BLOWN AWAY - Zoom PodTrak P4 REVIEW and TESTING

welcome back to dark corner studios my name is aidan wolfe and today we have the podtrack p4 this is a zoom product and i do have to say it's one of the most intriguing pieces of equipment for podcasting that i've ever had the chance to play with it's tiny it's powerful and it's cheap and there's only one very minor issue that it has but i doubt that's going to be a problem for anyone but we'll talk about that in just a few first though want to know why does this thing even exist i mean really zoom why we'll answer that coming up this is aidan wolfe [Music] i am going to reiterate it this is one of the most intriguing pieces of gear that has come out for podcasting ever it's small it packs a massive punch and that punch is kind of directed at the road caster pro but as i sit here and admire this i also don't quite understand it i mean if you're going to go through the stack of interfaces and recorders from zoom you've got the h4n the h5 the h6 h8 live track l8 and now the podcast p4 and the upcoming p8 by the way i do have a pod track p8 on the way so if you want to check that out get subscribed so you don't miss a thing i think the most mind-blowing thing about their lineup though is the pricing i mean they've pretty much outpriced the competition and possibly are even out pricing themselves how are they not cannibalizing their own sales now i do have a few theories on this but more on that in a bit first let's take a look at what this thing offers the build quality well it's zoom much like their handheld recorders in the l series the p series is also this molded plastic while it doesn't feel as premium as the h series it's also not poor quality the knobs and buttons are well fine very much in line with what you would expect from a zoom product these knobs are a bit smaller than the ones on the h series though and just have a touch of give to them there is a little bit of movement on the xlr inputs as well but nothing concerning there are two ways to power it with a spot for batteries which will give you about four hours use with double a's as well as a usb-c connection that can be used with a wall plug or a battery bank which by the way if you're running off battery power and you swap with a battery bank nothing gets disturbed meaning you can record as long as you want if you always have fresh batteries that's a pretty sweet deal now taking a look at the features this thing has four mic inputs at the top with individually addressable phantom power as well as having inputs three and four also available for phone calls yep that means you can take up to two phone calls at a time with this thing both of which have a mixed minus already programmed in also i should mention that each of these microphone inputs is also sporting 70dbs of gain meaning you can pretty much push any mic with this thing also a massive selling point and just for reference i'm recording with the gain set to 7 and this is what it sounds like let's push it up to 10. below that there is a huge feature that you won't know you need it until you actually do but each channel can be muted while at the same time still being able to hear people on the call right below that you have this black section of the unit this is where all the business happens you have four sound pads that can be programmed easily with any sound you want or you can just roll with the 11 included sounds it's pretty cool and just below that you have the volume control for the sound pads now there's something to keep in mind that volume is a universal control for all the sound pads so you might want to make sure they're all rather similar in volume so you're not live mixing them and then you have the usual zoom screen this is where you can really customize your options for recording including a few effects for the inputs you got a limiter you know for all the yellers in your group as well as a low-cut filter always good practice to go through and set it up each time before you hit record though as some of those features are not a default like the mix minus the screen also allows you to monitor your individual inputs as well as a full stereo mix output the transport buttons below that allow you to record and play back all the fun stuff as well as directional buttons for when you're in the menus right below that you'll find the monitoring section and this is kind of cool they have four individual headphone inputs with its own volume knob a huge feature that is kind of unexpected at this price point then if you turn it over on the right side of the unit you'll see the power button as well as two slots now the first one beside the power button will let you plug in a phone and that will go through channel 3 or you can get a zoom bta-2 bluetooth receiver and plug in both for a wireless call and then on the other side you have a usb connection that goes through channel 4 which allows all manner of things including a second phone hookup so if you want an idea of how they sound let's try them out by annoying my daughter hey ashley oh what do you want hey i'm just testing out this zoom pod track p4 i just figured i'd uh you know just check to see how the phone works how you doing okay all right that's awesome okay thank you ashley okay love you she's such a joker keep in mind there is also a link for your computer so you can transfer files off the sd card or if you like use it as an interface that's right this thing actually works as an interface now here's the magic of this thing and one possible downfall perhaps if you're recording to just the sd card it records everything on its own channel giving you full control of your audio in multi-track that is a full 10 tracks of recording all at once that way you can edit your audio seamlessly in post however if you're just recording with this as an interface it will only be a stereo mix of the whole board this is a 2 in 2l connection with your computer or even your ios or android device which is kind of cool means you can basically do it all so then why is this such an important piece of equipment why are people turning their heads at this and is zoom actually cannibalizing their own sales i don't really think so i think the l8 will eventually swing more to a musical preference especially with the podrack p8 on the way and frankly while they may lose a couple sales of the live track l8 to the p8 it would seem there will just be an interface for everyone and let's be honest this thing does a lot of stuff that was never available at this price point before the mix minus alone is one of the big ones the ability to take two separate phone calls and easily record them in multi-track you've got 70 db of gain which up until recently was almost impossible to find without spending the extra bucks on cloud lifters or fat heads even the road caster pro only has 50 db of gain you also have the mute buttons on each line the four headphone inputs with addressable levels on each 10 tracks of multi-track i mean i could go on this thing is by far one of the smartest buys for anyone starting a podcast or even upgrading their setup this thing could run your podcast for a long time without any need to upgrade ever so if you were one of those that couldn't justify the price of a road caster pro and perhaps you were a bit too overwhelmed with the live track l8 this is your unit and to be honest zoom doesn't know it yet but they're not getting it back thanks for watching if you like this video destroy the like button do it for me but if you really like this video maybe gently tap that other button and come along for the ride cheers and i'll see you in the next video you

Channel: Dark Corner Studios

Views: 27,155

Keywords: zoom pod trak p4, Podtrak P4, Zoom PodTrak P4, Review, Podtrak review, Pod Trak review, Zoom, Best podcasting interface, best starter interface for podcasting, phone calls on a podcast, how to record phone calls for podcast, Rodecaster pro, Podcast, Dark Corner Studios, Pod Trak, Zoom P4, P4, Podtrak p4 review, The Best mixer for starting a podcast

Id: YFhEfUY6a3A

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020

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[u/Hertje73]

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