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Old 06-19-2022, 10:15 PM
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Default F3 Demo

I just received this yesterday and discovered the following:

1. It doesn't ship with a storage card

2. It doesn't ship with a USB Type C cable

3. It does come with two AA batteries.

4. It comes completely naked. No storage case or even a felt bag. For $350 it should at least come with this and the USB cable.

No big deal. I ordered an extra USB cable, although I have a bunch here somewhere

I also ordered the bluetooth adapter so I can manage the device using my phone. I also bought a small card reader and I'm debating whether I will extract the card or disconnect the entire unit from the mic stand when I want to move the soundfiles to my PC. When I use the unit I have it attached to a tripod adapter that is attached to a mic stand attachment. I might do the card removal thing and leave the Zoom mounted all the time instead of disconnecting the mics and carrying it up and down the stairs to my computer.

There is no gain adjustment on the device because its 32 bit. I had to boost the gain by about 25db in Rx 7 Standard to get the volume up.

Here's a short demo. I clipped out the low rumble area and used the lowest level of noise reduction. It's a new toy and I'm not sure if it really is much better than the H5 for what I do. I've read the preamps are much better. Maybe I'll try out my ribbon mic with it too.



I'm not crazy about the design (cube) with the controls all over the place, but I knew that before I bought it. It is what it is.
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Old 06-22-2022, 05:26 PM
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I understand the potential benefits of using 32 bit float and two A/D converters (huge dynamic range and less chance of clipping), but I believe your demo also identifies a potential less than ideal situation.

You said you raised the level in post by 25dB. This seems to indicate that your recorded levels were at least 25dB down from the converter’s 0dBFS level. That means the top 4 bits, or more, of the converter wasn’t used.

I think these 32 bit float designs may be beneficial in some cases, but they are not necessarily the best choice for all circumstances. But for some the benefit of not having to set the gain levels may be a reasonable trade off.
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Old 06-22-2022, 10:35 PM
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Originally Posted by ChuckS View Post
I understand the potential benefits of using 32 bit float and two A/D converters (huge dynamic range and less chance of clipping), but I believe your demo also identifies a potential less than ideal situation.

You said you raised the level in post by 25dB. This seems to indicate that your recorded levels were at least 25dB down from the converter’s 0dBFS level. That means the top 4 bits, or more, of the converter wasn’t used.

I think these 32 bit float designs may be beneficial in some cases, but they are not necessarily the best choice for all circumstances. But for some the benefit of not having to set the gain levels may be a reasonable trade off.
I'm not sure what that means Chuck, but I bought the F3 because the preamps are said to be much better than the Zoom H5 preamps.
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Old 06-23-2022, 07:20 AM
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I'm not sure what that means Chuck, but I bought the F3 because the preamps are said to be much better than the Zoom H5 preamps.
Hey Barry,
I've been curious about the technology for the 32-bit recorders, such as the Zoom F6 and F3, and some information you mentioned helped me understand these devices a bit more. Sorry if I started over analyzing and derailed what your thread is about. It does seem the Zoom recorders keep improving their preamps as they release new families of devices, I started with a Zoom H4 when they first came out.
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Old 06-23-2022, 08:31 AM
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I bought the F3 because the preamps are said to be much better than the Zoom H5 preamps.
At that price point, I'm doubtful that the preamp improvement is worth the cost of the upgrade. One of the mistakes many of us make in this journey, especially in the early years, is to slowly inch our way up to quality. Doing it that way can become expensive.
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Old 06-23-2022, 12:37 PM
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I decided to grab an F6. I am usually more interested in quantifiable features than "better", and in this case, the small size along with the 32-bit non-overloadable feature makes it nice for recording gigs, where I can't monitor the recording level all the time.

