Olympus WS-110 digital voice recorder
I've had rotten luck with voice recorders. Quite a few micro-cassette recorders have conked out on me over the years (sometimes while conducting interviews for magazine articles). Once I used a minidisc recorder and ejected the disk without first stopping the recording and I lost everything.
When I interviewed Martha Stewart for Wired last year, I used both a tape recorder and a microphone attachment for my iPod to record our conversation. When we sat down to talk, I decided at the last second to I pull out my laptop and used the built-in mic to record the conversation.
When I got back to the hotel room and turned on my three recording devices, I learned that the tape recorder and iPod didn't record the conversation (probably my fault), but the laptop recording was OK. If I hadn't used the laptop, I would have been dead in the water. No way would Martha have granted me another interview.
Currently I'm writing a book about DIY, and I'm interviewing a bunch of alpha-DIYers. As I'll be walking around talking to people in their yards, workshops, launch-sites, compounds, and so on, using a computer to record my interviews with them is not practical. Last week I bought an Olympus WS-110 digital voice recorder. So far, it's worked beautifully. The interface was pretty easy to figure out, and the built-in USB plug is very handy. I just stick it my computer and it mounts like a disk. I copy the file (WMA format -- bummer) and use ffmpegX to convert it to MP3. Then I use the excellent Listen&Type to play the audio file when I transcribe.
It uses a single AAA battery (advertised to run 21 hours per battery), and you can switch the microphone between dictation and conference mode. The 256 MB of flash memory records almost 18 hours in the high quality mode (which is what I use) and 69 hours in the lowest-quality mode. I guess you could use the thing as a jump drive, too.
I'll let you know if this thing let's me down, but so far I have a good feeling about it.
Olympus WS-110 ($64.68 at Amazon)
the latest
latest episodes
When an interviewer screws up the recording of a conversation with Martha Stewart, is anything actually lost?
I have it:
wma only, 28 bit, so fairly poor quality.
mike pickup is a-ok
...and you use it for general USB duty
i give it a 6 of 10
Cool - I'm a reporter myself, and I've used either an Olympus DM-10 or DM-20 the last few years. I've used a few (some have been company bought and thus non-transferable from job to job), but never had one conk out. It's a pleasure when you buy something that actually works, eh?
Don't lose the software CD for this device or you're going to have to pony up the cash for them to ship a new one to you. Olympus seems to be really bad about providing software from their website.
I have a different Olympus (would tell you the model, but apparently it's not where I thought it was right now... crap.). It's been really good to me, after the hassle of using microcassette recorders and then searching through tapes, loading them into a better transcription playback deck ('cause the speakers are usually crap...). When I got mine, the Olympus was the only digital recorder that I could find that just showed up as a mass storage device, instead of requiring proprietary software (Sony...), so I was able to use it on my Mac. That in itself was a great feature (a necessary feature, really.) but overall the whole unit is amazingly impressive. I can even use it as a USB microphone if I need to record something straight to my computer, or talk to someone on Skype or whatever. One last comment, anyone who uses an Olympus on a Mac, the software Olympus bundles for the Mac is okay, but not great. I highly recommend making the slight investment into Bartas Technologies' Transcriva. It's affordable and the best transcription solution I've found so far.
I got one of these recorders about a month ago, and it works great. It will also play mp3 files, so you can pre-load it with audio you need to listen to in the field. I was recently watching a press conference on TV, and counted no fewer than 15 of these in reporters' outstretched hands.
I've been working with the cheap Olympus VN-240 for interivews until it failed me recently by claiming that it's memory was full when I'd only recorded 2 minutes. I guess I'll try upgrading to one of it's more expensive, but probably more reliable, cousins.
Correction - mine is a different model. It's the WS-311M that has mp3 playback.
I'm also a reporter and started with the Olympus WS-300M, but moved up to the Samson Zoom H2, for better audio fidelity. Of course, on a really important interview, I have at least two recorders running.
I haven't seen this in person, but the detachable piece seems like questionable design. I work a lot from home, and I'd give it about a week before my daughter makes off with it - leaving me with an oddly-shaped recorder.
