Slide the power/hold switch down and hold it until the H1 responds.
Slide the power/hold
switch up, and all the other controls are
disabled, until you do this again.
Lo Cutswitch
Switching this on will reduce the bass response. This can be useful if the mike is making annoying noises because wind is blowing over it, or if you're in a large room that is resonating sub-sonically (nearby roadworks, motorised equipment, and buffeting air-conditioning can do this).
Auto Levelswitch
Switching this on will set the recorder to use an automatic gain control, with a quick gain-down action (when loud audio occurs), and a moderately-slow gain-up action (when things get quiet).
If you want good audio, then you're better to use the manual Input
Level
control. Set it to be well below clipping point for the
loudest sound that you might record (watch the meters and the blinking
peak-light near the mikes).
While auto-gain can be convenient to adjust for sound levels that change, such as a person speaking as they move around a room (closer to the mike, and further away), it does have problems: Someone coughing or noisily dropping something can cause the audio-level to wind down, and then the next thing you want to record will be too quiet. Recording quiet audio (with the gain up) followed by louder audio, often means that the first loud sound distorts before the auto-level control has a chance to reduce the gain. You are better to record at a fixed level, adjusted so that normal sound is adequate, and there is sufficient headroom for louder sounds to be picked up without distortion, and then adjust levels in post production (when you're editing, you will know when loud sounds occur, and can drop levels just beforehand).
NB: The Volume control
only adjusts the output monitoring
volume.
Rec formattype switch
Slide the switch to WAV
or MP3
to select file type.
Press the ⏪ and ⏩ buttons to select WAV bit rate and depth,
or MP3 bit rate.
WAV can use 44.1, 48, or 96 kHz sampling rates, and be 16 or 24-bits per sample.
MP3 can use 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, or 320 kHz sampling rates.
This button is, also, used to confirm actions such as deleting files.
During monitoring, the display will show metering of audio levels, the current file-format, bit-rate and depth, and the amount of remaining recording time available on the memory card, for the currently set recording mode.
During recordings, the display will show metering of audio levels, the current file format, bit-rate and depth, and a count-up of the recording time.
NB: If you press the play button after finishing a recording, it will playback the last file you recorded.
MARK/ ⏯ button
This button is used while recording WAV files to mark a point in the middle of the recording (the recording is not interrupted when you do this, and only some WAV software will notice that there's a mark in the file). There can be up to 99 marks per file.
During playback, this button acts as a play/pause button.
The display will show file numbers, and file lengths as you skip past files. And during playback, the counter will show the recording's date and a count-down till the end of the recording.
These buttons are, also, used to cycle through bit rates and depths when choosing the MP3 or WAV file formats to record.
Used to delete files, press once to delete the current file, then press the record button to confirm the deletion.
Also used to format memory cards: Hold the button down while turning on the unit, and follow the prompts.
The unit has a real-time clock, it time-stamps the files with the time and date of recording.
The built-in mikes use the X-Y stereo recording technique.
The 3.5 mm mike/line input socket is stereo, and can supply 2.5 volts DC power to external mikes. Connecting external microphones cuts off the signal from the internal ones.
Although it's labelled as being a mike/line input, there is no documented way to select line mode. Merely turning the input gain down will not prevent the pre-amps (which are before the gain control), being over-driven by strong signals. Some kind of external attenuator would be needed, and it'd need to be one that can handle DC voltage on it.
Tip: left mike & +DC
Ring: right mike & +DC
Sleeve: common
NB: Over time, 3.5 mm mike input sockets can become unreliable, even more so if subjected to abuse.
There is a tiny built-in speaker at the base that you can use to listen to playback of a file. But if you need to check for good sound quality, or listen at reasonable volume, then plug some headphones into the 3.5mm stereo line-out/headphones socket.
The unit uses the micro-SD/SDHC cards, up to 32 gigs.
The maximum filesize, per recording, is 2 gigs.
When in fully-stopped and input-monitoring modes, the unit shows the amount of remaining recording time available when using the current recording mode (WAV/MP3 bit-rates and depths).
If the unit decides an inserted card needs formatting, it will prompt you before doing so.
If you want to format a card, hold the trashcan button down while turning the unit on, and follow the prompts.
The unit can be powered via the USB port or batteries (it does not charge batteries in the unit).
The unit can be used as a USB microphone.
The unit can be used as a stereo-input/output audio interface.
The unit can be used as a SDHC card-reader.
The unit runs off a single AA cell. Alkaline and NiMH batteries are listed as supported types. Normal alkaline batteries are expected to last for up to ten hours.
The unit has a 1/4"–20 thread for mounting onto stands. The thread is cut into a plastic chassis, do not use any amount of force when screwing it.