Zoom H4 - ASIO via USB2 - on WIN7

[Lex Music]

I finally managed to get some stability using a Zoom H4.
If these comments and tips help anyone - great!

Hardware setup:

• on old H4 portable recorder (2 integrated microphones and 2 XLR line imputs)
  
• an old laptop running WIN7
  
• USB2 cable to link H4 to the laptop
  
• headphones connected to H4 (well obviously)
  

H4 Firmware and Drivers

• mine was running Ver-1 firmware which does not operate ASIO
  
• it needs an upgrade to Ver2.4 which was downloaded from Zoom site
  
• to upgrade, place the 'system.bin' file in the root directory of the SD card (that is inside H4)
  
• power up H4 with an external power supply and while pressing the round MENU button down
  
• ASIO driver is also downloaded from the Zoom site and installed on the laptop
  
• here is a tip, if the driver does not install at first, try installing it in a compatibility mode
  
• to do this > right click on the driver file > click Properties > select 'Compatibility' tab > select a compatibility mode e.g. XP or Vista
  

J-K Setup

• if the H4 does not pass J-K latency test at first, click 'Tweaking ASIO Device Parameters' - a link below some notes on the right of the window
  
• open ASIO Control Panel (can also be opened by MANAGE > AUDIO PROPERTIES > CONFIGURATIONS > ASIO...
  
• adjust latency on ASIO to 10mSec (mine was set to 2msec and was failing J-K latency tests until I adjusted it to 10mSec)
  
• at that stage everything was 'smooth sailing'
  
• use 44kHz as the sampling rate
  
• in 'next steps' of the J-K setup process, choose audio inputs (microphones in my case) and outputs (Line / Headphones)
  
  

That's it - hope it works for you too!
Cheers, Lex