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  #1  
Old 05-28-2020, 10:34 AM
BKinBWa BKinBWa is offline
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Default Audacity vs H4nPro

I am hoping someone can help me with this maddening problem.
I have been recording myself with the Zoom H4nPro and working on the tracks in Audacity (Windows 10).
So far, so good. Transfer the tracks and have at it. But.
When I try to use the H4n as a USB audio interface, all hell breaks loose. The sound in my headphones (Sony MDR 7506) is scratchy and…distant sounding, and when I speak or sing into the microphones there is an annoying echo or reverb. I think I’ve tried everything. I have the latest Audacity version, updated H4n firmware, disabling microphone and speakers on my laptop (Dell XPS 15). I’ve tried matching the sampling rate (44.1or 48.0-doesn’t matter). I make sure that the H4 mic and headphones show up in Audacity. Nothing has worked. Both systems work fine by themselves, but something bad happens when I try to use them both at the same time. I might add that when I use my clunky old XP desktop, everything works as it should. Plug and play, basically. What is going on? I am open to any and all suggestions.
Thank you.
-BK in BWA
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Old 05-28-2020, 10:56 AM
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rick-slo rick-slo is offline
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Not sure exactly how you have things setup but anyway it could be latency issues giving you that echo.
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Old 05-28-2020, 11:26 AM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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When using any USB interface to record a voice or acoustic instrument, you need to disable the track monitoring through the DAW and use direct monitoring through your interface instead. The symptoms you are describing are what happens if you don’t do this.

Remember that enabling direct monitoring on your interface (H4N in your case) is only half of it. If you have direct monitoring turned on in your interface, but track monitoring is still on in your software, you'll still get echoing as you record.

Last edited by lkingston; 05-28-2020 at 01:06 PM.
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Old 05-28-2020, 11:28 AM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BKinBWa View Post
I am hoping someone can help me with this maddening problem.
I have been recording myself with the Zoom H4nPro and working on the tracks in Audacity (Windows 10).
So far, so good. Transfer the tracks and have at it. But.
When I try to use the H4n as a USB audio interface, all hell breaks loose. The sound in my headphones (Sony MDR 7506) is scratchy and…distant sounding, and when I speak or sing into the microphones there is an annoying echo or reverb. I think I’ve tried everything. I have the latest Audacity version, updated H4n firmware, disabling microphone and speakers on my laptop (Dell XPS 15). I’ve tried matching the sampling rate (44.1or 48.0-doesn’t matter). I make sure that the H4 mic and headphones show up in Audacity. Nothing has worked. Both systems work fine by themselves, but something bad happens when I try to use them both at the same time. I might add that when I use my clunky old XP desktop, everything works as it should. Plug and play, basically. What is going on? I am open to any and all suggestions.
Thank you.
-BK in BWA
When using the H4n as an interface you'll get the best results monitoring (with your headphones) directly off the H4n itself.
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Old 05-28-2020, 12:01 PM
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never mind I missed a point you covered in your original post…
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  #6  
Old 05-31-2020, 04:53 PM
BKinBWa BKinBWa is offline
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Default H4n vs Audacity

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I think I solved the problem. I just have to make sure that my computer's sound is turned OFF before I plug in the Zoom, THEN open Audacity. The order seems to be significant. I don't why that works, but it does. Sound is good, monitoring works just fine. I'm either clever or stupid for not trying that from the beginning. I'm leaning towards the latter, though...
BK in BWA
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Old 05-31-2020, 11:45 PM
lkingston lkingston is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BKinBWa View Post
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I think I solved the problem. I just have to make sure that my computer's sound is turned OFF before I plug in the Zoom, THEN open Audacity. The order seems to be significant. I don't why that works, but it does. Sound is good, monitoring works just fine. I'm either clever or stupid for not trying that from the beginning. I'm leaning towards the latter, though...

BK in BWA


That will work if you are not overdubbing, but it isn’t the best solution. I don’t use Audacity, but all DAWs are roughly the same. You need to turn off the DAW monitoring when you are using low latency direct monitoring through your interface. I found this explanation of how to set this in Audacity:

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/..._audacity.html
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