I don't get it. Why not use your mobile phone? The audio pickup is great quality (hell, that's kind of their raison d'etre) and these days, with 4 or more GB of internal memory and more on an expansion card if required, they'll record days and days of audio at reasonable quality. If your recording needs can be satisfied by the awful internal microphone in a laptop, then it seems using a decent mobile phone should leave you ecstatic.
To #4, Thalarion:
There is no driver disk. Pop it into a USB drive, copy off the WMA files. Works like a charm with Linux, Mac.
To #6, ejkdreamer:
This model probably does NOT play MP3 files. Some do, some don't. The one in the picture is one of the non-MP3 models. They cost less. You can tell because the record and play buttons are on the front. The MP3 models have record, stop, and play on the side.
Note to anybody using one of these things: be careful about batteries. I use mine (WS-300M) to record to-do lists, and play the occasional MP3. A brand-new "grocery-store-brand" battery and a brand-new "Meritline" battery were both reported as near-dead very fast (a few days) during playback, while my Sandisk MP3 player considers those batteries to be full. Mine really like Energizer batteries (last a couple of months).
Also, there are reports of this series of recorders loosing your ENTIRE recording if the battery dies in the middle. Not a big deal if you use it for a bunch of small "to do" items (like I do). If you use it for a big interview, fill it with a brand-new Energizer. The battery meter is also not to accurate, as the thing takes very little juice when it is idle, so the battery voltage shows high. However, if you start to actually use the unit, the voltage may sag enough to cause you problems.
One drawback that I have noticed with mine: you can't move recordings from one folder to another, unless you use a computer to copy the file. Not a big deal to live with, but probably not a big deal for Olympus to fix in a firmware update either.
I've conducted anthropological interviews and recorded focus groups using the Olympus DS-40 and I absolutely love the little bugger. Its sensitivity is amazing (with Conference, Lecture, and Dictation settings) and has 512mb internal flash memory. Retail is $200 but Amazon has it for $150. I think it's a total must have for intense interviewing.
i've used a number of recorders, but was blown away when i picked up an old sony clie peg-ux50 from ebay a few years ago on a whim. it wasn't so great with most of its functions (and the non-upgradeable palm OS), but i found the audio recorder application to be exceptional. was really amazed at the quality - even 30 feet + from the source - and the ease of moving the files around. the recording time is basically unlimited with a 1 gig flash memory stick. i had to install a new battery to get wire-free, but now i use it all the time... interviews, lectures, impromptu discussions with colleagues, etc.
If you can use it as a jump drive, why are we still sitting around in this one measly solar system?
*flees, ducking hail of aging vegetables*
I am a special investigator for an insurance company and we use the WS-110 to take recorded statements over the phone. It is very PC friendly. You send it over to KK at Cool Tools.
I'm a journalist, and you've just described why I bend over backwards to avoid recording interviews. I take great notes. Pen and paper is much more robust than your fancy-lad "electronic recording devices."
Yup I use this exact same recorder for all my phone interviews I do for Starwars.com and GEEK magazine and it works like a dream. I hook it up to my landline phone through a Radio Shack Mini Recorder Control. Never had any probs with it and it's great to use to record panel discussions at cons too.
Does anybody know of something like this for music? Something with decent fidelity that i can just download to my mac when I'm done.
I have been using specifically this model for a whole semester - recording lectures in my university. Even sitting half-room away from the professor it can pick up the voice. There is absolutely no software that you need for this player - stick in and you have the files in one of the 5 folders (select which one when you record).
Battery is amazing - as advertised (I think it's more for me - I've turned off the beeping and the lights when it records).
Cheers!
@18
I have a DS-30 that I use for notes and music. Both the DS-30 and the DS-40 have stereo recording. The quality is fine for demos. However, if you want a model with linear PCM 24/96 and a ton more features, want you actually want is the LS-10. Many pro-musicians carry it around with them. Much more pricey, though. While you can get a DS-30 for $70 on eBay, an LS-10 will run you at least 4.5 times that much. It is purty, though, great fidelity, you get to choose your recording format, removable expansion slot.
