Zoom R4 MultiTrak SD Recorder and USB Audio Interface

This palm-sized, battery-powered 4-Track recorder is one of the most inspiring pieces of gear I’ve come across in a long time. While the R4’s workflow is far from perfect, the 32-bit float recording quality, “bounce” feature, and sneaky added features make it an incredibly versatile musical sketchpad.PROS:Price point (just under $200)Battery life (as high as 14 hours on 4 AA’s)Sound qualityBuilt-in microphone is really good!Storage compatibility (up the 1TB on microSDXC card)Bulit-in effects & rhythm tracks with count-inTunerThe R4, unsurprising, records up to four tracks in a project, but there’s a “hack” for this limitation. Once you’ve run out of tracks, you can “bounce” the four tracks to a fifth “bounce” track. Moreover, this can be repeated up to 99 times. You are then free to record four more tracks played along with the bounce track. Therefore, while the R4 does not offer sound-on-sound recording or a looper feature, you can layer almost endless content on top of each other.None of that would matter if the audio engine were poor, but here is where the R4 really shines. The 32-bit float engine is crystal-clear and refuses to clip! I’ve suffered through older 16-bit recorders, pedal loopers, etc. that were borderline unusable because of clipping and poor playback quality. So, in this most important area, the R4 passes with flying colors.You can record up to two inputs at once, or you can link inputs A and B for a stereo track. One of my favorite features of the R4 is the built-in effects suite, which can be applied to Input A or the microphone. Think of it as sort of a stripped-down Zoom MS-50 or G1. It features just over a dozen guitar and bass amps, plus some clean preamps. For the FX slot, you get drives, modulation, delays, and pitch shifting.What does all that mean practice? For example, I can grab an acoustic guitar with no cables, and record a vocal track, two guitar tracks, and a “bass” track. I can apply an octave down pitch-shifter on 100% wet to turn my mic’ed guitar into a recorded bass sound (with no apparent latency). You also have full EQ control, echo, and reverb that can be applied as a “send” effect for each track. This is just one example of how useful it is to have even basic multi-FX built into this affordable device. If you have an idea, or want to record something with surprising quality without pulling out a handful of instruments, interfaces, and cables, the R4 lets you get to work.The built-in mic, in my opinion, is incredible. It’s sensitive enough to pick up both vocals and instruments nearby without having to be right on top of it. I don’t have a ton of recording experience, but I’ve used SM57/58’s and bought the R4 expecting I would plug those in with a XLR cable. Frankly, the mic is good enough that I doubt I’ll ever actually bother with that. Also, since effects can be applied to the mic input, you can add preamps, compression, EQ, reverb, and so on to further alter and improve mic recordings.CONS:Single headphone audio/outputWorkflow/file management confusing at timesUndo button is limitedNo “sound-on-sound” recording or loop featureI do have a few gripes, and some of these have been noted in other reviews. First, the R4 does not have its own speaker, so you can only hear what is recorded through the 3.5mm headphone jack. It does not have a 1/4” inch or XLR separate audio output for a click track or playback.Second, while I found the R4 relatively easy to pick up at start using, some of the button combos needed to do basic things like opening a saved project, clearing a track, or applying effects are repetitive and non-intuitive. I think part of this was purposeful to avoid incessant menu diving, which is appreciated. But you will find yourself repeating a lot of the same functions over and over again on very small buttons, and that leads me to wonder if the UI could have been slightly improved.Third, in terms of the actual workflow, there is an “Undo” button, which is exciting on an entry-level piece of gear. However, as best I can tell, the only thing the Undo button does is to “un-bounce” tracks that you have combined into a 5th track. If you record something bad or make a mistake, my instinct was to hit Undo and delete it, but it doesn’t work like that. You either need re-record the whole thing, punch in and overwrite the flawed section, or go through several button presses to clear the track altogether.CONCLUSION:The fact that Zoom did all of this, put it in something the size of a compact guitar stomp box, and made it run on batteries for (reportedly) up to 14 hours amazes me. Seriously, if you want a guitar pedal that does nothing more than a reverb effect, good luck powering that on a 9V battery for more 2-3 hours. The R4 has a full suite of effects, and that’s just the side dish to a very capable 4-track recorder with a color LCD display!If you want to dabble in recording music, but don’t want to deal with DAW’s, iPads, or desktop PC’s, the R4 is a gateway drug to musical creativity. Even if you just want to jot down a musical idea on the go, or have more fun practicing with backing tracks, the R4 is a great option as well.

