Great care has been taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of this article but neither Sound On Sound Limited nor the publishers can be held responsible for its contents. Used as an audio interface, the L-8 can record full episodes directly to your computer and an SD card simultaneously.

Zoom LiveTrak L-8 Podcast Recorder, Battery Powered, Digital

At minimum, on Mac, it would be nice if it selected the same Stereo channels that the rest of the Mac Apps do. You can punch-in and overdub with ease, then transfer your work to your favorite DAW for fine tuning. Operation generally is super easy: the manual, though helpful, isn’t essential to get started, and the on‑screen menus are mercifully shallow.Zoom’s new LiveTrak L-8 takes this same ‘go-anywhere’ ethos and applies it to the relatively terrestrial world of studio/podcast peripherals, and the results are liberating to say the least. Recording with overdub is definitely is not the overdub you know from DAWs, so don't expect it to work like a guitar looper.

Zoom LiveTrak L-8 – Thomann UK

Andertons Music Company acts as a credit broker and not a lender and only offers credit products from Secure Trust Bank PLC trading as V12 Retail Finance. So let’s take a closer look at what this thing can do — and what it cannot — starting with its role as a digital mixer, before moving on to the USB interfacing and standalone recording side of things. Zoom LiveTrak L-8 makes it easier than ever to mix, monitor and record professional-sounding podcasts and music performances in one portable, affordable package. The neutral‑sounding broad‑brush EQ is exactly what’s required here, and I found a handful of the effects (mainly the reverbs) very usable, even if I always wanted to tweak the default settings to something that sounded less obvious.

The multitask buttons, aid navigation through the menus, along with enabling recording and playback settings.

Operation Manual - ZOOM Operation Manual - ZOOM

I’m still scratching my head as to how they managed to pull this off, as the amount of processing on offer (not to mention the ability to run 6 phantom powered mics simultaneously), would normally render the need for a wall mounted power supply, completely inescapable.All channels have a channel select button, record/play button, and channel mute, along with a channel fader with 9-segment LED level indicator. Perhaps one of the more impressive aspects of the LiveTrak L-8 (and one that definitely impressed this reviewer) is when you realise that all of the aforementioned features are powered by the USB Bus alone, something that would have previously been inconceivable a few years ago.

Zoom L-8 LiveTrak - ZOOM Europe Zoom L-8 LiveTrak - ZOOM Europe

The L-8 lacks any parametric EQ or compression, and no EQ on the outputs, the hybrid digital/analog controls are fiddly and require concentration, so it's not intuitive. Zoom LiveTrak L-8 makes it easier than ever to mix, monitor and record professional-sounding podcasts and music performances in one portable, affordablepackage. In addition to the master stereo channel and the stereo EFX RTN, the mixer has eight input channels.

The fact that it fits so easily into a backpack, makes the L-8 an absolute must-have for anyone lacking a dedicated recording space or for the itinerant producer looking to take their recordings outside the bedroom. Change the track state to Playback and hit the Rwd button, and you can audition what you recorded and adjust the channel settings to taste. The assignable pads allow for ongoing SFX gags (if that is your vibe) and the onboard faders and multiple headphone outs do a lot to keep everyone in check from a volume/monitoring perspective.