Zoom H2 WAV or MP3?

[lscott]

I bought this mainly to send sound clips of pickups,amps etc.What are the advantages,disadvantages and differences between WAV and MP3?One more thing,can I download pre recorded clips from the recorder to my computer or do I have to use the recorder to record directly to the computer.Oh,and yes,I am an idiot.

[bbarnard]

WAV is an uncompressed format. MP3 is compressed. WAV will be a larger file but the sound fidelity will typically be better. MP3 files will be smaller and generally less high fidelity.

I don't know anything about the Zoom H2 itself but I would imagine that if it is a portable recorder there is likely some mechanism for getting the files from the recorder to the computer.

[jawjatek]

I have an H2 and always record in .wav for best sound. You can always use Audacity + Lame to convert the .wav to MP3s later, and both are free.

The H2 comes with a USB cable for transferring files to and from your PC, but it is a bit slow for large files. I find it is much faster to simply remove the SD card and use a card reader. HTH YMMV

PS: RTFM! http://www.samsontech.com/products/relatedDocs/H2_user_manual.pdf

[SGNick]

Having tried both, I find the results are much better when recording to wav and then converting to mp3 than recording direct to mp3.

if you're recording a band fo a few hours, mp3 is the only way to squeeze em all on though.

[isfahani]

Unless you buy a larger card to put in. Shell out for a 2GB card, you get over 3hrs at 44.1/16 which is decent quality.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Recording in mp3 on the H2 seems to cut off the high end over 16k, so as SGNick said "I find the results are much better when recording to wav and then converting to mp3 than recording direct to mp3."As an experiment, I recorded mp3 @ 320k on the H2, and compared that to recording .wav at 44.1/16 and transcoding it on my PC (using CDex) to mp3 @ 192k. Even though the mp3 setting was on the marginal side @ 192 it still sounded better than the 320k on the H2.