how viable that choice might be for a beginner.

How about the other authors? If you were going to start now, what would you do?

[Craig Robertson]

First Nathan, I was glad to read you were not dying (If I could start...)! Second, I do use the laptop w/a headset to record, and am not familiar w/ an H4 device. Do you use it w/ a headset/microphone, or do you/can you speak at it directly? Third, I'd feel better if you saw your doc soon, just to be sure.....craig

[Nathan Lowell]

I've seen the doc. He's got me on medications and diet. I'll die in the end, but we're hoping for later rather than sooner. Preferably MUCH later and ... if I could have my druthers, shot in the act by a jealous husband at the age of 102...But I digress.

The Zoom H4 has a pair of built in microphones so it can function as a standalone, battery powered digital recording unit. It records to a SD card like a digital camera would.

It also has XLR and mini plug input jacks so you can record using an external microphone as well. I use mine that way because I had the mic/preamp before I upgraded my recorder from an iRiver mp3 recorder to the Zoom H4. I've never regretted getting it, but if I were starting out now? I'd be giving serious thought to going straight to either H2 or H4 by itself and skipping the whole mic/preamp hassle to begin with.

[Bryan Lincoln]

I don't have such a portable mic yet, but oh do I want one! (I use a Snowball mic and am happy with it despite the lack of portability)

Here's a picture I googled up of the H4.

http://benobriensmith.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/3023_gd.jpg

[Rick Stringer]

I purchased an H2 after I saw that Seth Harwood was using one for all of his recording. I love it. I now use it for many of my recordings. The H2 was one of the best podcasting investments I've made.