Zoom H6essential with 32-Bit Float, Accessibility, 6-Track Portable Recorder, Stereo Microphones, 4 XLR/TRS Inputs, Records to SD Card, USB Audio Interface, for Musicians, Podcasters, Filmmakers

This is a thing of dreams for a jack of all trades creative. I can mount it on my camera, I can walk it around and get insanely high fidelity nature sounds, I can interview people, commentate, record music directly IN to it. With multiple stereo inputs! It seems to be built quite ruggedly, it can run on USB C or rechargeable AA batteries, I can use it as an interface, or standalone, I get access to 32bit float; which I now dont think I could go without. This is a pocket sized device, capable of recording a full band with STUDIO level quality. This thing delivers all day. I'd only recommend against it if you want the poseable stereo capsule mic of the newer models. I'm much more of a fan of the inputs, and the capsule mic on this has a great stereo field as is imo.

Amazingly clear sound; I bought it for archival recording of my symphony orchestra's concerts - to work in tandem with a video recorder. Unfortunately, and despite the Vid Recorder's features and jack, it doesn't accept the Zoom recorder's output, but - that's clearly a problem with the Vid Cam and NOT this amazing Zoom recorder. It's really compact, but delivers great sound even with the built-in criss-cross mikes. Easy to use, amazingly adaptable for four-input/track recording in such a compact package - I'm really pleased with the complete, true-fidelity recorded sound. It's difficult to record the performance sound of my orchestra without a full overhead mic situation, and especially due to the lousy acoustics of our home hall, but this Zoom recorder's capabilities, bargain price and could-hear-a-pin-drop clarity of recorded sound is spectacular.

As a blind person, I have been using this recorder with ease due to the voice guidance included on the recorder, which includes the ability to set the clock without someone reading the screen. Various updates since my purchase almost a year ago have improved upon the voice guidance, to tell me when inputs are enabled or disabled, for instance. the noise floor of the recorder is low enough that under most circumstances, it's below the sounds being recorded from the recorder. 32 bit files make the need to set any level on the recordings superfluous, but you can get around this by going into the mixer and turning up the volume of the various inputs before recording. However, for someone who doesn't know about the benefits of 32 bit files or how to deal with them after they're recorded so as to normalize volume levels, etc, this may not be as useful to some. There are some improvements that I hope can be addressed in future updates. 1. At the current moment of writing (January 23, 2025), if you are only recording one track of input, there are two files being made. One file is for the single track you are recording, and the other file is for all tracks combine, which in the instance of creating a recording with only one track, will only be a duplicate of the track being recorded. In my opinion, this wasts space on the MicroSD card, doubling the amount of space a single recording should take while making it. 2. While updating, there is no audio prompts at certain points, especially when you know it's time to restart the unit for the update, unless something undocumented has changed in firmware 2.0.2 that I don't know about. 3. When going through the list of files, no names are provided, but there are already the numbers available for the clock, why not use those to find the files you'd like? For now, you can play each file you're going through and stop it if it isn't what you want to review, or simply connect it to your computer and review the files that way. 4. There is no limiter available on the line-out. This has been very useful on my Zoom F3, I could see it being quite useful on the Zoom H6 as well. So far, this has been a reliable and excellent recorder for my use cases.

This was recommended to me by a professional musician and music producer. He was so very correct. the audio recordings are clean without the background sounds I was picking up with my other mic and phantom power interface. Volume is good, after normalization (built into the H6 Essential.

This was purchased to connect a pair of external microphones to capture and record piano music. The way we connected the Zoom was directly using a USB cable to a Samsung Galaxy phone and changing the connection on the Zoom to direct signal. This enabled us to record on both video via the Galaxy phone and audio via the Zoom H6 device as a preamp. The ability to adjust levels from the microphone is great and easy to dial in, so any recording doesn't overload the signal. The audio quality is decent (most of this is a function of the microphones themselves) and having 32-bit float recording is a decent spec. The external attached mics are useful in a pinch if you're on the go and recording in stereo. The unit itself is very solidly built. We're amateurs when it comes to recording music but this makes us feel a bit more "professional" than just recording from your smartphone. The H6 Essential is not a bad value overall but would have loved to see an easier interface. It has a bit of a learning curve.

I have one of these and I use it for my podcast. It is great when I’m only recording four channels. There is no higher quality product for recording on the go. Battery life is good but I’d hook it up to a power cord, it’s super easy to use, and looks great. As far as value goes it’s a bit pricey for a 4 channel recorder but you won’t get a better one for the price that’s portable and can record straight to an sd card like this, although there aren’t a lot of features like efx. There are some mixing boards that are similar or slightly more in price, that might be better for you if you’re recording music in a single location. If that’s what you’re looking to do then RCF makes great boards.

The 32-bit floating mode is good, but I prefer to control the gain in manual mode. It does not record in MP3 file formats. It have a micro SD card slot. The USB C is a great improvement. It does not come with a carrying case. THE DESIGN NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. If you use the equipment with any support, you will not be able to replace the battery quickly without removing all the accessories. If you have microphones for the previous version of H6, it does not work on the new H6 Essential. Anyway, it is a good recording equipment and I will keep it as a second recorder. If you are a user of the previous versions of the H6 and you expect to have a sound of equal or better quality, you will not find it in the H6 Essential.

This 32-bit float recorder has excellent features can record at 48,000 or 96,000 sampling rate. The included microphone is good enough. It sounds pretty clear. There is a lot of handling noise, so don't expect to be holding it. I did have to get a pop filter as well for it. And it does take AA batteries, or you can get rechargeable batteries. And usually I just use it with a plug-in USB-C cable to keep it powered. You can use this as an audio USB interface as well if you want to record multiple inputs into a digital audio workstation.