Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Zoom Q3 - review needed

The website of a Dutch music store says they'll have it in stock November the 2nd, and they sell it for €296.

Quite pricey but I might get it. If I do you'll notice at the next ABF recital.

Entheo,
I checked out your yutube recordings, and the audio sounds pretty good. Do you find placing the recorder behind the piano gives you better audio. I saw some some recordings with the recorder near the keyboard. Do you use audacity to convert you files? Really enjoyed listening
Dot

Currently Sweetwater has the Zoom Q3 listed for $199

I'm not sure how you're doing your importing. In more detail than before, here's how I import videos: when I plug my Q3 into my laptop via the USB port, an icon named Q3_SD appears on my desktop, and I go through the following folder hierarchy: Q3_SD -> DCIM -> 100_ZOOM. Inside 100_ZOOM, I find all the videos, as .mov files, that are on my Q3. (They're .mov files, not .wav files as I incorrectly stated earlier.) Once you're copied the .mov files onto your desktop, you should be able to import them into Audacity or whatever.

I hope that helps.

-Jason

You don't even have to do that. Just set the recorder for audio recording only and it will generate the file type you select. I use a higher MP3 setting. It will then generate an mp3 file. Easy breezy.

thanks salzdt and cebukid for listening!

i'm actually placing the Q3 on a mini-tripod ON the piano's plate itself, inside the piano. since sound quality is top priority this is the location that i've found is the best. hence, most of my videos are shot from that angle. as i said earlier, one of the drawbacks of the Q3 is the inability to separate the camera from the mics. of course i'd prefer to have the camera on the keyboard and the mics on the soundboard, but i didn't want to fuss too much with the technology when it comes time to record, and with the Q3 you just press Record and away you go.

the Q3 comes with a built-in editing application, but it's just for cropping the video. i've tried post-processing with Quicktime Pro, but when uploaded to youtube it gets compressed and loses my settings. so what you hear is pretty much the way the Q3 captures the sound, with its current settings (low noise filter off, auto gain, etc.)

i got mine off of ebay from unique_squared_inc; package deal with extra memory and a bunch of other goodies; @ $200. i highly recommend getting an AC adaptor as well.

cheers.

Hi eweiss
Where do I find the mp3 and the higher mp3 setting ?
My files are currently wav. Will mp3 give a better sound ?

All your Zoom Q3 questions answered here http://tromboneforum.org/index.php?topic=49215.0 I know. It's a trombone forum. But you'll be surprised at how good the info is.

Entheo

Add me to the list of folks who watched and listened to your videos. I was most impressed with both the skill of your playing and the quality of your recordings.

Do you get any hiss or white noise with the Zoom Q3 (I didn't hear any in the videos)? I currently use a Flip HD camera for both my video and audio and although it is ok for my purposes I do get an annoying hiss that is quite audible through headphones.

LOL..sorry..I can't help it. A trombone forum? Now, that's as geeky as it gets...LOL.

PS-I was a band geek too, so I'm "allowed" to poke fun.

PPS-Trombone forum conjured up images from this movie (although he's not playing a trombone)..lol:

thanks bill!

no, no hiss or white noise. the Q3 has fairly high quality condenser mics, which distinguishes it from other camcorders. i too looked at the Flips, but sound quality trumped video quality for my purposes. if only the new Q3HD had a mid-gain, they'd be primed to take a bigger share of the home grown youtube music recording mkt IMHO.

Hi Momica,
I just listened to your recording of Canon in D, really enjpoyed your playing. For someone self taught you deserve a big . I have the zoom Q3and have recorded only in the audio, converted files with Audcity and uploaded to ABF recital, I have not used the video, 1. I'camera shy, 2. not sure if audacity will handle vieo. So my question is, if you upload a recording to Youtbe, is it easier to upload from Youtube to ABF recital.
Dot

I have a Zoom H2, the sound clarity from which I'm more than happy with.

For shooting HD videos with quality sound and having the ability to position the camera and mic separately, whilst obviating the need for time consuming video/sound editing, my solution will probably be to buy this camera which, crucially, has an input for an external mic, such as the H2. In this price bracket I believe it's unique in offering this function.

Thanks for the link Cruiser. This looks like the perfect option for me. I do already have the Flip HD but am not happy with the audio for piano recordings. I also have a Zoom H2 in which I'm extrememly happy with the audio. I'd like to try video but don't really want to spend a lot to upgrade. This looks like a great solution at an affordable price and reviews are pretty good too!

I really do appreciate the step by step directions (which is exactly what I need... )

But... when I do exactly the procedure you describe, I get the following error message: "Audacity recognized the type of file [and here it just repeats the long file name]. Importers supposedly supporting such files are: FFmpeg-compatible files, but none of them understood this file format."

So I'm massively confused. I get this error message, incidentally, whether I try to import the file directly from the Zoom vs. copying it to the desktop first. And my zoom file is a .mov file, just as you describe. So why isn't it working for me?!?!?

(I'm running Windows 7, but I got this error when I tried on my old computer with Windows XP. I'm also running the latest audacity version, but I got this error when I tried it with an earlier version on my old computer. I'm baffled.)

I also get this error if I try it with the raw Zoom file vs. the "finished movie" version you get after editing it with the bundled Zoom software and then saving it to the computer.

Hi Dot! Thank you so much for your nice compliments. That Canon arrangement is a pretty one, indeed.

If all you're working with are the audio files, it is easier and better to just upload to the AB forum recital from your computer, using the .mp3 file you created in Audacity (and I would normalize it first, too, for the reasons we've been talking about.) The recital software requires mp3 files, but YouTube files will generally be in other formats, e.g., .mov or .wma etc. YouTube also adds another layer of compression when uploading, so the quality won't be as good.

That being said, the recital template has a place for you to add a link to a YouTube video, and a lot of folks will both upload an mp3 file AND a YouTube link for their piece.

p.s. You don't have to be camera shy. With a judicious placement of tripod, you can arrange the video so it shows only your back or even just your hands.

For this last recital, I went very low-tech. and I converted my YouTube video to MP3. There's websites that do this for you - just google YouTube to MP3 conversion. The MP3 sounded horrible and artificial, and made my cheap Chinese piano sound even worse! I hope my Zoom H1 will improve the sound. My piano really doesn't sound that bad live, as it does in YouTube.

The Q3 also generates mp3 files. Just set the recorder to audio.

Monica,

I'm out of my depth here-- I don't use Audacity. But a quick look online suggests to me that Audacity doesn't know how to import .mov files. If this is correct, then you can't take the .mov files produced by the Q3 and import them into Audacity. (It sort of makes sense, since Audacity is a program for sound editing, and .mov is a *video* file format.)

So, if you really want to first record video, and then edit the audio from that video, you'll have to use some other program to convert the video file to an audio file; e.g. convert the .mov file into an .mp3 file. I think itunes will do that for you.

On the other hand, if you don't care about the video at all, you can just use the Q3 in audio-only mode. Then it will produce a true audio file, not a .mov file, and you can import it into Audacity.

-Jason

Well, I'm glad to hear that it is indeed a fundamental incompatibility between audacity and .mov files, and not computer stupidity on my part. But I'm sorry there's not an easy fix. I could do what you suggest, but in that case, I'd be better off just using the H4 separately and then editing it onto the Q3 video. I guess I'll just live with the slightly softer than optimal volumes for the time being.