Multi-effects pedal with 42 programmable / editable presets. I believe this is a digital device. The main effects categories this unit has includes compressor/limiter, wah, "drive", Equalizer, noise suppressor, pitch modulation, delay, and reverb. All effects can be used at the same time, which is great. Within the modulation category, you can set the unit for flange, chorus, phaser, tremolo, just to name a few. You can also choose between 4 different amp models as well as an additional 7 types of "drive." Connections are a standard input and output as well as a 9volt connector for power supply. The output also doubles as a headphone in, which is cool. Unfortunately, the presets/effects cannot be edited via a Mac/PC editor utility program. This is designed as a floor pedal, so it is not rackable.

The actual face of the pedal is easy to understand and utilize. As far as actually navigating the presets in order to tweak them or modify them,the unit takes some playing around with. This is where the manual, though long, comes in. The manual is very self-explanatory and explains the operation simply and easily. The only reason the manual is so long and why it takes a long time to figure out the extent of this unit's capabilities is because there are so many options/sounds that can be coaxed out of this little unit.

For being digital, the effects on this little unit are very solid, and many of them are sufficiently realistic. For example, I feel it does the Fender Twin very well. Use that setting on any amp, close your eyes, and you'd swear there's a Fender Twin right beside you. If you want a Mesa or a Marshall, you can have something darn close to them. There is a Soldano lead setting, and a psychedelic Jimmy Hendrix sound. The standard wah sound is pretty spot on as well. If you want to sound like standard Eddie Van Halen, or if you want his "unchained" flanging sound, this unit can give you both, and is pretty much right on the money. There is a tweed preset with a cool tremolo effect that sounds great for country, western, or blues. If I had to name some cons, the acoustic modeler is not that great. There are also 2 entire "banks" or sets of 6 presets that are kind of cheesy sounding for the most part. But the great news is that these can be edited, so you have room to create your own unique presets. Overall, I've got so many sounds at my disposal with just this one unit. Much cheaper than buying several pedals, or even worse, several amps. I use this unit only with my Ibanez RG 120, and it is perfect.

Whoh- this thing is pretty amazing.

If you're looking for an affordable field recorder- this sucker is where its at. It records directly to .wav or mp3 so you can dump the files directly onto your computer and tinker with them. It features two great condenser mics for left and right stereo recordings and does very well just dropped in a room.

I've recorded many, many live shows with the H4, both for myself and for others and have very rarely been disappointed with the results. There are adjustable gain levels for the built in mics as well as a built in EQ function.

If you're an amateur home studio type then you're in luck- the H4 also has two combo XLR / 0.25 inch mic inputs for you to hook up your own mics. Run this via the enclosed USB chord to your computer with the cubase that comes bundled with it and you've got your own portable home studio (especially if you've got a laptop!).

One very important thing to note however, is that its difficult to surpass the 'extremely good field recording' and reach the actual 'studio quality' recordings because of one fatal flaw of the H4. Its marketed as a 'four track mixer' but in fact only has two inputs (each that can take EITHER an XLR cable or ¼ inch input, but not both at the same time). This makes close micing fairly impossible if not merely improbable. More so- each mic records only to the Left or the Right channel, respectively, so that what ever is going in one mic is going in the right headphone and whatever is going in second mic is going in the Left. If you know your way around some digital editing software (like cubase, or audacity) than this can be overcome by splitting stereo tracks into two independent mono tracks- but that still means that at most you've only got two tracks you can record to at any one time.

For the money however, there is no better tool than the H4 for field recording and amateur portable home studio use.