I made a mistake when i trying to make a recording with my Zoom H4n Handy Recorder. I wanted to make a recording with the mics own recorder, but I'm confused and ended up selecting entries 1 and 2, without a external mic. the recorder generated files, which at first seem muted. I lost my record, or can I recover them?
5 Answers
Entries 1 and 2 are the xlr inputs at the bottom of the recorder. I have the zoom h4 which can only record via the built in mics or the xlr inputs. I understand that you can record all four channels (the 2 xlr inputs as well as the built in mics) so maybe you did that? I hope! Otherwise you didn't record anything.
thank you guys! i really lost my recording... but you all helped me a lot
If those are the only files it created and you hear nothing, then it didn't record anything. You can double check the files by opening them in an audio editor such as Audacity to determine that they really are empty (you don't see any kind of waveform).
This is why you need to monitor with headphones while recording. Otherwise, it's like taking a picture without using the viewfinder...
I'm assuming you were using the Stereo mode - so only recording two channels at a time - which unfortunately means amador if the external XLR inputs were selected and no mics connected then the recording will be blank. There will be no way to recover it as there was no actual audio inputs and therefore no signal recorded onto the file.
Headphones are definitely a must, even if they're just cheap ear buds so you can atleast check on some level what is being captured by the recorder.
If you forget the headphones or for whatever reason don't have any or access to any, the H4n does have a speaker so you could always make a brief test recording then play it back via the internal speaker (situation allowing) just so you have some ability to post monitor the recording.
Hope that helps.
