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ZoomR20 4 November 2024

Hi folks,

I recently bought the Zoom R20 and I have a long list of questions but will try to address them on at a time in separate posts.  Hopefully I am in the right place.

So, firstly, I just bought the R20 and when I plug in to the first combo input - which is incredibly tight to both insert and remove the cable - I am hearing a loud hum.  Other end of the cable is plugged into my Taylor 322e 12-fret guitar.

I have the guitar volume turned to the mid point on all the knobs and the R20 seems to need to have the peak rotated almost to the max to hear the guitar in my headphones but then the hum also gets very loud and not useable.  If I turn it down where the hum is less, then the recording has very low volume and the waveforms are too small for a good capture.

Any suggestions to help with this?  I have not tested it with an electric yet.  

I have the R20 plugged directly into the wall power outlet.  I was thinking I might try it using batter power instead to see if that helps.  Any other suggestions that you might have?  Do I need a DI or anything else to eliminate the hum?

Thanks,

Larry

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Comments

Boswell Tue, 11/05/2024 - 04:35

The Taylor 322e 12 Fret is a lovely instrument. Assuming that the jack on the R20 is not damaged in some way, your problem sounds like a mismatch of impedance or of balanced/unbalanced connections. With the R20 powered off, try physically plugging the guitar lead into the line input jacks of the other channels to see if they have a similar mechanical stiffness to channel 1.

Does your guitar have the new ES2 pickup system, or is it the original behind-the-bridge piezo arrangement? Either way, it's important that you use a standard guitar lead (TS plugs) and not a balanced lead (TRS plugs) to get the pickup signal to an amp or to your R20 mixer.

The other thing to check is that you have the first channel of the R20 set to Hi-Z (instrument) and not as a line input.

ZoomR20 Tue, 11/05/2024 - 04:57

Boswell - How would I know if my guitar lead is TS vs TRS?  I use the same lead to plug it into my Fishman Loudbox amp with no issues.  The Taylor has the ES2 system.  I have seen many reviews of the Zoom R20 that complain about how tight the combo inputs are and I would say in my case it is an understatement. I need two hands to pull it out.  One to hold the machine and the other to pull the lead out. I have ordered a couple of right angle adapters that I will leave plugged in to avoid this issue but it is definitely an engineering failure.

I may end up using a microphone if I can figure out how to get decent volume from my condenser mic with the phantom power.

 

ZoomR20 Fri, 11/08/2024 - 08:15

I tied my condenser mic with the R20 this morning and at first it was loud and clear and then very low and lots of noise (not hum).  I may have a bad XLR cable.  Any recommendations for brands on cables?

Also tried by Strat through my DI box with the ground switch and no hum and nice and loud.  My acoustic, though, is still too quiet going through the DI, so that seems like a puzzle.  Probably need a new XLR cable for the mic and then I can just mic it but shouldn't the acoustic through a DI still be reasonably loud?  I plugged in to DI and took the balanced output via XLR to the R20 input (albeit with a questionable cable).

 

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