Olympus seems to be the way to go for these portable recorders. Their software blows, and when/if I ever upgraded to a DS-40, I'd feel like I was getting overcharged just to add some memory. But in terms of the quality of the device, it's hard to beat.
Just wanted to quickly add that Express Scribe is a great stable and long-standing freeware version of a commercial application. It's kept updated and is extremely functional for all transcribing needs (used it for endless hours of documentary footage transcription). Runs on Win and Linux as well.
Express Scribe
The Zoom H2 Is probably the best voice recorder you can buy without breaking the bank and being able to keep it in your pocket.
Speaking from expereince, this is a great little recorder. The only issue I've found is the built-in mic ain't so hot. I usually use it with an external mic (any cheapo job will do) and then the sound quality is pristine. I don't think this differs much from other recorders. I've heard other writers say they usually need a mic.
I also use express scribe to transcribe interviews (which I despise). I'm actually in the process of outsourcing my transcription which turns out to be pretty cheap. Some folks can even turn it around in 24 hours.
(I have to transcribe for legal reasons because I write a lot of case studies).
I used a WS 300M while I was working for Newsforge, covering everything from Moscone Center conference keynotes to 1-on-1 interviews. I continue to use it for blog interviews and dictation 5(?) years later - never had a problem: it's a workhorse, despite its diminutive size.
The WS 300M's internal mikes are amazing. While driving to an interview with a computer scientist at Stanford, a Novell publicist called me on the cell phone and said I could have a long sought-after 15 minutes with Novell's then-new CFO if I could do it right now. I put the cell phone on 'speaker,' started the WS 300M, put both on the passenger's seat, and, amazingly, got a perfectly useful transcription.
I've done podcasts using clips from the WS 300M, including recordings made from a speakerphone (with permission, of course). I use a Mac: Flip4Mac does a nice job of playing/converting the WMA-format interviews to QT or other format that I drop into iTunes, which is a great tool for managing interview audio. It's easy to export to MP3 and/or an editor like Audacity or Adobe's Soundbooth.
See the Iaudio 7 if you're looking for a better mix of mp3/flac/ogg audio playback and mp3 mic+line in recording (available in 4,8 and 16 gb versions --flash based). Highly recommended.
H
My favorite voice recorder is the Sony ICD-UX70 (or 80). It records directly to MP3, weighs almost nothing, the bottom snaps off to reveal the USB interface, and works perfectly on any computer. No custom software required. It comes with 1GB of flash memory to record 18 hours at 44.1khz/128kbps stereo audio. The UX80 comes with 2GB of memory.
We've found the UX70 for $90. Worth every penny.
BTW, it works extremely well with the open source Transcriber program -- http://trans.sourceforge.net
Man, I'm actually having real, honest to god deja vu for the first time. Didn't we have this discussion (possibly about a different model, but complete with somebody claiming not to trust any of them and insisting on taking real fast notes) a few months ago?
Anyway, I use an Olympus VN-960 PC and I love it. It just works. It's not broadcast quality, but who am I kidding, I'm a print journalist. And every "broadcast quality" solution I've used in the past has been expensive and, sooner or later, has screwed me to the wall and left me hanging. The Olympus never has given me a bit of trouble.
Hey Mark, we do a lot of transcription-based research here at my university. Most of us have standardized on the Olympus IC recorders (my group uses Sony), and people really seem to like them. We have something like 50 of them floating around the faculty and I've never heard an unkind word.
But for transcription, I really recommend ExpressScribe, which has tons of features, is available for Windows or Mac, and is free. Also, pick up an Infinity USB transcription pedal (works with ExpressScribe without even any settings) and transcribing is almost painless.
I bought one of these for my lectures at uni a couple of years ago. It's great!
I've an Olympus VN-4100PC I picked up for forty quid (~ $80) for a project to record my 97-year-old grandmother's recollections. 4 days' continuous recording capacity; I use rechargeable batteries and just carry some spares when I need it to work. On the down side it *doesn't* just mount as USB mass storage when plugged in - I have to use someone else's Windows PC to run the crappy software tool, which hides the raw files (in .wav format) away in an obscure sub-directory; I always end up using doing a "find c:/Documents\ and\ Settings/ -iname "*wav" " to find 'em (Cygwin... don't leave a real OS without it!) .
