Zoom PodTrak P8: A Podcast Recorder AND Editor!

hey ab here from b h recently i did a video on zoom's pod track p4 their first recorder made specifically for podcasting and now i'm looking at its bigger sibling the p8 there's a lot more going on here than just a size difference though because in addition to being able to record you can do some simple editing in the software right within the machine allowing you to create a podcast from start to finish without integrating a computer let's check out the physical features which are mostly the same as the p4 but in a much more expanded format first you've got six xlr microphone inputs with switches to choose between dynamic mics or condenser mics that require phantom power you get the same 70db of gain which is great for hungry mics like the sm7b which need a little bit more juice the p8 also retains the ability to handle two remote phone calls at once utilizing three different methods the first is by using channel 6 which is an additional option for integrating calls via usb think skype or facetime calls with your computer just keep in mind that if you use channel 6 for usb calls you can't use that mic input at the same time the other call options are either through trrs connection or with zoom's optional bta2 bluetooth adapter which allows you to integrate calls from a bluetooth enabled device to test the phone calls i actually used the bluetooth bta2 adapter with my phone and a facetime audio call with my laptop via usbc connection hey guys i know you're busy thank you so much for even answering the phone the reason i'm calling is that i actually want to call you again because i'm doing a review on a podcast machine and i have to record multiple phone calls at once so if i call you back and record it uh is that something that you'd be comfortable with yeah i'm not really comfortable with that at all you're not comfortable with that at all okay no you're recording this now no i'm not recording anything right now um uh you know what that's fine i'll find someone else to uh to do it thanks thanks thanks anyway and uh i get have a good day the p8 features nine sound pads for integrating sound effects music backing tracks and other kinds of audio and since there are four separate banks you actually have access to 36 different sounds during your podcast even while recording the way you get sounds to the p8 is pretty simple either you transfer sounds from your computer or you record directly to the p8 and assign that audio to a sound pad the only thing you can't do is record to the p8 and assign that sound to a pad if you're already recording your podcast but that kind of makes sense on the top of the p8 or two quarter inch outputs which you would most likely connect to studio monitor speakers and beneath that you've got six color-coded headphone jacks with corresponding volume knobs so that everybody can get an individual headphone mix speaking of color you may have noticed that under the mic inputs the little switches have little bands of color in them and that color is consistently distributed across the top of the p8 especially if you look at the headphone jacks the headphone knobs and the faders speaking of faders each channel has one including the trrs bluetooth phone call channel as well as the sound pads channel above each fader you'll find a mute button for completely silencing audio and an on air button when the on air button is illuminated audio is being recorded and sent to the quarter inch outputs in the usb jack however when not engaged audio can still be heard through the headphones but it's not being recorded nor is it being sent anywhere else this is a good for sidebar conversations or if you're prepping your guest during a break for example one more quick thing about the faders they're really only there for the recording process that is you use them to balance all your inputs your mics your sound effects your integrated phone calls and all of that gets balanced and then sent to the stereo recording of your podcast so this is not like a multi-track recorder where you record a bunch of stuff and then when you play it back you use the faders to sort of adjust the volume this p8 doesn't do that the faders don't do anything in play mode however this is not a problem because you can choose to have every channel be recorded to an individual track so if your podcast requires deeper editing you could simply transfer all the audio files to a computer use your software of choice and individually mix the audio just the way you'd want it the last section on the bottom right of the p8 handles all the on air controls for your podcast which include a knob for the ph usb output for times when you're streaming a stereo output of your podcast a volume knob for the quarter inch main outs at the top transport controls for recording playing back stopping and pausing your audio as well as a mark button which sets markers across your audio during playback or recording so that you can revisit those specific locations later on the back of the unit you'll find the power on off button the input for the included power adapter the usb-c port for taking phone calls transferring files or using the p8 as a usb audio interface and the sd card slot which takes sd sdhc and sdxc cards up to 512 gigs you can also run the p8 on four double a batteries utilizing the compartment on the underside of the unit but keep in mind that you're only going to get a couple hours use out of double a's so you're probably either going to want to use the power adapter or an external usb battery pack let's now jump into the p8 software which is accessible by this really well thought out easy to use touch screen menu system before you dive in too deep the touchscreen already gives you a great visual of what's going on in your podcast so things like audio levels how much time is on your sd card if you're recording or not and a whole bunch more but what i really like is that everything has an icon and it's very intuitive so because i'm plugged into mic input 1 to access any of those parameters in the menu system i simply press that first mic icon at the bottom of the screen and i'm taken to a page with a