Zoom PodTrak P4 Podcast Recorder, Battery Powered, 4 Microphone Inputs, 4 Headphone Outputs, Phone and USB Input for Remote Interviews, Sound Pads, 2-In/2-Out Audio Interface

I’ve done some professional sound for movies and what not. When it comes to many things in life, I’m of the “simple/easy is usually better.” I’ve paid a premium for some professional location sound recorders based mainly on how intuitive and easy they’ve been to use. And this little recorder is just about as intuitive and easy to figure out and operate as anything I’ve ever used. In fact, I’ve had no need to even read a manual.I’ll not get into all the technical side of things. I feel enough reviewers have already done that. Plus, there’re YouTube videos and scores of reviews online concerning all the stats. Also, my feeling is many opinions in the AV field are just subjective thoughts based on the reviewers needs, prejudices and biases. What works for one person may not for another. Let’s not get tangled up in the weeds talking about dB, signal to noise, etc over a $200 piece of consumer gear (unless the recordings are totally unusable... which they are not). “I can’t believe this piece of trash isn’t on par with the latest $8k recorder from company X” said no one ever (or someone totally clueless). Enough rant.Right out of the box I figured this recorder out. Everything just seems so logical. Four XLR mic ins on the top and right below each is a corresponding Gain knob. The knobs are labeled 0-10 and are smooth turning (no click stops). If I had a subtle gripe, it may be that the Gain knobs had a little more tension or a raised piece of plastic next to them to prevent accidental adjustment. This actually happened once when a cord hit the dial.Below the Gain knobs are switches with icons. The first to inputs have two switchable positions. First is the icon of a mic and second is mic with a lighting bolt. If you don’t know, there are two basic types of mics... powered and unpowered. Guess which is which?? So easy. The next input has three selections. The first two are the same, however the third is an icon of a cell phone. This unit has something called a mix-minus built into it with the ability to interview people on a cell phone. No guess what the third selection is for. The fourth input has three selections as well. The first two are again the same as the other three inputs, while the third position has a USB icon above it. Wow... wonder what that could be for??Under the switches are four single buttons with icons featuring a speaker symbol with a slash over it representing... Mute. The buttons even light up red when activated. As I hope you’re seeing, this unit is so easy even a trained badger could use it.On the very bottom of the unit are four 1/4 inch jacks for headphones. Each are lined up with the four inputs and each has a dial labeled 0-10 for setting headphone volume.I’m the middle of the recorder is the “complicated” part. To the left are four light-able buttons labeled A-D. These are the four sound pad buttons. Each plays a pre-installed sound clip. The user also has the ability to install there own custom clips. Don’t quote me, however I feel Zoom has some free downloadable sounds. Below the pads is another 0-10 knob to control the Gain of the sound pads.To the right of the sound pads is the backlit, monochrome LCD screen. The most important info during recording is displayed here. Record Time, each channel level, master level, battery level and a black dot signifying Record. There’s also a nice “Goodbye” when powering the unit down lol. One thing I did notice with the screen was that when using AA batteries, the backlight turned off after a short period. When using an external USB power source, the backlight never turned off. This may be a power saving thing for AAs and maybe mine were running low. However I couldn’t find a setting to turn the backlight ON permanently. If the backlight only stays on with a power bank, I’d be wary of using AA batteries. This could be a deal breaker for people who were only looking to use this with AAs. I mean, the levels and time of recording are pretty important bits of info to be left in the dark on.Below the LCD screen are the four main buttons of business. Each is labeled with a icon on the button and (below) as each button serves dual purposes. The first button is the Menu button, followed by the Play/Pause button (Up Selector), then the Stop button (Down Selector) and finally Record button (ENTER Selector). I don’t have time get into the Menu of the unit, however there aren’t a ton of selections and I feel it’s as intuitive and easy to navigate and understand as the rest of the unit. It does have lo-cut and limiters for those who care. Above the Record button is Red LED that lights up while recording. It also lights up when the unit is powered ON.On the right side of the unit is the power button and two jacks. The power button needs to be held in for a second or two when powering the unit On or Off. The two jacks serve several purposes. The 1/4 jack has a cellphone icon next to it. This is where you plug in... your laptop. Work with me, your cellphone for your call-in interviews. The other jack combines with the 1/4 when using the optional Zoom BTA-2 Bluetooth adapter. The $50 adapter is kind of pricey, however if you need it, I guess you need it. I do not.On the left side is plastic door behind which the FULL SIZE SD card is hidden. Some units out there (that I also own) use a MicroSD, which I feel was a huge gaff. I also mentioned the door being plastic, as some SD slots are covered by rubber (not a fan). The door snaps firmly in place and even takes a little finagling to get open. I don’t see it opening by accident.Beside the SD slot are two USB-C ports. A little surprise was that the two ports are behind a metal plate. Just a nice touch to add some extra sturdiness. The two ports are for 5V DC power and a USB connection. Both are clearly labeled. However... here is one slight caveat of this unit, and it’s somewhat unavoidable. Since both the ports are USB-C, I feel someone somewhere has already plugged power into the USB connection. As someone who once did this on an expensive video field monitor, I can tell you the results were regrettable. Plugging a computer connection into the power will probably not do a thing other than probably confuse you as to why your computer isn’t identifying the unit. However, plugging power into the computer connection... let’s not find out. Only quip about that, but only other option was to have two different USB connections for each (which make little sense).Finally I’ll mention build quality. Turns out there are many levels of plastic quality. I don’t feel this constructed from the top tier plastic used on a space shuttle, whiner I also don’t think it’s total trash that will melt in the sun. The plastic feels sturdy enough to me. I saw a video that said it couldn’t survive a six foot drop. I can also say that I don’t go around dropping my gear to test it’s durability. I feel it’s durable enough for my needs, which include throwing it in a backpack.Well, the tour is over. I hope I’ve covered most of the features and have bedazzled you into how simple this recorder is to use. For all the complainers out there I say... it’s $200 !!! What do you want for $200 !!! It’s stupid ez to use and if you’re only looking to do podcasts and not a full studio mix of a seven instrument band... buy this recorder.Nuff said. Peace out.And don’t forget to spay and neuter your pets.

