North Carolina Genealogy

I’ve done a couple of posts now over at my Asheville Music Lessons site looking at the Zoom H2, (here’s the Zoom H2 review). I got the opportunity to play with one for a few days and I think for the kind of interviews the family genealogist would be conducting it is a fantastic tool for this…

This is in the same line as the Zoom H4 which I’ve talked quite a bit about. The main differences are as follows: H4 – multitrack recording capability – 2 stereo microphones – larger (stereo input from professional mikes possible.) H2 – stereo only recording – 4 microphones (2 stereo pair for surround sound recording) – smaller (1/8 input jack for line input.)

The look of the H2 reminds me of a classic studio microphone. It comes with a 512 MB memory card, but can accept up to 8GB (or more I think the largest compatible card I saw was 32GB – you need to look carefully for known working cards…) 8GB will give you about 12 hours and 40 minutes of stereo WAV (cd quality) recording. I didn’t look to see how much capacity in mp3 recording mode (days?) It runs on AA batteries (or included DC wall jack.) it comes with a carrying case, tripod stand, mic stand adapter and wind screen cover.

It sells for around $200 US so it’s not a cheap investment, but for preserving audio in the form of interviews or music I think it would be a GREAT tool in the arsenal.