Zoom Sync

by mikeaiken1 - 3/24/08 7:40 AM

In Reply to: ZOOM by dsapadin

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