Zoom H5 4-channel Handy Recorder

Revolutionary Run-and-gun Zoom H5 Recorder!

The Zoom H5 Handy Recorder provides you with four tracks of portable recording power, letting you create professional 24-bit/96kHz recordings anywhere your creativity takes you. It comes standard with an XYH-5 XY microphone capsule, which you can swap out for other microphones and input modules to fit any recording situation. Two combo inputs, complete with onboard microphone preamps and switchable -20dB pads, let you connect the Zoom H5 with anything from phantom-powered condenser microphones to extremely hot line-level sources. Top it off with onboard processing, stellar recording options, and the fact that it doubles as a USB audio interface, and you can imagine how useful the Zoom H5 Handy Recorder can be.

Swap out capsules to get the mics and I/O you need

For such a small, lightweight, and inexpensive portable device, the Zoom H5 Handy Recorder delivers a full set of professional-level I/O. First up, there's the H5's modular expansion port, which lets you connect the same amazing modular capsules Zoom introduced with the H6. You can read all about them in our Zoom Capsule Buying Guide. What's more, the Zoom H5 comes with an XYH-5 capsule, which is an awesome shockmounted XY microphone that's great for stereo recording. This capsule also includes an 1/8" stereo input, but the H5 itself comes equipped with a pair of impressive combo jack inputs, each with its own volume dial and switchable -20dB pad. These inputs let you connect anything from phantom-powered condenser microphones to extremely hot line-level sources. And when it comes to monitoring, the Zoom H5 offers you both a line and a headphone output plus a built-in speaker.

Always Ready to Record

There's something inherently unpredictable about field recording, which makes it unnervingly easy to miss critical takes. Zoom equipped their H5 Handy Recorder with three powerful recording modes to spare you the stress of a lost or ruined recording opportunity: Pre-record, Backup-record, and Auto-record. With Pre-record, the Zoom H5 is continuously buffering the last two seconds of audio, which it includes with every recording. So, even if you hit record late, you're still likely to capture the sound you thought you missed. Along a similar line of thinking is Zoom H5's Backup-record function, which records a separate stereo mix at 12dB down from your current settings (44.1/48kHz only). That way, if a sudden audio spike causes your input to clip, you still have a clean backup to work with. Finally, there's Auto-record, which starts recording when the volume passes a certain threshold.

Built-in Processing and More

You really expect a lot from Zoom products, and the H5 Handy Recorder more than delivers. For starters, the Zoom H5 includes both onboard compression and limiting, which lets you smooth out your sound and prevent volume spikes from clipping your input levels. Likewise, there's a switchable highpass (low-cut) filter, which lets you cut out low-end rumble, reduce wind and handling noise, and decrease the impact of pops and plosives. There are also valuable tools onboard that really come in handy if you're a musician. For instance, the Zoom H5 includes both a metronome and a multimode tuner, along with advanced playback functions that let you change pitch, vary speed, and loop sections to make mastering difficult passages much easier.