Zoom R8 4-stars Reviews

Overall, excellent

The machine itself is cool. It's intuitive with a little messing around, but there's one major kicker. It comes with a full version of Cubase Le12, which can't find the drivers as an audio interface. The sound from playback will only come through the surface pro and not through my studio monitors or headphones. It can be used as a midi controller, which is cool, but i'd rather have my reference monitors than manual faders.

Overall, the unit itself is well worth the money, but lads, if your giving something with it for free, make sure it works.

Bye Bye Tape, Welcome Digital

In terms of size, this little thing looks identical to the Fostex 4-track cassette recorder I once had. But it is at least 6 times lighter. The resemblance end there, because this recorder packs the power and ability that many professional studios in the time of that Fostex never had.

The manual and YouTube are enough to get the first recording within 15 minutes, after which the process becomes intuitive: arming new tracks, creating rhythm tracks, bouncing, processing, mixing, mastering. The in-built microphone may not have the highest fidelity, but it makes laying down an idea on the run a breeze.

The Zoom R8 is well worth the 299 Euros it cost.

Light and portable good quality home recorder

The Zoom R8 is a fantastic piece of recording equipment. It is very user friendly. I usually use it at home to record alongside a condenser microphone. It comes with Cubase also (which takes a bit of getting used to but you can even use the R8 without Cubase). You can even master your tracks on the R8 which really is a really useful function. It is small and light which makes it very very portable and it takes batteries. I have even used it to record music outdoors for atmosphere. The built in mics are extremely good quality and produce a nice clear overall sound It is a very useful piece of equipment for home recording.