Zoom F6 Audio Recorder Review

in this episode we'll review the zoom f6 audio recorder [Music] first off this entire episode is recorded with a zoom f6 and a rode ntg-3 shotgun microphone which is boom just out of the top of the frame right here first what does the headline feature on the zoom f6 what makes it special well I think that really comes down to its wide dynamic range recording each input has two analog to digital converters that is to say the audio that comes out of the microphone through the cable comes into the microphone preamplifier on the zoom f6 and then there are two separate converters that take that analog audio signal and convert it into digital and because there are two analog to digital converters this recorder can hand a much wider dynamic range very very quiet sounds - very very loud sounds without the risk of clipping there's no gain or trim or input setting when you're recording in this wide dynamic range mode and it records to a 32-bit float wav file most digital audio workstations and nonlinear editors can handle those with some exceptions like DaVinci Resolve unfortunately but this gives you the ability if it does appear that it's clipped in post you can actually take the audio pull it down attenuate it and you'll find that all of the audio information is still there it isn't clipped and destroyed like it typically would be with a 16-bit or 24-bit recording and here's a quick example there's an audio recording we made on the zoom f6 this first portion here was recorded with fader set to plus 60 dB this section was recorded with the fader set to 0 DB and this section was recorded with the fader set to minus 60 DB let's look at each section here the first one was recorded to loud at least if you were on a traditional recorder this would be too loud and that we can tell because the audio is clipping it's all the way pegged up against 0 DB here and the waveforms are basically chopped off if you're not familiar with what peaked or clipped audio sounds like it's something like this here the claim is you have 6 with a rode ntg-3 shotgun microphone pretty awful now the good news is it because we're working on the zoom f6 and we recorded in 32-bit float mode we can highlight this pull this down something like there let's play it back now here we're recording on the zoom f6 with a rode ntg-3 shotgun microphone currently i have the fader set to plus 60 DB now if you're not familiar with recording digitally that is normally not possible it's the zoom f6 is wide dynamic range recording capabilities that make that possible now let's see what happens here with this section that was recorded at 0 DB if we pull it up in post so let's pull it up 15 DB 30 DB wears about 32 DB let's see what that sounds like now still recording with the same setup in this case we have the fader set to 0 DB okay sound I'm pretty good and then this final section here this was set to minus 60 DB on the fader when we recorded it let's see if we can recover it right now there's basically nothing there's 15 DB 30 DB 45 DB and we're starting to see the waveform 60 DB 75 DB almost 90 dB let's see what it sounds like now I'm still recording with the zoom f6 and the rode ntg3 now the difference is I have the fader set to minus 60 DB which pretty impressive now when we bumped it up here it's gonna be somewhere in the 35 DB range as I recall let's just go ahead and see what the noise floor is looking like it's looking great sitting down at minus 100 DB so it's still very clean normally if you were to try and pull it up this much in post on a 24-bit recording or a 16-bit recording without this wide dynamic range recording capability you pull the noise floor up too and it'd be an absolute mess but in this case worked out pretty nicely now one note here you can see we did have some noise floor here let's see how that came out it's still sitting at minus 65 which is really quite usable so to give you some reference let's go ahead and play an audio sample from the zoom f6 along with audio samples from the sound devices mix pre three-two series and that's a recorder that does also do the wide dynamic range recording and in that particular case you can set the game and then also for reference will do the same recording again with the rode ntg3 and the sound devices 888 I'm now recording on the zoom f6 using the rode ntg3 shotgun microphone boom - above my head about 18 inches I do have the gain set to plus 35 actually it's not getting excuse me I have the fader set to plus 35 on the zoom f6 for this channel and this is what this sounds like this is a comparison now we're running the rode ntg3 shotgun microphone which is boom just above my head here within 18 inches of my mouth into a mix pre three-two series audio recorder gain is set to plus 35 DB this is what this sounds like we are now recording with the rode ntg3 into a sound devices 888 this is the pro level recorder mixer from sound devices with their newest generation of preamps just for comparison to the mix pre 3 series 2 and also to the zoom f6 same location same gain settings here let's just double check I have the gain set to 35 dB and I have the microphone boom just above my head within 18 inches of my mouth one other really neat thing about the zoom a six city can record both 32-bit float and 24-bit recordings at the same time to the same SD card let's talk about the microphone inputs there are six XLR microphone line switchable inputs and these inputs have a super low self-noise floors respect at minus 127 DB you which is a weighted very very quiet so you don't have to worry about the microphone preamplifier is introducing a bunch of hiss or self noise into your recording there are no quarter inch combination jacks so you can't bring in a quarter inch TRS cable into this but you could use an adapter cable if you needed to these are not instrument inputs so it's not really for music recording but you could use a direct box a DI box if you wanted to do that to bring in a instrument of some sort there is