Olympus WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player by Olympus
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Our Price: $139.99 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 WS-320M 1 GB Digital Voice Recorder and Music Player
Digital camera Review: Great for speech...mediocre for recording music
Summary: 4 Stars
My first impression of this little device was: "How in the heck can they put so much memory into something so damn small?" It's small! I bought this device because I am a songwriter and I like to capture lyric ideas, melody ideas and vocal basslines without having to wait until I get home to try to recall them... For this function, the device is wonderful. It's a great capture tool. However, don't expect it to be very good quality for such things. It gets the ideas, but the recorded quality is just so so. I don't know what the bit rate is, but it's pretty low. (CD quality is 16 bit...this is like 2 or 4 bit at best). So don't be fooled by the 44.1K sampling rate and thinking that this will record CD quality...not happening. And, if you just need something little with gobs of memory to capture ideas...it's perfect!Digital camera Review: Great for workshops
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought my tape recorder to record workshops that I attend. I put the recorder next to the speaker (with their permission)and I got very clear results. I tried recording from the back of the room one time when I arrived late and my results were very disappointing. (Speaker did not have a microphone)Digital camera Review: Great investment for professionals
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a professional writer for 20 years, and this is one of the best tools I've ever had in my line of work. I've used it for both in-person and telephone interviews, and it's worked perfectly every time. The sound quality, the mic sensitivity, the huge memory, the ease of use, the battery life, the small size -- everything about it is fantastic. For phone interviews I just put the phone on speaker and set the recorder next to it. A piece of cake! No more clunky tape recorders or phone adapters! Plus, after you copy the file to your hard drive, you can use audio software to play it at half-speed for transcribing. Brilliant!Digital camera Review: Great performance and playback
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent product with great performance and impressive playback for such a compact device... highly recommended.Digital camera Review: Great piece of equipment
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a grad student, and I use my WS320 while travelling and conducting interviews for my dissertation. I have had it for a couple months now. For a long time, I refused to replace my little minicasette recorder for a digital one because I heard horror stories of people losing their work when transferring data etc. Well, this has turned out to be one of the best investments EVER. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my WS320. I am no expert in audio equipment, so I cannot speak to that... but I conduct interviews in various settings, and the recorder picks the voice up even in crowded cafes with the music on (not perfect, but you can easily understand and transcribe the interview). I am one of those people who hate to learn how to work with new pieces of electronics, but everything (or almost everything) about this recorder is pretty intuitive, and I figured it all out on my own, and it didnt take more than half an hour. I love the USB plug, it makes it super easy to transfer data to my computer and then play the interviews through Windows Media Player. I also love the MP3 player feature. I have put on a few of my favorite CDs, and I listen to them while travelling to my interview sites. Even with them in, the recorder still holds some 15 hours of interviews (I have only used the highest quality setting). Now, that said, there are a couple of improvements that could be made; (1)I keep losing the battery cover while the recorder sits in my bag, (2) the recorder scratches very easily (because of points 1 and 2, I suggest that you get the case offered through the Olympus website... little overpriced, but may be worth it) and importantly (3) the SOUND IS NOT VERY GOOD IF YOU ARE HOLDING THE RECORDER IN YOUR HAND WHILE RECORDING. It is actually really annoying to listen to anything that has been recorded while the recorder was being held - the static is super loud. So.. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is going to sit it down on a table while recording, but not to people who are using it in the car while holding it and talking into it at the same time. Hope this helps.:-)