Portable mic setup: ZOOM F2 + Videomic Go 2
I was tinkering with the RODE Videomic Go 2 and found that if I used a TRS to TRS cable, the Zoom H1N would take a recording of the Videomic Go 2:
Here's the TRS to TRS cable I bought:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088CZLHGL?
And it got me thinking that the Zoom F2 being as portable, lightweight and small as it was would be an amazing travel setup in tandem with the Videomic Go 2.
In theory.
After all since the Zoom H1N could record with a Videomic Go 2, shouldn't the F2 work alongside 32 bit float recording?
So I bought the F2 and tested it and it worked!
And to an extent - it was 32 bit float recording!
But soon after I was disappointed. It would actually clip when I would get too loud and the audio was unrecoverable. Some audio I could recover, some I couldn't. Some parts of the audio could be recovered but there was a limitation to how much it could recover. I'm not entirely sure whether this is a limitation of the F2 itself and that it's specifically for lav microphones (its intentional use) or that it couldn't handle the Rode Videomic Go 2. Overall I did find that the F2 with Rode Videomic Go 2 could handle all conversational audio and even much louder takes. But anything where I intentionally shouted very loudly, it would clip the audio - and some of it was not recoverable.
So I then tested this with the Zoom F3 and Zoom F6. With those interfaces I needed to get the Rode VXLR Plus XLR to 3.5mm Female TRS Transforming Adapter. And what I noticed is that while recording very very loud takes, the audio wouldn't directly clip. It would show as not clipping. But when I brought them to my computer to edit, the audio would come out distorted.
That was strange to me!
So I then put this to the test on my computer. I turned on the RODE Central App, enabled the PAD and put the recording volume as low as I possibly could. I then yelled into the microphone as loud as I could and found that while it would still record and not show as clipping - the audio was distorted. My overall conclusion is that this microphone just wasn't intended for extremely loud volume takes. But it would be perfectly fine for conversational audio and the occasional loud bits.
