Zoom H6 over-dubbing and phantom power loss

[Declan Kenny]

Hi. Doing some home recording with a recently purchased Zoom H6 and a couple of condenser mics. Mostly acoustic and vocals, and then on to a computer for mixing and added instruments with midi keyboard. I can get good sounds from the guitars (Fishman pickups and Aura Spectrum, plus mics) but the problem starts with over-dubbing. The H6 seems to lose Phantom power. Has anyone else noted this, or have I done something wrong? I can play back the piece I have just recorded, monitor it on the headphones, and even add tracks on the line-in (I usually record the acoustic with both line and mic). But the phantom power option is not available. I've double-checked the menus.

If it turns out (I have read Fran Guidry's workarounds) that over-dubbing in general is a bit tiresome, I'd love to hear of other users' experiences. Importing back in rough mixes seems to be problematic too, but I'm sure there are workarounds. I'd be mindful of the potential problems with timing signatures (The BPM on an iPhone app I was using was clearly different from the BPM on the Zoom H6 metronome, for example). The main reason for getting the H6 was to be able to record in a quiet space, and it seems to be the ideal tool for that, away from the Mac and the office. Looks like there might be more to-ing and fro-ing than I expected!

[Fran Guidry]

Well ain't that a case of heavy suction!!

I just tried a little overdub session and was unable to use a condenser for the overdub. I could get phantom on and get a meter indication but as soon as I hit the record button the phantom dropped out and the mic stopped working.

Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in a firmware update, because it sure looks broken to me right now. I'll shoot a report off to Zoom-NA.

Fran

[Fran Guidry]

Well kudos to the support at Zoom-NA.

Once overdub mode is activated there's a lot of functionality in the mixer view screen. The paddle now scrolls through a bunch of options for pan, level, low cut, and phantom for each track (not just the one you have activated, as one might wish). Observe the top line of the display as you hit the menu selection paddle, you'll see it walk through the options. It's a bit clumsy but it works!! I guess "it's a bit clumsy but it works" applies to the whole H6 overdubbing facility. But it works.

Fran

[Declan Kenny]

Hi Fran,
You're a gent. Thanks for looking in to this and posting your replies. Just to be clear, did they send an upgrade? Wasn't sure from your replies, but it sounded like they may have put together some form of firmware upgrade, which would be great. I'll have a look on their site in any case.
Enjoying your site and music, and always appreciate it when folks take the time to engage online. As you said yourself (I recall), we don't work here, we just stop by once in a while!
Cheers,
Declan

[Fran Guidry]

Nope, no upgrade. It's just not well documented and not super obvious. There's one line of text at the top of the mixer screen, just under the time counter and battery indicator. It starts off:

< Tr L&R Pan ______________ Center >

You navigate by using the menu selection paddle. Paddle through the options and press in on the paddle to select a parameter to change. Paddle through the settings and press the paddle in to select one. You move through each input in turn, with options for Pan and Level and Lo Cut and Comp and Phantom (or plugin power) for each one. It takes a bit of paddling to get to input 3 but it comes up eventually and you can set the phantom power level by pressing in on the paddle then making your selection.

I'm planning to do a Homebrewed Music blog entry on this little feature if I can figure out how to take decent shots of the screen.

Fran

[Fran Guidry]

OK, here's a blog post: http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2014/02/21/zoom-h6-overdub-mixer/

and the video that is included in the post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEHok1o4Fb0

Fran

[Declan Kenny]

Excellent! I shall get my paddle out and start, em, paddling. I guess we can be excused the traditional RTFM scenario when the answer is not actually in the manual. Thanks again.