Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder by Olympus
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Our Price: $304.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder
Digital camera Review: A Powerful Professional Tool
Summary: 4 Stars
The Olympus DS-40 delivers on its promise as a professional recording device. Its combination of small size, bright and informative display and ease of use, along with long battery life and excellent audio fidelity, makes it a must-buy for many users. The issues that hold it back from a five-star rating are rather loud handling noise--it picks up a great deal of noise from your hand while the holding it, rendering it virtually unusable for newsgathering or "found audio" music recording--and its WMA-only recording format. Professional audio users will easily convert Windows Media Audio files to other formats, but the handling noise and lack of a high-bitrate .WAV recording option keeps this otherwise excellent and affordable device primarily in the on-the-desk dictation category.Digital camera Review: A great recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
A great recorder. I am very happy with it. I have used it in a lecture setting rather successfully with the Olympus ME-52 Noise Cancellation Microphone. I was surprised how clear voices from around the room were. There was an annoying background noise, however, I have not yet experimented with the filter settings to remove it. Also, can use software such as Audacity to remove the noise. Easy to import dictation to my PC, however it was slow. I have not yet tried Dragon Natural Speech with it.
Uses 2 AAA cells giving longer battery life. Also easier to recharge since it uses a set of 2 NiMH cells.
Digital camera Review: A novice got excellent results
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted a something I could use to make recordings of our 45 minute Sunday school class to send to one of our class members serving in Iraq. Our classroom is the size of a regular conference room but with terrible acoustics. The last time I used a voice recorder was back when cassette tapes were popular, so I'm a total novice.
Here's what I found: a
1) Learning curve: 1 hour to read the whole manual, configure the device, and make some tests
2) Effort to record: easy (turn on, press the record button, press the stop button when done, turn off)
3) Download & conversion to mp3: 10 seconds for me, 2 or 3 minutes for the computer.
4) Sound quality: excellent - very clear with very little background noise.
5) Overall experience (usability, etc): excellent. The manual and interface were both easy to read and use.
Digital camera Review: A real jewel of a recorder
Summary: 5 Stars
The Olympus DS-40 IS an UP Scale looking recorder with a good software system. Bought this for my wife who prefers cheaper items. As soon as she saw it, 'she indicated you must have really paid something for this recorder. Her sense of a good buy is a thousand dollar item for $5.00 I realized it can't pass for cheap. That being said it cost a little over a hundred dollars. Which for a first rate recorder, isn't bad. It's small in size, has a good feel and is intuitive in use. It has a large clear backlit screen for easy viewing. Music plays in mp3 and WMA formats in sterio. Yes, you can use your ipod sterio ear buds. The DS-40 has three mic senisitatives and can be easily changed by an exteral switch. They are listed as lecture, conference and ditation. I tend to like the conference setting. Music plays in full, warm and clear tones. One tip to those who buy this recorder. On the right side is record, stop and play butttons. One can also activate PLay by hitting the front center ok/menu button. Hitting the side play button ALSO changes the playback speed. I didn't realize this and in advertinly changed to slow. My voice sounded very slow and draggy,I was quite concerned at this, since I have previously had a stroke and thought I actually sounded like this. I was quite relieved to find that I
had it on the wrong speed. On the normal speed my voice sounded G R E A T.
You will find this recorder one of your best investments.
Digital camera Review: A useful device, a miracle, and a toy, all in one.
Summary: 5 Stars
The advantages of this device is that it is tiny, easy to use, and inexpensive. The sound files can be easily downloaded to your computer, once you get back home. I found the DS-40 device to be useful for recording marching bands, nature sounds (waterfalls, barking seals), kids' parties, and weekend outings.
If you are interested in recording events taking place over the course of a few hours, and to have all of these events on one sound file, you need to use only the RECORD button (no other buttons are needed for this). The RECORD button serves two purposes--it activates recording and also provokes pausing. Thus, when I decide to use the DS-40 to record an afternoon at an amusement park, I push RECORD when we get on the roller coaster, then I push RECORD again after I get off (in order to pause), then I push RECORD after getting into the log flume ride, then I push RECORD after the flume ride (to activate pausing), then I push RECORD again when I enter the fun house, and then perhaps keep the DS-40 going when I leave the fun house and watch the merry-go-round for a few minutes. And finally, I push a separate OFF button to close out the file.
A remarkable advantage is that when you record, pause, record, and pause again, THERE ARE NO CLICKING SOUNDS in between the separate chunks of sound recording. In contrast, when you use a typical portable tape recorder, e.g., Sony or Panasonic, there is a jarring click when you record, then pause, record, then pause.
Another remarkable advantage over a tape recorder, is that the DS-40 has very low background noise. In contrast, tape recorders, especially portable recorders, generate a loud background hum.
After transferring the sound files to your computer, you can name them. For example, you can name the files "Pink Floyd Tribute Band concert" or "Nature Sounds."
As with any device, it takes time to get to know the DS-40. I quickly learned (when using the middle setting) that this recorder is very good at picking up wind. Even with a very gentle wind, as might be encountered at the seashore, the wind sound will generally dominate. The bottom line is that you should avoid all breezes and wind (unless you actually prefer to include the wind sound).
Unlike a conventional hand-held tape recorder, the DS-40 is able to pick up ordinary speech from ten or 20 feet away without any problem. In contrast, a conventional hand-held tape recorder is capable of recording clear, legible speech only when the recorder's microphone is within reaching distance of the speaker.
The detailed instruction manual, available on-line, is not hard to understand. This manual tells how to MERGE existing files into one bigger file. The manual also tells how to SPLIT an existing file into two daughter files. These procedures cannot be performed using the DS-40, but instead are done on your PC. The DS-40 is provided with a compact disc, which is easily downloaded, and which enables the MERGING and SPLITTING functions. (But to accomplish MERGING and SPLITTING, you need to push a button labeled, "PLUS" and download another program, which costs $9.99, and which can easily be paid using PayPal.) This other program is called, "DSS Player Plus." As an alternative, you can get a program called WAVEPAD for free on the internet. WAVEPAD works very well, and I have used it for editing my sound files from the DS-40, and I have also used WAVEPAD for burning discs on my Dell computer. WAVEPAD also allows you to insert "tick marks," thus enabling you to push the "next track" button on your compact disc player, for moving from track to track.
To summarize, the DS-40 is amazing in that there is no CLICK when you record, pause, record, pause, record, and pause. It is amazing in that there is no background hum, so typical of any tape recorder. It is amazing in its ease in operation and tiny size. And it is amazing in that archiving is easily accomplished by transferring the sound files to a computer, with subsequent burning into a disc. Please note that all of the above observations were with the top-mounted stereo microphone attached.