Zoom H6 as audio interface

Snags

I'm going to be lending my normal cheapo interface to a friend for a few days, but have some recording of my own to do, so thought I'd use the Zoom that we have for recording band rehearsals.

Ha! Big mistake.

I've sorted out the bits and bobs to get Reaper to actually see it, and worked out the mappings between Reaper inputs and Zoom tracks, but anything I record through it has loads of farty artefacts all over it, unless it's really, really simple stuff. So light, slow finger picking is OK, but any strumming is unusable.

I've messed about with the ASIO buffer configuration and sample rates in Reaper (not really knowing what I'm doing) and there doesn't seem to be any pertinent setting in the H6.

Is there a way round this, or is it just NBG for this application?

rico

How are you using the H6? As in mic'd up speaker, guitar direct in or using the inbuilt mic?

TheBigDipper

Don't know anything about the H6, but my first thought was maybe your analogue signal in is too hot for the AD converter. 

Actually, I don't know much about anything, TBH....  

Snags

@Rico For test purposes acoustic straight in to H6, level set to avoid clipping.

If I get it working will be a mix (no pun) of acoustic via jack, vocal mic on XLR, cab mics on XLR.

Have H6 in multi-track not stereo mix because in stereo mix I can't get it to present to Reaper in the inputs.

@TheBigDipper yeah, that's my problem

Snags

And the answer is ...

... to actually check you've got the right drivers installed, and update the device to the latest firmware. It's now absolutely fine.

Thank goodness I don't work in IT or anything, otherwise that could have been really embarrassing not to have checked first. Phew. What a relief.

Twat.

midlifecrisis

Glad you sorted it, I've got the basic zoom h1 and I've been using that as an interface. Although I can only get two tracks (stereo) the quality and latentcy ain't bad

Snags

Yeah, the H6 only has two outputs. whichever way you cut it. Slightly annoying, but if I do want to get clever I can at least mix down on the unit itself from more sources first (e.g. double-micing an acoustic, or a cab, as well as other sources).

To be fair, I normally use a very basic 2-channel interface, so the Zoom offers more if I can be bothered to get to grips with it.

rico

Snags said:

And the answer is ...

... to actually check you've got the right drivers installed, and update the device to the latest firmware. It's now absolutely fine.

Thank goodness I don't work in IT or anything, otherwise that could have been really embarrassing not to have checked first. Phew. What a relief.

Twat.

Haha brilliant! It's always the easy bits we forget!