Zoom R8 Recorder Interface,Controller,Sampler

As a semi-professional musician and someone who works in location recording I'm hugely impressed with this product and the price.

It's almost a decade old and there's still nothing like it... a soundcard, a sampler, a portable 8 track recorder that can run on batteries, a sampler with built in drum samples and effects - this is just amazing considering you can spend the same amount on a standard audio-interface. It also comes with the latest version of Cubase LE so if you're looking to get into recording or audio production, this is your first stop.

**Audio Interface**

Plug this into your computer with a USB, add speakers and you have a ready-made sound card that can re-amp your clean guitar or line signal or record vocals with 2 XLR / jack combo inputs that can record simultaneously.

**Sampler**

The R8 ships with ready-made drum samples and loops that can be assigned to 9 sample pads, allowing you to make your own drum track or program your own beats directly into the device with a MIDI mapper. This is a fun feature, but can't be used when the device is in Audio Interface mode, so it's more of a portable function. The R8 no longer ships with a pre-loaded SD card full of additional loops, but you are able to load your own onto an SD card and play them back using your device.

**Recorder**

If you're not familiar with using an 8-track recorder, there's a steep learning curve and a fat manual ahead of you, but the rewards are great! The R8 runs from the mains or on 4 AA Batteries which means you have a portable, mini-recording studio at your disposal. You can record two tracks simultaneously and have most of the capabilities of a DAW if you can tolerate the small screen and limited controls. It also has a built in metronome, equalizer and effects, plus phantom power for a condenser mic.

As a musician, you can take it anywhere... plug in a mic or a guitar and let your ideas flow. If you work in film, you have a portable workstation for capturing location audio. For any purpose, this is a great piece of kit considering its size, weight and versatility. It is made of plastic, so probably not as durable as some others but you'll be hard-pressed to find anything like it for the same price.

*Controller*

Another cool feature is that you can also use the R8 as a Mackie control in Cubase and use the transport keys on your R8 to record, play, scrub, punch in or program any function you choose. This really helps if you don't want to sit right at your computer while recording or prefer using keys for functions instead of a mouse.

Overall, fantastic product for the price. The R8 tries to please everybody and succeeds.

Good item for the money, very easy to use...with a good response and a good quality sound! Very smooth butons and a realy good multi recorder. needs some time to get it on the road but is very easy to do it! the card suport realy is usefull to make more memory avaiable