also a USB C input now you can use this to connect your computer to use the zoom s6 as an audio interface to record professional-grade XLR based mics to your computer or you can also use it to drive your headphones or your monitors and through that USB C port you can also supply external power so if you wanted to power these you mf6 with a USB battery bank you could do that via the USB C input now on the zoom f6 there are a couple of different outputs so of course there's a headphone output but there's also a 3.5 millimeter unbalanced output which is spectat - 10 DBV which is consumer line-level so for those that are really interested in doing a professional kind of audio workflow where you're gonna send balanced audio out of your audio recorder into a camera this isn't really the best setup for that but you can feed it definitely to consumer grade cameras that have 3.5 millimeter microphone inputs and it works nicely for that dynamic range on the output is spected 95 decibels a weighted which was a little bit lower than I expected but maybe not surprising given that this is a consumer line level output to put that into context the same output on the mix pre 2 series from sound devices comes at 115 decibels a weighted so there's definitely a significant difference there the zoom f6 has a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and it has a roller dial that allows you to adjust the volume it's a little bit of an awkward position but I will say that it is easier to use in the mix pries head phone dial if you have the recorder situated in a sound bag now to be honest is not the best headphone amp out there it definitely seems like more of a consumer grade headphone amplifier and you really need to stick with headphones that have a low impedance rating so something in the 32 ohm range is probably going to be ideal if you're gonna try and use your high-end headphones it have a 250 ohm rating you're probably going to have a hard time hearing here in terms of powering the unit there are a variety of different options first of all in built to the bottom of the unit is a four double A batteries led and you can use alkaline batteries nickel metal hydride batteries or lithium batteries I'd probably recommend nickel metal hydride which are rechargeable what's a really nice step forward though for the zoom f6 is it on the back of the unit there is an integrated Sony l-series type battery sled that's the NPF style of battery that we're used to in the filmmaking world so that makes it so you can power the zoom s6 for a good long time also as I mentioned before the USBC can input power so if you wanted to power this out in the field with a USB battery bank you can do that and you don't need it particularly special you must be a battery bank it can be pretty much anything that can supply 2.1 amps so a USB a output to USBC cable you can get this in here and power the zoom s6 for hours and hours let's talk about recording first of all there is one SD card slot on the back of the zoom f6 and it can take SD SDHC or SDXC cards it sits behind the l-series battery you can also use this as an audio interface connecting to your computer via the USB C input here now mind you this is USB 2o connections so if you think you're getting Thunderbolt here it's not that it's definitely using the USB 2 oh spec you can record up to 14 tracks simultaneously so there are six inputs on the unit itself that's where it gets its name you can record all six of those inputs two times once in 24-bit and once a 32-bit float plus a stereo mix of all of the inputs so wow that's a lot of recording tracks on a single recorder this size you can also record to the inbuilt SD card and as an audio interface to your computer at the same time which is a really nice feature as well so that way the SD card kind of becomes your backup and you can record directly into your computer if you're doing a podcast or something of that nature now the one limitation here is that you can only record up to sample rates of 48 kilohertz if you are recording to SD card and to the computer at the same time not a huge deal I wouldn't think for most spoken word content so just something to keep in mind you can't record up to 192 kilohertz sample rates 32 bit float 24-bit or 16-bit wave and you can also record to mp3 if you wanted to do that the zoom f6 also supports a masonic recording so sort of immersive audio recording plus it also supports mid side stereo recording there's a pre record feature so when you press the record button it takes the several seconds prior to that and records out as part of your recording as well and it depends on some of the settings you're using normally a 32-bit float 48 kilohertz you get a six second pre-roll time if you go up to higher sample rates that pre-roll time decreases the zoom f6 has the same auto mix feature that you would find on the zoom f4 zoom f8 and the zoom f8 n this is really useful for podcasts or panel discussions where you would prefer to have a really quick turnaround we don't want to do a lot of work in post to get that mix just right and what it basically does is when someone is not talking it pulls their microphone down so you're not picking up room noise and bleed from the other people talking into their microphone overall it results in a much cleaner sounding recording now I should say Auto mix on the Zoom F Series recorders is okay it's nice it's better than not doing auto mix it's not quite as amazing or as effective as some of the higher-end auto mixing that I've seen such as on the sound devices pro level recorders they have Dugan auto mixing which seems to work much better but nevertheless it's a pretty good implementation and definitely worth using if you're recording a podcast or if you're recording a panel discussion when you are recording in 24-bit mode or 16-bit mode the f6 also has the same advanced hybrid look-ahead limiters that you find in the zoom f4 f8 and if I dad these aren't my favorite but they do actually help and what limiters