Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder | great as a singer songwriter sketchbook

Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder | Survived the washing machine!

electronics:

Olympus DS-40 Digi...

	Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder Olympus Olympus, 2007 average customer review:based on 73 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Up to 134 hours recording time / 512MB Internal Flash Memory / High-sensitivity Microphone / Voice guidance / DSS Player v7.0 Podcatcher Software This Podcatcher can transfer new content to the recorder simply by connecting it to a computer by registering favorite Podcast programs in DSS Player Stores highly compressed WMA (Windows Media Audio) format voice messages Playback and store WMA and MP3 music files Five voice folders can save up to 200 messages per folder. Music, Podcast, and Audible folder are also available New, brighter high-contrast monochrome LCD panel with backlight Built-in Variable Control Voice Actuator (VCVA) function Timer Recording and Alarm features enable automatic recording and playing at a set time Index mark and temp mark features allow you to quickly find desired locations Noise Cancel Function and Voice Filter Function cut noise and enable clear audio playback Up to 32 hours of continuous operation with two AAA batteries Recording Time - ST XQ mode 8 hours 40 minutes, ST HQ mode 17 hours 20 minutes, HQ mode 34 hours 45 minutes, SP mode 68 hours 30 minutes, LP mode 136 hours 15 minutes Input Level - -70 dBv Practical Maximum Output - 250 mW Microphone Jack - 3.5 mm mini-jack, impedance 680 ohms Earphone Jack - 3.5 mm mini-jack, impedance 8 ohms or more Power Supply Rated Voltage - 3V DC Optional AC Adapter External Power Supply System Requirements - Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, XP Professional, Home Edition, CPU Intel Pentium II class 333 MHz processor or more, RAM 128 MB or more (256MB or more is recommended), Sound Board Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or 100% compatible sound card, Video Card and Display 800 x 600 pixels or more, 256 colors or more, Removable Drive 2x or faster, One Free USB Port, Audio Output Speaker or earphone output Dimensions - 4.37 x 1.48 x 0.63 inch (111 x 37.5 x 16 mm)

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great as a singer songwriter sketchbook

I bought this as a convenient and quick way to record songs that I write on the acoustic guitar. The sound quality is excellent. The guitar loses some low end, but overall my guitar sounds like my guitar. Voice is excellent - which makes sense as this is a voice recorder! No hiss when i use the dictation setting, going up to conference and lecture adds some as the gain is boosted to record from far away. For my purposes, I leave it on the dictation setting. The stereo separation is very good, it picks up the room ambience and makes my recordings sound very alive.
I have a ProTools LE set up and some quality mics, but always find it a pain to et up for quick idea recordings. The Olympus is perfect for this task. I've come to use it 90% of the time, it helps me w/perfecting my performances as this is a one take machine. No overdubs or digital editing, its like an old school tape deck.
Im verry happy w/it and highly recommend it. I'd love to try the LS10 which records WAV files and has higher quality mics and sound...

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Survived the washing machine!

Not recommending the anyone else try this, but I forgot that my DS-40 was in my cargo pants pocket and ran it through the wash. It was in a[...] zippered cloth case from Radio Shack, and wrapped with a piece of rubber mesh shelf liner (for padding). But it definitely got wet. There was an opaque fog of condensation inside the LED screen. I let it dry out, and helped it along by inhaling on various openings.

When the screen was clear of fog, I gritted my teeth and hit the power button. The darn thing started! I had to reset the time and date (it had lost three days, strangely growing slightly younger from the trauma), and the USB setting had mysteriously changed to Remote Audio from Storage. This threw me for awhile because I didn't know it had a Remote Audio "USB Class" setting - makes it act like a USB mic; works with Audacity freeware. All the recordings were intact.

The mic is very sensitive; too noisy for anything like professional recording. But great for interviews and brilliant insights such as "Note to self: Don't machine-wash your DS-40 again."

Important: Only the Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred edition, not the Standard edition, is compatible with the Olympus DS-40 DSS Player Plus voice recognition feature. Compare the data sheets, under "resources" for the Standard versus Preferred Editions at [...] to see that the Standard Edition doesn't tout it as a feature; Preferred does. Also, and most telling, the DNS Standard edition doesn't let you set up a New User with the Olympus mic option.
To see if I could get Standard Edition to work, I upgraded to DSS Player Plus for [...] using their automated upgrade link. Well, DSS Player upgrades, gets the Voice Recognition option and red dragon icon, and even converts the WMA file to a WAV (apparently). But a message pops up saying, "Failed to Launch Dragon Naturally Speaking." People should know that they have to spend an extra $80 (above the $59 for the Standard edition) to get Preferred up front, or[...] later for the upgrade.

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Great for lecture

This recorder comes with a very sensitive mic. On the upside this makes it great for recording lectures. On the downside you pick up a lot of ambient when doing so.

The built in voice filter is shockingly effective for lecture play back and really addresses many of the problems with background noise.

The user interface is a bit clunky. Downloading to computer fixes that problem; however, when doing so you give up the background filter!

I appreciate that the files are captured raw and filtered later but it would be great if they could be applied on export as well.

The other problem of note is not being able to resume a stopped recording. You can of course pause a recording, but when one is stopped that's it.

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