Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Lowest Price Zoom RC4 Wired Remote Control For Zoom H4n


If you have a H4n, this is a must have for twenty bucks.

It mimics most of the front panel keys and can make level adjustments by remote (Marantz is just a record, mark, and pause 3 button remote - to stop you must go back to the front panel or else add your own stop switch and resistor, instructions are included in the manual to expand its abilities)

I like the full compliment of indicators and switches on zoom. It uses a 4 conductor 2.5mm TRRS plug and since those are harder to find than hens teeth they include a generous extension giving you easily 15 feet and probably pushing 20 between both the remote and the extension.

Sure there are features that could not be put into the remote like a battery life indicator, but overall it does more and costs less than other remotes I own. The 4 conductor 2.5mm TRRS extension is worth having in your cable collection all by itself!

My only complaint about zoom is that their amplifiers are noisier than Marantz by 20-30 dB, so I still use the PMD-661Marantz PMD661 Portable SD Recorder as my primary digitsl recorder, but since it can't do quad channel recording I pull out the zoom when needed. I also like zoom's stereo mics better than marantz's and the built in mics have better amps than zoom's inputs so that config yields good reproduction of stereo sound without a stereo bar and 2 xlr cables.Get more detail about Zoom RC4 Wired Remote Control For Zoom H4n.

Low Price Belkin PureAV AV20100-03 3-Foot Digital Coaxial Audio Cable


Nice to have a short cord that doesn't clutter the area around the tv. Seems to be great sound quality as well. What else can you say about a product that does what you expect?Get more detail about Belkin PureAV AV20100-03 3-Foot Digital Coaxial Audio Cable.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Cheapest Finale PrintMusic 2010


I run Finale PrintMusic 2010 on Vista OS computer for a few weeks. I bought it for very specific project: 1) to scan high-quality printout of a score, 2) make a few small changes to score (and correct scan errors), 3) insert lyrics in cyrillic (Russian). Here are my observations:
1) Scan quality is surprisingly good - I have to correct only 2-10 notes per page, but at least all notes seems to be scanned.
2) Editing score (i.e. changing note location and duration, adding new notes) is very un-intuitive. I have read manuals, watched videos and still have great difficulty doing this simple job. Maybe, this is my personal problem.
3) What is really bad in this software is handling cyrillic font. Built-in TimeNewRoman/cyrillic font does not allow to cut-and-paste text in text tool. Lyrics tool does not work at all. I downloaded another font and now I can type-in using "blind" method, i.e. cyrillic letters appear as latin letters during typing - very inconvenient. However, a few signs can not be typed at all(eg, comma). Vendor admitted this bug and promised to correct it in the next release. Remains to be seen.Get more detail about Finale PrintMusic 2010.

Cheap Line 6 Spider IV 15 15-watt 1x8 Modeling Guitar Amplifier


This is the best amp i have ever owned. It is really popular among my friends as well.Get more detail about Line 6 Spider IV 15 15-watt 1x8 Modeling Guitar Amplifier.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Buying Behringer PP400 Ultra-Compact Phono Preamp


I'll be honest, I'm one of the humble few that enjoy good quality sound, can tell a difference in bitrates on encoded MP3s, but... never have been able to give myself the label of 'audiophile'. I want to think that those who really really know this stuff are light years ahead of me, and that's likely the case. That said, to my ear, this preamp is practically flawless. There is no hum (at all, even at high volumes). The quality of the sound is sharp and beautiful. Put simply, I'm a fan, and I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone who - like me - loves good sound and at least assumes they know what that sounds like.Get more detail about Behringer PP400 Ultra-Compact Phono Preamp.