The feature I'd like to see is the ability to take dictation off the recorder and put it directly into a speech recognition program to produce drafts of manuscripts, etc.
Yes, I know SRP's aren't all that accurate, especially for casually spoken material, but would cleaning up SRP-produced text be faster and/or easier than sitting at a keyboard and transcribing from an audio replay?
(What brought this to mind was a SFWA BULLETIN article a year or so ago where Kevin J. Anderson wrote about dictating first drafts of books while taking long walks.)
Oh, silly me! I just checked the Express Scribe FAQ, and you actually can hook it up directly to SRP. Has anyone here tried this?
I've got the Olympus WS-100 (the earlier version of yours) and have been very happy with it so far. Thanks for the tips on all the dictation/transcription software!
I'll second the recommendation for the Cowon iAudio 7.
Its interface isn't as smooth as the iPod, but it's a nice little MP3 player, FM radio, and audio recorder, with built-in mic and input jack. I haven't done a real interview with it yet, but the built-in mic quality seemed good in tests.
Probably not a primary recorder for serious interviewers, but definitely good as a backup or for casual interviews.
I have a couple of the previous model - the WS-100 - which is also completely plug & play on mac and linux (and workmates tell me on windows too, but I've never tried). The main advantage of the 100 is it's a bit smaller than the 110 (and may be cheaper if you can still find it).
Nores (#28):
Quite possibly - and it's quite possible I was the guy who said that about note-taking vs. recording interviews. It's one of my hobbyhorses.
It's not just the issue of unreliable technology - by forcing myself to take great notes I'm forcing myself to think about what the person is saying, and how I'll write it up, even during the interview.
Thinking about the article during the interview is important - I learned it from a writing coach after I'd already been a reporter more than ten years. Many journalists view reporting as a two-step process -- FIRST you research, THEN you write. But you should view it as a single, continuous process. When someone makes a comment requiring follow-up, make a note of the follow-up question right on the spot so you don't forget to ask it. If someone says something requiring comment from someone else, make a note of that too.
While you're taking notes, you think about what makes a good quote, and what can and should be paraphrased. You think about what points should be near the top of the story as soon as you hear those points. And, if you're taking notes at a keyboard (which is how I prefer to work), you can actually move those things around while you work.
If you rely on a tape recorder, each interview is many times longer than it needs to be, because first you're recording the interview and then you're listening to the interview and transcribing it.
Meh, sound quality on these is kind of mediocre.
Ever single Archos hard drive based player / recorder (I've had 3 over the years) I've had has _excellent_ recording quality, terrific battery life during recordings and I've never had a file get munged by one.
The built in microphones are very good.
External mics can also be plugged in (standard 3.5mm headphone jack type connector) and some even include spdif in and out.
Standard WAV file format, mounts like a USB drive, no software needed.
No DRM or any of that garbage in audio recording (I think the AV500 sees macrovision in video recordings - you can record DVDs, but not output them over)
Video recording via a tiny camera or RCA in is also supported in some (all current models?)
I've owned the Jukebox Recorder v2 (2002?), the AV500 and another one. All were in the area of $150-$250.
I use this device and have been generally pleased with it. The audio quality is great, but I feel like the battery life isn't quite what I was expecting. I suppose that's what you get from only one AAA
Radio Shack's $24.99 Tie-Clip Omnidirectional Electret Microphone #33-3013 works very well with the Olympus WS-110. I use this small, lightweight combo to capture a better audio track (post-edited with GoldWave) while shooting on-the-cheap training presentations with a digital video camera.
Meh, sound quality on these is kind of mediocre.
Ever single Archos hard drive based player / recorder (I've had 3 over the years) I've had has _excellent_ recording quality, terrific battery life during recordings and I've never had a file get munged by one.
The built in microphones are very good.
External mics can also be plugged in (standard 3.5mm headphone jack type connector) and some even include spdif in and out.
