https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/my-newest-toy-update-soundclip-added-2/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:25:22 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/my-newest-toy-update-soundclip-added-2/#post-29155 Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:52:06 +0000
Zoom HD8CD

A little story to tell first of my experience with American Musical Supply. I ordered this unit on Nov. 8th and finally got it on Nov. 19th. I thought that was a little long, but it was shipped ground and came all the way from Nevada. So really not bad at all considering.

I was all excited and set it up on a table I've dedicated just for it. But before I did anything else, I sat down and read the manual. I have never really recorded much and this recorder is a little overwhelming. The manual is over 200+ pages. :shock:

Finally I got to the point where the manual said to fire it up, I was really excited now. The digital display read "initialize" just as it was supposed to, then it was supposed to go to a "project" display. Instead, it read "HDD Error". Now, I knew that meant hard-drive error, not a good sign. I turned if off and on several times and everytime it came up to this same message. I searched the manual cover to cover to see what to do if this happens. There were lots of troubleshooting tips, just not this one. I tried pushing buttons, nothing. The thing was frozen. Man, I waited all this time and got a defective unit. :x

I called American Musical and got a very nice young man. He acted like it was nothing. He did not question me at all. He said he would send out another unit and guaranteed it would arrive within 3 days. I couldn't believe it, they were going to send me another unit before I returned the original one. And they did not charge me one red cent! He said I would receive postage paid labels in about 9 days to send the original unit back.

And sure enough, I got the exchange replacement on the 21st. So I gotta say I am very impressed with their service. This is just for all the folks that worry about ordering online.

As for the recorder, it is pretty amazing really. The HD8 comes with two XLR/1/4" inputs. You can only run high impedence (Hi-Z) instuments into input #1 (it will accept low impedence signals too). Input #2 will only accept low impedence inputs like a microphone. So you really couldn't record an entire band with this, it is best suited for simple applications at home. The HD16 has 8 XLR/1/4" input jacks, the odd numbered inputs will all take high impedence signals, so you could run 4 guitars with passive pickups into this. So it is more suited to recording bands. But I got this simply for a home studio only, it is plenty for me.

Recording guitar is actually super simple, I figured that out in just a few minutes and laid down a very basic track of a song I wrote years ago. Sounded very good. The next day I learned how to add effects to this track, I applied a nice crunch distortion, always my favorite tone. Very easy. There are dozens of effects to choose from, it is really like a multi-efx guitar pedal built in to the unit. The effects are just as good as most multi-efx pedals.

The part that is difficult for me was programming the bass and drums. You can punch in bass and drums manually, or choose prerecorded samples, there are about 500 to choose from. I normally hate artificial drums, but these sound pretty realistic. It took me about 3 hours, but I finally programmed a bass/drum track that matched up with my pre-recorded guitar sample. The entire mix sounded pretty great, I can't wait till I know what I'm doing.

I could go on and on, this thing has hundreds of features. It will literally take me months to really learn how to use it, but you can get some pretty good basic recordings right away. I am going to work on one song right now and take my time, try to get something good recorded. Then I will Master it and burn it to a CD, a CD burner is built in. It also has a USB port for computer. It comes with software for computer too, I probably won't use that.

Sorry I can't tell much more, but I am pretty new to this. But it seems like a pretty excellent recorder for the price. It also had the most memory in it's price range, 80 GB. Way more than any of their competitors in this price range.

Anyway, that's it, thought some might like a little review. I will write more once I figure this thing out a little better.

Wes]]> Guitar Players Discussion Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/guitar-players-discussion/my-newest-toy-update-soundclip-added-2/#post-29155