Unlike what it seems the F3 has, the F6 does have gain controls, which is a bit confusing - what does it mean for levels not to matter, yet there's a level control?. However, in my initial tests, the whole idea of not being able to overdrive the recording seems to work. I can push the gain all the way up to where meters are solidly in the red, and when I open the file in a DAW it appears to be clipped. Lower the level in the DAW, tho, and the waveform is all intact with no clipping. I need to spend a bit more time with it, but so far it seems to be fool-proof in that respect.

Cute little thing, that will just fit in a guitar case or gig bag. Another nice feature of the F6 (not sure about the F3) is that it can run on Sony camera batteries that attach to the back. It also has internal AA batteries which act as an automatic backup when the Sony battery runs out of juice. So again, hopefully I won't discover at the end of a gig that the batteries died in the middle.
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Old 06-26-2022, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by jim1960 View Post
At that price point, I'm doubtful that the preamp improvement is worth the cost of the upgrade. One of the mistakes many of us make in this journey, especially in the early years, is to slowly inch our way up to quality. Doing it that way can become expensive.
Yes, this is true. I have 2 AT 2035, an AKG Perception 150, a Rode NT-5, MXL 990 and 991 mics sitting gathering dust. The Sterling 170 ribbon mic I have will probably get some use now and then though.
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Old 06-26-2022, 02:00 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
I decided to grab an F6. I am usually more interested in quantifiable features than "better", and in this case, the small size along with the 32-bit non-overloadable feature makes it nice for recording gigs, where I can't monitor the recording level all the time.

Unlike what it seems the F3 has, the F6 does have gain controls, which is a bit confusing - what does it mean for levels not to matter, yet there's a level control?. However, in my initial tests, the whole idea of not being able to overdrive the recording seems to work. I can push the gain all the way up to where meters are solidly in the red, and when I open the file in a DAW it appears to be clipped. Lower the level in the DAW, tho, and the waveform is all intact with no clipping. I need to spend a bit more time with it, but so far it seems to be fool-proof in that respect.

Cute little thing, that will just fit in a guitar case or gig bag. Another nice feature of the F6 (not sure about the F3) is that it can run on Sony camera batteries that attach to the back. It also has internal AA batteries which act as an automatic backup when the Sony battery runs out of juice. So again, hopefully I won't discover at the end of a gig that the batteries died in the middle.
I'm going to see how close mic'ing works out using it. I have the app for it on my phone now and I'm going to test it out sometime soon.
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Old 06-27-2022, 10:23 PM
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Originally Posted by TBman View Post
I'm going to see how close mic'ing works out using it. I have the app for it on my phone now and I'm going to test it out sometime soon.
I tried out the F6 at a gig this past week, playing with Teja Gerken. We ran a lead out of each of our pedal boards (which have multiple outputs), along with a stereo mic. 2 Hour gig used 20% of the Sony battery, so that was good. Seems like no danger of a dead battery. Sound worked out well, tho I had the levels a bit low - I meant to let them really drive hard to see how that worked, the idea being that I could do un-monitored live recording without fear of clipping. But in any case, it was all fine. We'll probably use it along with video for future shows that warrant it.
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Old 07-04-2022, 10:47 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Young View Post
I tried out the F6 at a gig this past week, playing with Teja Gerken. We ran a lead out of each of our pedal boards (which have multiple outputs), along with a stereo mic. 2 Hour gig used 20% of the Sony battery, so that was good. Seems like no danger of a dead battery. Sound worked out well, tho I had the levels a bit low - I meant to let them really drive hard to see how that worked, the idea being that I could do un-monitored live recording without fear of clipping. But in any case, it was all fine. We'll probably use it along with video for future shows that warrant it.
I had recorded a guitar demo with the F3 and while using it and the Android app which connected via bluetooth I started getting a lot of noise though the left mic, when I wasn't doing anything. I just sat there and watched the left mic display a wav as if I was playing. The right mic display showed nothing. So I turned off the F3 and restarted it. Then it was fine. I'm not sure what caused this.

The phone app is convenient, it makes the device much easier to use.
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