are made for if you're not familiar with them is that if you're recording and someone gets much louder than you expect what typically happens in a digital recording is it that you get clipping you hit 0 DB and it sounds distorted and awful what a limiter does is it actually catches it before it distorts and kind of pushes it down a little bit so it sounds much cleaner now these limiters work they're effective but what they do is they do raise the noise floor a little bit so it's a little bit of a trade off the nice thing though is with 32 bit recording you don't need limiters anymore the zoom f6 also has an inbuilt timecode generator so that's a really nice addition here as well what this allows you to do is it makes it simpler to sync up your video to your audio recordings in post if you've recorded them separately so I'm not going to do a whole kind of deep dive on what timecode is but I do have another video up here that it has a demo where you can see exactly how that works what we can say about the timecode implementation on the zoom f6 is it uses a 3.5 millimeter input output jack the input is on the Left Channel and the output is on the right channel which is a little weird thanks to Gerald on Dunn for pointing that out to us that's a little bit weird in terms of jamming an external time code generator to the zoom f6 or sending timecode out of the zoom f6 to your camera for example a pocket Cinema Camera 4k you have to use an adapter so for example with the pocket Cinema Camera 4k that's expecting to get the timecode on the left channel but as I mentioned the zoom f6 sends timecode out on the right channel so using this little adapter here that just sums the stereo mix into a mono so using that adapter you can feed the timecode directly into your pocket 4k keep it connected throughout the whole shoot and you're good to go so how well does this time code generator work it works great I used a tentacle sync connected that to my pocket 4k use the zoom f6 in built timecode generator then when we went to go sync up and post they synced up perfectly so this time code generator will easily hold frame accuracy 8 to 12 hours later so not a problem I would like to see one change so on that little input-output 3.5 millimeter jack it'd be nice if in the menus you could configure which side the timecode comes in which side has to go in just make it so you wouldn't have to buy an adapter now the zoom f6 doesn't support bluetooth on its own but you can buy a $30 Bluetooth adapter called the bt a1 once you've added that you have another cool timecode feature and that is an integration with a timecode systems ultra sync blue which is a bluetooth timecode generator and so what that allows you to do is actually communicate wirelessly from the zoom f6 to this other time code generator and it gives you a little bit more flexibility so you can do this Wireless timecode syncing I have another video where we showed some of the features of the timecode systems ultra sync blue over here there is an iOS app for the zoom f6 and it's actually a new app separate from the one that is used for the zoom f8 it requires again the add-on bTW a1 which runs about again $30 u.s. now unfortunately this is iOS only there is not an Android version please don't shoot the messenger I've talked about this in the past I don't know why they don't make an Android version but as of right now in November 2019 there was just an iOS version the nice thing about the app is it allows you to do a whole bunch of different things you can arm and disarm tracks you can adjust the game trim the pan the fader now one thing to keep in mind is that physical controls can get out of sync and have to be swept past the software setting before they reengage so just let me - keep in mind that can be a little confusing at times but that is how they work of course we have the app you can enter metadata change notes rename the files and a variety of other things so really some good power there of course there are really nice meters on a much larger screen either on your phone or your iPad you can change the record settings but there are some things you can't do when you're connected to the app which is a little bit weird for example you can't format the SD card overall the build quality this is a tiny little thing weighing in at 520 grams it's mostly metal with plastic channel knobs and buttons it does have a quarter 20 threaded screw hole on the bottom for mounting it to a tripod for example and of course it comes with a camera bracket for the top so you can mount your camera on top of this and then attach the zoom f6 to your tripod kind of a cool little setup real good for the solo shooter overall it's pretty solid I am really happy with the build quality overall the only thing that may be a little bit of a weak point are those knobs on the front I'm not really really concerned about them they're pretty well protected by the metal casing and I think if you take care of it they're gonna be just fine let's talk about ergonomics now this is a tiny tiny little recorder and I think really what zoom had in mind with it was that it was for being ultra mobile it's for cases where you had to hide the recorder in some little corner keep it out of sight and then being able to record in the wide dynamic range you could walk away from it and not worry about clipping but there's some kind of funky ergonomic things but let's just kind of talk about those some good things too actually at first I felt really cramped on the front panel where basically 90% of the controls are there's no touch screen but the screen is very nice to read despite its small size and it's even readable in direct sunlight so that's good the menu buttons actually work better than I expected now the nice thing about the zoom f4 the zoom FA zoom f8 n is that they have a menu button and a knob that's also a button that makes it really quick to get through the menus on this you have four buttons instead and once you get used to them it's not as bad as