[IRCA] The Olympus WS-320M portable digital recorder - a review

[satya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi all:


The following is a review I did for a fellow IRCAer recently that may be
of help for those of you looking for an audio recorder.

The Olympus WS-320M is a small battery-powered digital recorder that I
use.  It has a "Mic" input and a headphone output along the top.  I plug a
1/8" mini stereo jack into the Mic connection (with L and R positives tied
together), and headphones into it to monitor the sound level (and of
course monitor the DX coming through...); when it is recording, the
headphone jack monitors the recorded material.  Most audio sources are a
little hot for it, and so I put a 50 ohm resistor across and a 0-10K in
series to adjust it, and so I have a dedicated cable for it.  It has an
LCD "VU meter" as well.  It runs about 15-20 hours on a AAA battery.

It snaps apart to reveal a USB connector, which plugs into your PC and is
read as a generic "keychain"-type drive - you can simply drag-and-drop
audio files onto your hard drive.  The WS-320M has 1 GB of memory - this
thing records in the compact WMA format, so I have never approached that:
you may want to look at the WS-300M or WS-310M - same thing with less
memory and cost. Besides, the super-HiFi setting on it gives off RF, and
so the Moderate-Fi speed allows for even longer recording.

So...on a normal DX session, I plug the Olympus WS-320M into the radio or
amplifier, and my headphones into the Olympus, press "record" and away I
go.  I note the time at which a potential catch is heard for replay later.
 There are four file folders (A,B,C,D) which you can select to record
files in.  You can start and stop all you want; it automatically starts a
new file with the next number within the folder you're in (i.e., A-1, A-2,
A-3, etc.).  It can also be set for the date and time, but I normally just
put in my log what the UTC start time of a given audio file is.

Once or twice a week I will dump the bulk audio files onto my hard drive,
pick out the IDs and archive the lot.  I use "Wavepad", a freeware audio
editing program to extract 5-10 clips of IDs and store these on my hard
drive.  It takes Wavepad a while to convert and load the bulk audio files,
so I usually start a new audio file on the WS-320M every thirty minutes or
so to keep it reasonable.

It's lasted a year now with no problems, is small and transportable for
"Ultralight" work, and so seems like a real good DX tool.  One thing to
remember: set it to record and try not to move it, since jostling it will
introduce a rustling noise (apparently the Mic input doesn't completely
short out the internal microphones?)

It also will play mp3s if you want to load music up and play, plus it
records voice messages with the built-in microphone (or external
microphone, which works good as well - my wife uses it to record her choir
performances).

Kevin S
Bainbidge Island, WA

_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx