Zoom R8 8-Track SD Card Recorder Interface and Controlle

I just realized that I had the R8 as my only soundcard for 6 years now, so I thought it was time for a little review.

This is a device that always fascinated me, because it tries to be so many different things.
It is a portable multitrack recorder, a multi-effect unit, a sound card, a control surface, a reharsal device and even somewhat an instrument, with its little pads.
I was around when tape 4 tracks recorders were the only option for small bands, and of course something like this would have blown everybody’s mind, but now of course technology is way more advanced.
So, these are my impressions, as someone who plays guitar but also other instruments:

– Portable multitrack recorder
The batteries last long enough, and of course being AA one can carry spares. I found it anoying that if left switched off for a few weeks it will drain the batteries anyway.
The two internal microphones are decent, but they need to be quite close to record properly acoustic instruments while keeping gain (and therefore noise) down.
Switching tracks, changing levels, setting markers and scrolling precisely is easy. Other operations, like chainging panning, take a few extra clicks. The earphones out is very clean.
However, at least with my unit, sometimes there is noise when using external microphones. I think it is a problem with internal soldering because playign with the switches a bit will tipically solve the problem.
In term so portability, it is small enough to fit in a small back pack, or even a guitar gig bag pocket.
But it is not rock solid, so a protective pouch is very necessary in my opinion.
The backlit display is visible enough even with sun light.
It only records in Wav, for certain applications I would prefer MP3 as an option too.

– As a multi effect
I like the sounds in general, and some of the effects, like reverb and even mastering ones, are pretty good.
It is not very suitable in performance, i you need to switch effects quickly, of course. But it does allow to connect a click pedal, which is mainly useful for recording and overdubs, I found.

– As a soundcard
It works pretty well. However, I never managed to use Zoom’s asio drivers. So I am always used Asio4All instead. It should be noticed that, when using it as a soundcard, the R8 will not allow using the internal effects unless set to a low sampling rate.
Also, every single time you switch it on, or switch the computer on with it connected, it needs to be told to work as a soundcard, because it always start as a standalone recorder.

– As a control surface. It supports Mackie, meaning quite a few apps can use it as a control surface. I use Reaper as a DAW and it works great with that. The sliders and wheel are fine enough to adjust things on the fly. I also used it with video editors and even photo editors. My only complaint is that I would like more of the buttons to be usable, including the soft pads, which would be very useful for one click operations.

– As a reharsal tool
It does have a metronome, of course, along with a tuner. Backtrack can be either imported as wav files, not mp3, which is a pain, and set and cut as loops. Or one can rely on the internal sequencer to lay drumtracks to play over.
I like that among the effects there is a guitar to bass one, so you cna also add some bass and come with something good to jam on. Adjusting the tempo without changing pitch is finnicky, but can be done.
Again, you cannot convert everything to MP3, it is just wav.
Importing and exporting files to the unit is done by removing the memory card, which is not great, direct USB connection would be better.
Of course, one could also plug into one mic input a mobile phone and play, or even record, the backtracks like that.

– As a production tool
One could in principle record a whole album on this, track by track, mastering included.
If I was stuck on a desert island with my instruments and only one device, I would probably choose this one (or its bigger brothers, R16 and R24), because it has it all one way or another.
But admittedly, being stuck on a desert island is the only reason I would consider spending the time and effort to become sufficiently proficient with it to perform all of that easily.
It is way easier and faster to use a computer, or even ipad, DAW. With the R8 maybe as a soundcard and control surface. But I cannot immagine many people in 2021 wanting to do it all on the R8.

– As a musical notebook
This is of course one reason I got it for. The idea of being able to record a riff or an idea quickly anywhere, without having to switch on the computer, and save it there to go back to it. It works for that pupose, but it is not necessarily immediate. In that respect, my boss micro is faster to setup for a quick recording and more importantly it is smaller, so mor elikely to be around when inspiration strikes. Of course, one could create a project just for that, with tracks already setup, to make it faster to get to the moment you can record, but it is not ideal. Maybe they should have added a “record now” button, which you can press any time to just start recording, and the relative file just gets stored somewhere on the card with the recording time as the default name.

– Is it durable?
So and so. It will not take well to falls, and while the side sections protect the controls a bit from impacts, they also contain the internal microphones.
Aside fo the aforementioned occasional microphone noise/interference, the track selector for track one stopped working last year, the rest seems to hold up still well enough.

Going back, would I buy it again? All considered yes, probably.

Mainly because it served me well as a soundcard and control surface, it still does. But it is now permanently set on a stand. So looking back perhaps I would have got an R16, for the extra inputs and, more importantly, the ability to record more than two microphones at the same time.