H8 : An excellent audio recorder for those who want to capture the vibe of the moment without having to care too much about tweeking

I bought this tool for recording our band's studio sessions, but also for taking it outdoors to our busking missions. This little thing does everything I ever wanted from a recording device.

I am not the type of guy who likes to spend too much time in tweaking knobs. I prefer having a recording tool/gear that is reliable enough and easy to set up in a matter of minutes. Over the years, I have found out that the most important thing of a recording session is to be able to capture the vibe of the moment and not to get lost in the endless parameters that recording gear usually offers these days. I apply the same KISS principle (Keep-It-Simple-Stupid) with my guitar gear. Just a good cranked-up amp (Princeton) that I can control with my volume knob. This way I can focus on my music and not my sound.

My vocal/lyrics buddy loves this tool because it is very small and unnoticeable, so it doesn't affect the chill vibe that we like to replicate during our recording sessions. He uses a vocal monitor which we send via XLR to the ZOOM H-8.

I usually go with the standard recording settings for every channel unless there's something that really bothers me. I want to have a crystal clear sound coming out of the amps with no effects. As with food, having great quality ingredients is the most important thing. The only thing I usually do during editing is chopping and level mastering. Only in special occasions I add some after effect. The results are very impressive, I didn't expect such a high quality sound captured by the H8. I also use a lot the Zoom XYH-6 microphone capsule for mixing room sound (just a tiny 10% maybe) and it does pretty good too.

Bottom line is that it has been almost 2 years since I bought the ZOOM and I am not just happy with it, I love it. If I had to choose again I would definitely go for the same item. I would recommend this item to anybody who cares about simplicity and being spontaneous. I don't want to talk about the podcast or film making capabilities of the ZOOM H8 because I haven't been using it too much but for sure it will not disappoint you. This little buddy ROCKS!