Standard WAV file format, mounts like a USB drive, no software needed.
No DRM or any of that garbage in audio recording (I think the AV500 sees macrovision in video recordings - you can record DVDs, but not output them over)
Video recording via a tiny camera or RCA in is also supported in some (all current models?)
I've owned the Jukebox Recorder v2 (2002?), the AV500 and another one. All were in the area of $150-$250.
Don't you own an iPod? How about an iTalk?
Just in case it might help.
#19 posted by bradyspud
Does anybody know of something like this for music? Something with decent fidelity that i can just download to my mac when I'm done.
I use the Zoom H2. Records straight to MP3 (selectable bitrate up to 320kbps), to MMC/SD cards. Great mics on that thing, plus it has a line-in jack for plugging in direct to mixing boards (perfect, noise free recordings). Uses standard AA batteries, and there are volume level monitors on the LCD for left/right channels.
The only problem I see with it is the lack of up/down cursor button forces you to use the left/right button to move the cursor on the menus up/down. It's a bit weird, but you'd get use to it.
The portable recording device market is in dire need of help. I mean, this thing costs $65, and it only records in WMA 28-bit. It's terrible. The cheapest devices that record actual wav or high-bitrate mp3 format are hundreds and hundreds of dollars. We're talking about very large and expensive devices from M-Audio or Marantz.
There is a huge market for a device that fits the space in-between. All it needs is a decent built-in microphone, an SDHC slot, a USB connector, and maybe one or two stereo mini microphone inputs. Then just give it the ability to record to wav and various mp3 bitrates.
No product in that middle area exists. This Olypus recorder is as good as it gets for the low -end. The next step up is ludicrously expensive professional high-end kind of product that an actual radio station will buy. Someone needs to make the in-between product.
@ #43, I second all of your comments. I've steered clear of all the fancy "voice-recorder" specific devices, just because it seems like they're overcharging for what they're putting in them. 256mb of memory? seriously? in 2008?
I've been using a sandisk sansa clip for my interviews, just because I can walk and talk with them. the mic is hilariously low quality, but it's still fine at getting voice, and being able to clip in on my shirt or pocket and move around with the subject, without holding a device in the air like a toolbag has been AWEsome. having the device disappear is essential. not even a mic with a wire is as discreet.
plus they always say, "good god that thing is tiny."
About Express Scribe. I used it a few years ago and discovered that though it claims to read a number of file types, such as MP3, it converts anything not a wav file to a wav file before it offers it to you for listening.
This means that if you have an mp3 recording of an hour-long interview, Express Scribe is going to convert that into one whopping big wav file. The sneaky thing is, it puts the wav file in a location that is hard to find -- somewhere in your Windows directory, as I recall.
I discovered this after using the program for a number of long interviews and noticing that my hard drive space was getting seriously eaten by something that seemed to be taking gigabyte chunks out of it.
The culprit was Express Scribe.
If this has changed, someone say so and I'll give it another try.
A friendly, free alternative is Sound Scriber, found at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~ebreck/sscriber.html
John Governale
PS Bravo to you for using ReCaptcha
I investigated the Express Scribe situation myself and found this in their forum (see http://nch.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=7227)
A writer says:
"I'm having some problems in that every time I load a file I start running out of hard drive space. For example a 17 MB file is taking up 220 MB on my hard drive once it's loaded. . . ."
The answer reveals where the wav files are hidden:
" . . . If you have a number of files you want to delete from "current," go into c:\documents and settings\[username]\application data\nch swift sound\scribe\current. . . ."
Back when I had the problem, it took me awhile to discover that location on my own.
Having hijacked the thread to talk about Express Scribe woes, let me repent and come back to the Olympus WS-110.
I haven't used one -- I used a cheap MP3 player with a voice record function -- but the secretary in a town office where I cover meetings as a news reporter uses the WS-110 and swears by it.
She told the chair of one committee to stop playing with the gavel -- he would idly unscrew the head from the handle, then screw it back on -- because the Olympus picked up the sound and it bothered her when transcribing.
John Governale