Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Synching ZOOM H4 Audio with Mini DV Video

It Worked!!
I used the line out from my Zoom into my audio interface and recorded the playback from the Zoom into Audition. Then I pulled the file into Premier and synched them up at the beginning. It stayed in perfect sync for about 25 minutes (that was all I captured so far). Like I said, I hated to convert back to analog but the quality of this little recorder is so good I can't hear any difference, and I can deal with the time it takes to do it compared with cutting out a few milliseconds of the audio track every few minutes. Hooray! I'm happy with the zoom again.
Mike

Not quite.

It's the same way you capture video from your camera into your computer. I just recorded normally with the Zoom onto its internal memory card. Then, back at my computer, I plugged the line out from the zoom into my computer's sound card (actually I use a FP10 Firewire interface but you could go right into your sound card if that's what you use). Then I let the Zoom play back the file and recapture the audio with your editing program (I use Audition first because I usually like to tweek the sound a little before bringing it into Premiere, but you could probably capture straight to Premiere). Then save it as a new wav file. Don't try to use the wav or MP3 file on the Zoom's card. Make the Zoom play it back itself. It's the same way I transfered audio when I used a MiniDisc recorder since a computer can't read those files anyway.

What's happening is the same as if you recorded a track on a tape recorder that was running at 7-1/2 inches per second instead of the standard 7 ips. When you play that tape back on the same recorder, it would be in exact time and pitch, but if you played it back on a recorder that was running at a true 7 ips, the time and pitch would be different from the original sound. The processor clock on the Zoom is a little different from the computer's.

(Now that I understand this I don't fault Zoom so much anymore. It would be impossible to keep different pieces of equipment in sync without a common sync signal to each of them like broadcast equipment does. We're just lucky that in this digital age they can stay so close anyway.)

Mike

HELP!

I have a Zoom H4 and spent two hours trying unsuccessfully to play the Zoom into my Sony Soundforge software without success. I can open the Zoom H4 from Soundforge and see the soundfile. I also played the soundfile from my H4 but it wasn't going into Soundforge (or as far as I can tell into my computer hard drive).

My H4 came with Cubase but for some reason Cubase refuses to function on my laptop.

Where am I missing a ste? Can you help me figure this out?

Thank you in advance for any help you (or anyone reading this post) can offer.

I do not yet own the zoom h4, or a camera but am looking to buy both soon. I have used the older h4 and the new one looks just as awesome but with some extras. as far as video, I use a sonyvx2000 from school (old technology but I'm in art school, we have no $$) for planned shoots but I want something smaller for catching video on the go with a good picture and an audio in - does the zoom h4 work this way? Technology keeps evolving, I keep sleeping on it... I just need to buy something. Advice?

-Lexi

I use the Q3hd to shoot live band vids - so i can't just import the audio without losing the HD footage - and sdding a layer of interface noise by rerecording.


My only solution is to use Final Cut to slow the footage to 99.9042% - and even then it is still a frame or 2 out after 10 mins - making audio mixing impossible.


If you want to sync 2 streams btw, pan one left and one right - headphones will tell you when they are in sync