I thought I think the menus are really well-thought-out on this now it seemed like there are some settings you didn't have so for example in the zoom f8 in the f8 n you have the ability to change how the meters work you could change them to be vu meters or peak meters on this one you pretty much just get a peak meter that's on the DB full scale scale so you don't have quite as many options but I did find that the menus are really really nicely laid out there's no scrolling in the menus which is really kind of interesting it makes it quicker to get around so they've done a nice job reorganizing those menus as far as economics I think one thing that some people are going to be frustrated by is the fact that the SD card slot is on the back of the unit behind the npf battery sled so you have to pull the battery off if you are using one to get to those SD cards now I don't find that to be a huge issue because basically I only pull the card at the end of a project but some people have cited that as an issue on some of the other recorders like that makes pre before so if that's important to you it is behind the battery there is also a control surface that can connect to the zoom f6 this is zooms F control what this does is it gives you a larger control surface to work with if you're going to be sitting at a desk or working from a cart and so just can make those jobs a lot easier because you have a lot more room and it's a lot more ergonomic you can also connect a keyboard for entering metadata so changing file names things of that nature adding notes there are a couple of things that don't work exactly the same as they would on a zoom f8 zoom f8 N or zoom f4 number one the headphone jack cable that comes with the F control doesn't work because it's quarter inch to quarter inch and you know 3.5 millimeter output for the zoom s6 you have to supply your own cable or your own adapter not a huge deal but just something to know also the F control doesn't work great in 32-bit float recording modes so it's really kind of designed for 24-bit or 16-bit recording mode and let me explain what I mean by that the fader tops out at plus 12 dB when the F control can actually go all the way up to 60 DB when you're in 32-bit float mode so you don't have full control over the fader range if you're working with your recorder in 32-bit float mode however as I said if you're in 24-bit mode or 16-bit mode it works beautifully just like it does on the zoom f8 zoom f8 N and the zoom f4 of course you can use a zoom f6 as an audio interface via USB see you can connect to your computer and your computer can power the f6 while it's connected that way I don't really use it a lot this way but if you want to see a lot more detail about how to use it as an audio interface I definitely recommend you go check out Gerald on Dunn's video where he specifically looked at the question can I use a zoom f6 is both a recorder and as an audio interface now remember for those of musicians out there this is probably not the number one choice there are no high Z inputs so if you do want to connect an instrument you're going to need to use a DI box to make that conversion for you there's no overdub recording either zoom makes a lot of other products that are probably better suited to recording music so I think the question is who is the zoom f6 for who do I think it's really well-suited for well I would say for solo shooters who have to do both sound and operate camera at the same time the wide dynamic range features on the zoom f6 make it so that that's one less thing to worry about now I am NOT an advocate for being sloppy but when you are a solo operator and you have a lot of things going on you say you're operating camera you're operating sound you're directing all of that at the same time it's a crazy job I'd do it all the time I understand the challenges the zoom f6 makes it so that you don't have to sweat clipping as much as you might have to in the past and that is because of the 32-bit float wide dynamic range recording capability that's just one less worry for you I think it's also really well-suited for mobile podcasters so again the auto mix feature is a really great feature if you're doing that type of thing we're gonna have multiple people talking and ideally you want to come away with a recording that's ready to publish with as little post-processing as possible so really nice feature on the zoom f6 and I think it's a good fit there so who is this recorder not for if you're an aspiring production mixer I would prefer the zoom f8 N or even the now-discontinued zoom f4 ideally the f8 n with the wide dynamic range recording capabilities of the f6 would be ideal now why do I say this there are dual card slots there's a her OC input for power distribution systems or bigger controls easier to navigate the menus quicker they're just a lot of things ergonomically that make it a better fit for production sound mixing so that's the first thing to keep in mind which sounds better a zoom F series or a mix Prix series well we actually have an older recording on that if you want to go hear that it's really really close and there are you can only hear a difference from my point of view if you're using really really good headphones or really really good near-field monitors or speakers it is really hard for most audiences to tell a difference so I certainly wouldn't use that as the only factor when you're trying to decide do I want to get them zoom F series or do I want to get a mix pre series now let's talk about a few features that the zoom f6 has that the mix pre series do not have number one Bluetooth connection to an ultra sync blue timecode generator that's important to you only the zoom F series have that auto mix is something that the mix pre series doesn't have but the zoom f6 has a lower price per input so with six inputs on the zoom f6 at $650 us relative to the sound devices mix pre 3 which only has three XLR inputs for the same price $650 you're getting a pretty good bargain with the