Zoom R16 16 Track SD Card Recorder Interface and Controller

Product Information

The R16 also offers microphone simulations (U87, SM57, C414 and MD421) and all sorts of effects. The list is very long and it would be boring to name them all — let’s just say it provides 390 presets for 135 effects. It’s possible to use eight compressors and eight EQs simultaneously, not bad! I've hauled this to gigs, live shows, bathrooms, and my home studio. It works anywhere you do. The onboard mics are really nice though I dont use them as much as I should. They are clean and warm with plenty of headroom/volume. The built-in mics are quite impressive: the sound quality is very good for an acoustic guitar for example, and pretty good in the case of an acoustic drum (we get a usable recording). It is very light (plastic) very portable, buy the bag sold is useful for protection during transport. Finally, for what it's worth, the R24 is now painted an attractive metallic silver, rather than white.

Built-in microphones: Omnidirectional condenser microphones Gain: -50dBm to +4dBm continuously variable The R16 offers very little in the way of editing functionality and focuses more on mixing, which we think is a wise decision on Zoom's part. Recordings made with the R16 are stored as 16- or 24-bit 44.1kHz WAV files and the results offer very good sound quality. The preamps are nothing to write home about but acceptably clean and quiet for a unit at this price level.The recording on this couldn't be easier. The effects are a bit more challanging to engage but, if your familiar with menu selections you won't have any problems with it. The R16 comes bundled with a copy of Cubase LE 4 for Mac or PC, now slightly outdated but still a worthwhile introduction to working with a DAW and easily capable of carrying out the editing tasks the R16 omits. Templates are supplied for Cubase that make it even easier to drag and drop your recordings into a new project. USB: [B type (USB2.0 High-Speed compatible)] Audio Interface / Control Surface or Mass Storage Class operation [A type (USB2.0 High-Speed compatible)] USB Host capability I've used Tascam Portastudios for years and decided to replace it with the ZOOM because of the bad experience with the NEW DP-24 Portastudio. The R16's real strength is in a recording role... If the R16 did only that it would be worth the asking price, but the additional audio interface and software controller make it an absolute bargain"

The drivers are up to date for windows 8.1, so it's still a relevant product in 2014. However, there's no news for Linux, the hardware isn't generic, so it isn't recognized as a sound card (however the R16 is perfectly recognized as a player, so you can import your recordings and mix them with Ardour). The quality of the effects is generally perfectly acceptable, although I don't think many people would bother using them in preference to the plug‑in effects in a modern DAW. The EQ is clean, but rather anaemic, and although the dynamics are transparent, setting them up from the two‑line LCD is hard, and the signal path is fixed (high‑pass filter precedes compressor/limiter precedes EQ). More useful are the amp simulations and so on, which can either be recorded with the input signal or applied only in the monitor path, allowing you to monitor the wet signal and record the dry one for later re‑amping. In general, the work on the Zoom requires great attention because of multifunction buttons, cascading menus, etc.. Handle in peace!

Tech. sheet

The stripped down nature of a simple portable unit such as this inevitably means compromises have to be made with its design. It would have been easy for Zoom to add dedicated buttons for every function but that would have resulted in a much bulkier unit.