This little box will record or stream 4 channels of audio and fits in the palm of your hand!Amazingly, it also provides phantom power to condenser microphones - but you will need an external usb power brick to get any reasonable life out of it. I use it to gather back-round sounds from nature, or sometimes to record a multi-person conference. The specifications are not incredible, but are very good and for the price this was the best portable recording option for me personally and I am very happy with it. I just might upgrade to the 8 track model sooner rather than later!

Pretty easy to use. Watch YouTube videos and don’t rely on the manual for much. Still considered a top contender in 2025. I highly recommend this for those who want a simple mixer with quite excellent feature and xlr inputs.

Freakin cool little unit. If you’re starting in podcasting, this thing is perfect. You can hook 4 mics up to it via XLR cables, save all the podcast on an SD card, plug headphones into it, you can put intro music into it and it works it in to your podcast. Very intuitive little tool. Definitely recommend.

Este grabador, pensado y diseñado para producción de podcasts, me ha resultado útil para registrar audio de entrevistas para un proyecto documental. Su versatilidad y facilidad de transporte y operación lo hacen recomendable para proyectos que exigen desplazamientos.

This thing is a game changer right out of the box!! Super easy setup and the sound is amazing and crystal clear. Excellent piece of equipment for my podcast. Highly recommended!!

Cumplió con mis expectativas!

I've owned and used the Zoom P4 for over 6 months at the time of this review. It has held up nicely with no issues. I'm quite gentle with it, so I can't speak to it's durability.Pros:The audio quality is crystal clear.There is plenty of clean gain available.Each of the 4 mic inputs has +48 phantom power & mute option independently from one another (options that many interfaces and mixers do not have).Though I have not taken the P4 anywhere, it's very lightweight and portable.It has options to use either batteries or 5V usb to power it. And when using batteries, it does power up for quite a while. Much longer than any recording session I've ever done.This option gives the ability to have battery backup for recordings.I like the ability to connect phone and computer to it and send and receive audio from both devices.The P4 is a great option to use as a phone audio interface. I've used it quite a bit just to record high quality audio to my phone. And it's great to use for clean audio on phone calls as well.The mix- function works flawlessly. Making it super easy to use the P4 for call in conversations without feedback echo to the caller.It will record hours and hours of audio with even a small 8gb micro SD card installed.The P4 allows for dual (or triple) recording simultaneously.Recording on an installed SD card and a computer and/or phone (or any other USB or trs/trrs device).This makes this interface very versatile.It's super easy to record or load pre-recorded sound to the sound pad.The sound pad has a volume control, just like the 4 mic gains and 4 headsets.Cons:16-bit/44.1 khz max recording/transmission resolution.Most USB interfaces & mixers have a minimum of 16-bit/48 khz resolution.I will say that in practice I cannot distinguish the difference in sound between the 2, however.Because of ultra compact size of this unit, there is no XLR or line output. Though you can use one of the headphone outputs if necessary, the sound quality will suffer a bit, as noise (hiss) will be introduced. The higher the volume, the more the noise.The P4's all plastic exterior doesn't instill confidence that it will withstand accidental abuse.