bunch of controls setting correct input gain is a must and zoom makes it easy by providing both a slider and a meter with labeling to help you get your levels right where you want them once i have my level set i have other choices like a limiter which will hopefully help prevent any kind of overloading of my signal and a low cut filter which can help filter out some of that low end rumble you sometimes get when recording with a microphone next is a tone option which lets you adjust the bass or treble of the microphone if for some reason you didn't like the way a particular mic sounded you could adjust it this way i'm not using any kind of processing from the zoom but to give you an example if i adjust that here i am now it's really trebley and if i go all the way down to the base it's really bassy so if that's something you were looking for you could do that last but not least there's a combination of a compressor and a de-esser the compressor kind of tightens up the vocals and brings everything a bit present and the dsr is something that's used to get rid of sibilance words that have a lot of very harsh sounding s's uh if you apply the de-esser it will tame some of that to some degree all of these mic options are found on channels 1 through 6 but because channel 6 also has a usb option there are additional features there first you have treble and bass settings to help you cut and boost high and low frequencies and there's a usb mix minus section as a refresher mix minus prevents phone calls from having feedback or echoes in the audio and if you make a phone call via trrs or bluetooth then mixed minus is automatically engaged however if you're using the usbc option for phone calls you need to come to this menu select usb mix minus and that will apply that processing to the usb call next is the phone call icon and that also features the base and treble adjustments so if you had issues with the sound of the phone call coming through you could adjust the high or low end and the sound pads icon brings you to the sound pads menu where you can access sounds adjust their individual volumes and even choose how you'd like them to play when you get into the on air menu you have several options noise reduction automatically turns down the volume of silent mic tracks which helps maintain a quieter overall recording and there's a track file section which lets you decide how you want each track file saved next is the power menu and you must choose battery type when utilizing double a's to power the p8 because that selection will enable it to give you a more accurate reading as to how much battery life you have left depending on the type of batteries you're using tablet mode must be selected when interfacing the p8 with a tablet because you can't bus power the p8 from a tablet so in that situation you'd want to use the power adapter or batteries to provide power the last option on this page simply adjusts the touch screen's lcd brightness the sd card menu gives you access to several functions there's also a page for adjusting date and time as well as selecting your language of choice last but not least is the red microphone icon at the top left corner of the screen and that allows you to access any audio that is on the card in the p8 there's a lot you can do here including naming audio transferring files combining multiple files one after the other in sequential order deleting audio changing the color of the sound pads and a whole lot more but what i really want to show you quickly is the audio editing page select the audio you want to edit and you'll see the waveform at the bottom of the screen you'll also see several blue icons which are editing tools the first is a trim icon which lets you determine which part of the audio you'd like to keep there's a scissor icon for splitting the audio at a particular location fade in and fade out icons for applying adjustable fades a plus bgm or background music icon for inserting music and adjusting its volume and length a normalizing icon for optimizing the overall level of your podcast and an execute button which applies whichever menu option you've chosen from this menu you can even export your podcast as an mp3 as you can see the p8 is actually a pretty capable machine and it's versatile and that brings me to another point i've seen reviewers in the past talk about podcast machines and how they don't record other things very well you know besides podcasts and i mean i don't know why that's a big deal because they were really made specifically for podcasting however that doesn't mean that you can't repurpose something like the p8 for other duties i mean if you know what you're doing you could certainly use the p8 for other audio applications in fact to prove that point i took the p8 north of new york city to my good friend wilson montori's house because he is a professional guitarist he is a ridiculous cook from florence italy so he's built his own outdoor pizza oven and i wanted to record him playing some classical guitar as well as just eat good pizza for free right so um i think you're gonna hear that the p8 does a really good job recording his guitar i will tell you that we recorded it outside in the evening and there's a little bit of ambient noise you can hear some insects but even so it sounds really good and it gives you an idea that the p8 could be used for any number of applications uh in addition to podcasting so let's check it out [Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] that is my zoom pod track p8 review if you want more information on this machine or any other zoom products please check out bhoto.com thanks again for watching don't forget to subscribe once again this is a b from b h and i'll see you next time

Channel: B&H Photo Video

Views: 31,547

Keywords: home studio, home studio setup, studio setup, starting a podcast, recording studio, how to podcast, how to make a podcast, how to record a podcast, home recording, how to record, audio recorder, home recording studio, zoom recorder, podcast equipment for beginners, recording audio, zoom podcast, podcast studio setup

Id: xVUXqUKHx1o

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 24 2020