keff rogerch I used Audacity to make the audio recording presented to the PT recital and find it straight forward to use. On the other hand I can't get GarageBand to record as it seems it is not receiving input from an external microphone. In the end I discovered that my (cell) phone records reasonable quality audio as well as making the video image

Thanks @keff! I don’t use GarageBand for recording. The zoom recorders record to SD cards. I import the recordings from SD and use GarageBand to trim the recordings and convert to MP3

    iternabe The beauty of the H1essential, and I believe float 32 recorders in general, is that there is no gain setting on the recorder. It has such a huge dynamic range that gain is unnecessary. The trade off, as I discovered, is that the output level needs to be adjusted at playback time. A level still must be specified, but after the recording not during the recording.

      pseudonym58 iternabe Thanks for the suggestions about setting gain on the H4n Pro. With more experience I might learn how to more effectively manage the gain setting on the H4n Pro. If the H1essential works out I won’t have to! 🙂

            It feels like there should be a 'technical' sub-forum/area for these sorts of discussions (e.g. recording, creating videos, sound-proofing, etc.). Not that this isn't super helpful, more that it would be great to have a defined place to go to find information.

              TLH21 Yeah I thought about that when picking a forum to post in. I chose Acoustic pianos because it seems to me that recording using an external recorder applies more to acoustic pianos than digital pianos. I know some players record their digital pianos with external recorders rather than directly from line out or directly to digital so it does apply there as well.

                rogerch did you try importing the file into Audacity? It automatically plays in 32bit float, might be perfect.

                    Emeton Yes I figured out how to lower the output level in Audacity to eliminate the clipping. This is really cool! I love the huge dynamic range I can capture with this recorder without worrying about ruining the result with clipping!

                      2 months later

                      rogerch Since you’ve got extra channels on the H4, you could use a trick common in video shooting. Set channels 1 & 2 to your optimal record levels. Then feed the same signals into channels 3 & 4, but set the record levels lower, maybe 6-10dB less. That’s your insurance in case something peaks unexpectedly, you change to those tracks in the final mix.

                      But yeah, I’ve switched to 32bit float myself, wonderful thing to preserve both loud and quiet.

                      Perpetual Beginner, Yamaha P115

                          macuaig Thanks for the tip! If I ever use the H4 again I will look into that.

                          I’m super happy with the H1essential. The recordings sound better to me than the H4n Pro ever did, even when I had the gain set appropriately. I don’t think I will be going back! 🙂

                              rogerch I use the H1essentials also. Wonderful & inexpensive tiny things. They’re very susceptible to handling noise, though, even when touching the mic cable, and nearly impossible to use handheld without a shock mount. Not a bad trade for my purposes.

                              Perpetual Beginner, Yamaha P115

                                  macuaig Thanks, good to know! I mount the H1essential on a tripod and record to the SD card so I haven’t had any issues with handling noise.

                                    a month later

                                    The precision of floating point arithmetic and the size of the quanta used for digitization are separate design decisions.

                                    If 24-bit audio is clipping, it is not due limitations in dynamic range, but due to setting the gain too high. At 24 bits can set it much lower without concern for running out of dynamic range at the low end, and then set it at say -3dB from peak during the mastering process.

                                    Human hearing has up to about 20 bits of dynamic range, from a pin drop to a 747 taking off at close range. 24 bits provides 16x that amount.

                                    What is true is that it is worth recording at a larger quantum size than the size for the final distribution. This provides extra padding to reduce digital noise by reducing floating point round-off errors. Dither down to the desired quantization as the final mastering step.