[microsound] Zoom H4 tech query -- anybody else?

[Michael Palace]

I have a zoom h4 and noticed this problem as well.  I noticed it when I 
was doing long recordings in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.  I would set 
the recorder down and go do fieldwork and come back a few hours later.  
There was absolutely no electrical interference.  I thought it was the 
card.  I was recording at 44 kHz and 16 bit. 

Here is a view of the wavefile.

http://www.csrc.sr.unh.edu/~palace/10010010/h4_low_sound.jpg

Mike Palace


John Hudak wrote:
> hi john,
>
> i don't have a zoom h4, but i had a marantz pmd660 with which i used a 
> compact flash midi drive that caused a high pitched whine.  see if you 
> still get the sound with a plain compact flash.  the mini drives have 
> more memory, but as far as i have heard, have the tiny whine of a tiny 
> drive.
>
> i hope this perhaps helps.
>
> best,
> john
>
> On Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 9:58 PM, John Hopkins <jhopkins at tech-no-mad.net 
> <mailto:jhopkins at tech-no-mad.net>> wrote:
>
>     Hey folks -- I've been using a zoom H4 for a couple years now, and
>     have
>     been suspicious how a non-mechanical recording device -- in a really
>     quiet place (for example the Sonoran desert of western Arizona) -- and
>     the wave form of a short recording of a passel of birds in a mesquite
>     tree at dusk shows a cyclic 3-sec repeating pattern which seems to be
>     very low frequency something (sorry, don't have a spectral freq
>     analyzer
>     on my machine).  I uploaded a screen shot of the waveform and a
>     wav copy
>     of the file -- any feedback?  Has anyone else experienced this
>     with the
>     H4?  I've seen it before on the files when recording in really quiet
>     places, and of course I suppose the best solution is probably a few
>     thousands spent in better field recording equipment, to be sure,
>     but...
>      what could be the cause?     In this instance I was not hand holding
>     it, it was on the ground in a stable place, and essentially no wind.
>     There is also a higher-pitched whine as well, faugh!
>
>     the sound file: http://neoscenes.net/09-03-092_birds.wav and a screen
>     shot of the file in Peak showing the approximately 3-second repeating
>     patterns http://neoscenes.net/09-03-092_birds.jpg
>
>     cheers,
>     John
>
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> -- 
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