Hi Andy, thank you for the invite. Let me know if you like the idea, and I'll upload the violin sep.

... Bellissimo!

Thank you, my friend. Uploading the sep in minutes.

The more I listen to it, the more I like the click track in the mix. It sounds cool as a percussion in my opinion!

What next? LOL

maybe ........ hammer dulcimer !

Great!

There may be a short delay......

o Learning how to use my new Zoom H4n recorder.
o Tuning all 78 strings on the dulcimer.
o - and then trying to play something musical : )

Mind if I try a little flute to this?

-Dan

Flute would be great to hear. Welcome to the project Dan.

Phew - that was hard work....

o The new Zoom H4n is great, once you get past the badly translated manual
o The tuner function of the H4n made tuning my dulcimer very easy
o Playing the dulcimer was the hard part! Needs lots more practise, but I have uploaded a mix for comments and opinions.

I'm interested in the H4n. Great, eh? Slurp...

Zoom H4n - I love it! Expensive though.

To review some of the problems that users find with the H4n visit the forum at http://www.2090.org/zoom/bbs/index.php - Most of the problems reported are due to the very poor manual, or due to users trying to do things the H4n can't do - like recording four separate mono tracks at once.

I put away the manual after reading through once, and then relied on experiments to find out what the clever designers had created in the device, rather than what the manual writers said. Gradually it all begins to make sense.

Recording quality is excellent. Operation can be complex because the H4n can do so many different things that it has to be complex. The designers have done a good job making the often used features easily available. Once the device has been set-up for a music recording session (using all the "complex" menus depending on what you want to do) then most functions needed during recording are simply accessed by pressing the buttons on the front of the device.
In each of the three modes (Stereo, 4Channel and Multitrack) the device remembers the setup used previously in that mode, which saves a lot of time. In Multitrack mode it even remembers different setups used within each "project".

When the H4n is in "MTR" (multitrack) mode it is ideal for working on Kompoz projects. Copy any number of stereo or mono WAV files (44.1kHz 16bit) into an H4n project folder by USB. Then assign up to three selected files in the H4n project to any of the H4n's "tracks" 1 2 3 or 4. (Stereo files use two linked tracks) Set levels and pan for each track. Reserve one or more tracks for recording. I generally use track 4 and record in mono. Set record mode to "Always New".
Then hit button "4" and press the record button twice. The H4n plays the selected files whilst also recording your own playing onto a new wav file automatically assigned to track 4.
Hit stop, and record again as before, and another wav file is recorded, with the previous WAV file held in store along with all the other project files. Repeat as many times as you like.

I must have recorded fifty dulcimer takes in this project. The final mix used only two of the WAV files, but the H4n could have happily recorded many more takes.

You could even do a stero mixdown ("bounce") within the H4n, but it is much easier to upload all the recorded wav files back into a computer for that.

Latency? None that I can detect by ear. Recording as above, with headphones held against the H4n stereo mic, I recorded the sync tone at the start of the tracks in this project. When copied into Audacity there was a 5 millisecond time lag between the original track and the recorded track sync tone. That is about the same delay as would be caused by standing just 2 metres away from another player (due to the finite speed of sound in air)!

Wow, very good and practical advice. And a clever job in measuring latency!

Should have some flute to go with this tomorrow late.

We should resurrect this project.

Or publish it as a finished project?
This mix is ready to use I think.

Unfortunately it's an mp3 and I lost all the project in my hard disk crash, as you already know. To get a WAV mix, it should be done again from the seps. And the mix should be better balanced (now it's "hotter" in the right channel). And the sync tone should be cut away. And you should decide what to do with the flute and dulcimer. Do you want to have fun trying a new mix with Reaper or you like better me to have a go?

Oh yes of course, the dreaded HD crash disaster strikes again.

Now the question of who could do a new remix, and maybe add some flute or dulicimer if that works......
Let's say that whoever feels any creative mixing urges first will be most welcome!

I have a zillion other things to do at the moment, so the field is wide open.