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

[John Hopkins]

thanks all for the input: some replies:

> Are you using H4´s phantom power?

no...

> With the H4, it´s known that recording in a very quite place in 24bits
> WITH PHANTOM power, causes a similar sound. The problem disapears with
> external phantom or a battery mic.

I'm using the built-in crossed mics, and recording only at 16b/44khz.

No phones or computers anywhere near -- I'm out in the boonies, hard 
core Sonoran desert, miles from anything (well, I do have my laptop in 
the car, but that is usually some distance away as I do long day hikes...

I'm going back to the desert tomorrow (Tuesday), and will make a number 
of recordings at different bit rates and using several different cards. 
  I don't have an external mike to use, tho, so...

I am not using micro-drives, just solid-state chips for recording onto...

Mike -- hmm, your wave form is different than mine, mine had an approx 
3-second gap between glitches, looks like yours is around one -- this 
could point to the dump speed of the card, which might be 'pulsing' data 
bursts.  Perhaps you have a faster card...  it's clearly a 'clock' 
driven pulse in both cases, tho, precise and repetitive.  That would 
make it easier to de-convolve with dsp, but...

Ken, I think that's what you were suggesting, too, a burst of data being 
pumped onto the card.

I'll check that out in the next few days, do some different samples in a 
quiet place.  It's supposed to be rainy(!) or at least cloudy and cool 
in the desert, so, should be interesting ambience with the spring birds 
and such.  (and hopefully the F-16's won't be dog fighting over the area 
as sometimes happens.  makes for dramatic soundscapes, but is annoying 
when hunting for silence... ;-))

Cheers& thanks again

jh