Old dude on a soap box time – I think I would have passed out if this device had existed back in the day. Finally - a quick, quality way to sketch out sonic ideas or lay down and layer (via the well implemented bounce feature) a complete composition. In a conveniently portable package.Seriously. The wonderful fidelity AND almost hassle-free setup of 32-bit float recording. While I love twisting the knobs on a synthesizer, dinking around with the settings on older mixers and recorders can be a real pain, especially if you encounter a signal problem (level issue, clipping or other unwanted distortion, etc…) somewhere and need to hunt down the cause. This thing is a BREEZE to set up by comparison.I appreciate that the R4 maintains a separate wav file of each track you record, plus each successive bounce, though I guess that this aspect could get a bit confusing depending on the complexity of your project and your file handling savvy. I mean, the option to import the files into a DAW and work with them further is there, but I think for a lot of musicians including myself, a great sounding “bounce” track will suffice as the final product.To keep things even easier, I’ll most likely just put each project with the R4 on its own separate SD card (8GB cards will have more room on them than I’d probably ever need for one project). The manual states that the R4 can handle cards with a capacity as low as 4GB, and they’re cheap enough at the moment, right?I could go on and on about all wonderful features that they packed into the R4 that I personally won’t use, but other musicians will love. If you are still on the fence about whether or not this is for you, just check out the mostly positive reviews on YouTube. But heck, if it’s good enough for Jordan Rudess, it’s plenty good for me. :)

Zoom R-4 ReviewI recently purchased a Zoom R-4. Here are my thoughts and things I think should be improved.The Strengths:It functions and sounds excellent. I love how well thought out it is.The built in mic sounds great and is way more useful than I expected it to be!The built in effects are ALL very useful and can achieve a great sound!The built in Rhythms are very useful, and I love how the count in syncs to the start of the measure!The bounce track is super cool and I have achieved great mixes for songs with 12+ tracks on this little device mixing four tracks down at a time to the bounce track.The bass and guitar amps are extremely useful and handy!Simple operation. YES!!!!!!!Tiny Device- Great for grab and go!Can run on rechargeable AA batteries, and they can easily be changed out when drained! This is HUGE.32 BitSaves individual tracks even after they have been bounced for later remixes! YES!!!The Weaknesses:No Undo for the last thing recorded. Undo only works for the last bounce. This has cost me a lot of work when I accidentally recorded over a track I had spent so much time recording, and there was no way to get it back. THIS IS THE BIGGEST WEAKNESS OF THIS DEVICE.No auto punch in/punch out points. Zoom, we need this.No ability to select which of the four tracks will be bounced. So if you want to bounce three of the four tracks you have loaded you need to turn the volume all the way down on the track you don't want to bounce and then reload that audio file to that track after the bounce. (you will have to reset the channel settings for that track as well after the bounce- EQ, pan, reverb, delay.)No Mastering Effects. A Simple Four Band EQ, 30hz low cut, and Maximizer for the bounce track would be better than nothing, and would suit most of my needs.The Processor in this device is a little slow. When you get 10+ tracks deep into a song it chases its tail for over 7 seconds every time you press the stop button while recording. That really slows down workflow on big projects.Nice to haves- these things could improve the device further.Ability to add input effects to both channels, and also add them to already recorded tracks. (So they would no longer just be input effects)Better preamps. The one's built-in are ok, but Zoom could put their better preamps in a device like this and take it up another level!Ability to mute the bounce track so you can solo something you just recorded to check for little flaws.Ability to use input effects, EQ, and send effects when running as an audio interface.I LOVE this little device and hope it does well enough for Zoom to improve it further! It has been so nice getting away from my computer and putting the focus back on my musicianship!