My favorite camping tool is something I wryly call "the Swiss Army Spoon." It isn't one of those multi-function tools with a zillion blades. My little wonder does only one thing, but it does it exceedingly well. It's a spoon. Period. Just try eating a bowl of soup with your multi-bladed wonder and you'll want one, too.
I was reminded of my aversion to multi-function tools when I opened the box containing the new ZoomH4 Handy Recorder. I'd expected another stereo field recorder, but I found a multi-function device worthy of an Alpine sergeant.
Not only is the H4 a stereo recorder with built-in mics, it doubles as a four-track portable studio with built-in effects. But wait, there's more: The H4 also serves as a USB audio interface for computer-based recording. How can one tiny device with a street price of under three bills possibly handle all of these tasks? There has to be a tradeoff, I thought. Either it will fail at basic recording tasks, it'll be impossibly confusing to use, or it will crash my computer every time I hook it up. When I reach for a field recorder, I don't need a corkscrew.
(note; the updated H-4N version seems interesting ...