zoom f6 I really like the integrated npf battery sled on the zoom f6 which the mix pre you have to buy and add on battery sled to make that work and this is actually at a better angle the one on the mix pre is a little bit funky if you're gonna put it into a sound bag this is gonna sound really nitpicky but the reality is for me if you're using the zoom f6 in a sound bag the headphone dial is easier to use because you just slide your finger down there and roll it back and forth it's not perfect I prefer to have it on the front just like it is on the zoom f8 and but it's better than the mix pre which has a dial on the side which is a little bit harder to use now the new mix pre 2 Series has a little tire they put on it which does make it a little easier but again I think the zoom f6 is dial even though it feels kind of cheap it works a little bit better when it's in a bag one thing I really appreciate about the zoom F Series recorders is that when you shut them down they have a really friendly message saying goodbye the iOS app for the zoom f6 has the ability to adjust the gain or the trim and the faders which is really nice because the sound devices equivalent app does not have that capability and soom f6 is less power-hungry than the mix pre-series what I mean by that is you can actually power the zoom f6 with a standard USB battery bank that has a 2.1 amp current output so there are a lot of battery banks that can do that out there with the mix pre you have to have a much more powerful output with a USB C or you have to use two separate USB a connectors with a special Y cable to get it into the mix pre to get full power and full functionality now on the flip side there are some things that the mix pre has that the zoom f6 does not have let's just run through those really quickly first of all the mix pre-series has both an Android app and an iOS app so if that's important to you that's one where the mix pre definitely wins you can do backup recordings to a USB Drive in the mix pre and while you don't have the auto mix feature on the mix Prix series you do have a makes feature which is pretty cool little feature as well allows you to essentially from a recording you've already made make a new mix and adjust the faders to produce a better mix the mix pre-series has a musician's plugin it's an add-on that you can add to the mix pre that allows you to do over dub recording for multitrack music recording so if you're creating a song and you want to use your recorder without connecting it to a computer and using a digital audio workstation it has that capability on the mix pre-series you can set the gain trim when you're on 32-bit float modes so you have a little bit more control there which is kind of a different thing on the zoom f6 remember when you're in 32-bit float mode there is no control over the gain trim organ ah mcli on the mix pre the channel knobs are spread out a little bit more there also buttons at the same time that they are you know knobs to control either faders or gain trim or whatever you have it set up as so that to me makes it a little bit easier to use under certain circumstances when you're trying to actively mix those things now the knobs on the f6 they're pretty decent but it's definitely better on the mix pre-series the mix pre-series has a touchscreen now while the screen is probably just a tiny smidge smaller than the zoom f6 is it is a touch screen and actually makes it pretty nice to get through those menus very quickly the mix pre series of recorders have analog limiters I find those to be superior to the digital limiters or the hybrid limiters in the zoom f6 and the zoom f8 and the f8 in personal preference I think they sound better and they don't raise your noise floor as much so there's an advantage there as well if you are going to be recording in 24-bit mode the headphone output is much better on the mix pre and the same with the 3.5 millimeter stereo output that actually has wider dynamic range and it produces a stronger signal so there are some advantages there on the mix pre side so in the end I think it's really important to remember and keep in mind that you can create fantastic recordings with either of these the zoom f6 or the mix pre 2 series I'm not here to say you need to buy one or the other I'm sorry I think some people would like me to tell them that just to make the process easier for them but just think about those different features that we just reviewed here and see what is more important to you and then that's can help you make your decision now some people will say Curtis you're not taking a stand you're wimping out fine if you're gonna back me into a corner I would probably choose for me subjective opinion because I do sound mixing from a sound bag on the productions that I work on in a lot of cases I would probably choose the mix Prix that being said I purchased the zoom f6 with my own money no regrets purchasing it it's a fantastic recorder I'm really impressed with all the things you can do with it and I think it's the right fit for a lot of people so hopefully that was helpful for you if you have any questions go ahead and leave those down below and if you've not already subscribed make sure you do that and we'll be sure to get you more great videos on how to improve your lighting and sound for video talk to you soon [Music]

Channel: Curtis Judd

Views: 140,746

Keywords: audio, sound, recorder, zoom f6, zoom, review, sound for video, microphone, XLR, xlr input, mixer, film production, video production

Id: byMZkEvYRKw

Length: 29min 17sec (1757 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 17 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/IReallyLoveAvocados]

Just got mine! This is a fabulous recorder, really compact and it sounds great.

Any thoughts on a protective case when transporting it from point A to point B? Zoom has their own case (PCF-6) but it's geared towards people carrying it around on set, not necessarily when putting it in a bag or taking it on a plane.