Olympus WS300 (256 MB, 1 Hours) Handheld Digital Voice Recorder

::: OVERVIEW :::

The Olympus WS-300M packs surprisingly good audio recording capabilities into a tiny package that works very much like a 256MB USB thumb drive on either Windows or MAC.

It's very easy to transfer files.

The recorder is capable of almost 9 hours of recording time in "Stereo High Quality" mode or more than 69 hours recording time in "Long Play" mode.

The recorder can be "Voice Activated" to start and stop recording based on a threshold of audio activity you can set.

There are two "upscale" versions of this same recorder. The WS-310M comes with 512MB of flash memory and the WS-320M is equipped with a Gigabyte. All of the memory in all of the models is internal. You cannot upgrade it by inserting a card of any type.

Olympus is hoping to spark your interest by including the capability to play MP3 music files. With 40 and 60GB iPods in circulation, I have serious doubts about that strategy.

While it only weighs 1.5 ounces (with the battery!) the WS-300M packs a pretty hefty dynamic range and the capability to record at a 64kbs (excellent for voice on the web.)

If you want to record your voice notes, the internal stereo microphone performs well. It's ability to record meetings and lectures is at the mercy of the room acoustics.

But attach a small, external microphone and you will get surprisingly clear audio recordings that can compete with much larger, more expensive packages. You can use the recorder to make audio files you will edit on your computer for podcasts, photo slideshows with audio, or adding ambient sound or sound effects to video.

Interested?

::: WHAT COMES WITH THE OLYMPUS WS-300M :::

- WS-300M Voice Recorder
- Stereo Earplugs
- 8-inch USB Extension Cable
- Good User Manual
- 1 AAA Battery

Maybe I should just skip to the bad news. The WS-300M DOES NOT come with a carrying case. This is ridiculous. The case is sold separately for around $15 but there are better options for around $10 from Op/Tech USA that give you storage room for a lavalier (tie clip) microphone and the small earphones.

Olympus, what were you thinking? This tiny Voice Recorder is too small, too fragile to be left in a shirt pocket where it could easily slide out onto the floor and break.

Also not supplied, any software to convert the WMA files to WAV (Windows) or AIFF (MAC) so they can be edited on a computer.

No problem, I'll give you a link in the Appendix below to download a free converter for either OS along with other free files that will help you get the most out of this recorder.

The best "accessory" that comes with the Voice Recorder is the User Manual. It's clear, concise and complete. It is well laid out, as well. The more features you want to use with the Olympus WS-300M the more you will appreciate a manual that is both well designed and well illustrated.

Full marks to Olympus on the Manual!

::: BUILD QUALITY :::

The case on the Olympus WS-300M is thin plastic. Allright, I'll say it: It's Cheap Plastic!
This recorder (and most of the others out in the marketplace) require protection and care.

The backlit Liquid Crystal Display is understandably small. If you have real problems with your eyesight, be prepared to have someone else set the menu options. The good news is that once you've set this up the way you like it, you're not going to need that menu too often.

The buttons to record, play and stop are metal with a small metal bezel around them. This is good. The area that will see the highest amount of use is a bit sturdier than the rest. It's also along the edge of the recorder so it gains strength from that design. The buttons are quite small but well spaced. Still, my fingers have to carefully navigate where to press. As I have used the recorder, it has become easier.

Navigation in the Menu System is done with a small thumbwheel with an "OK" button at the center. (Sound familiar?) It is also metal and feels pretty solid.

You also use this thumbwheel to fast forward or reverse when you're playing a recording, or you can use it to set bookmarks during a recording or playback. Similarly, you can use it to navigate between bookmarks, speed up or slow down the audio playback, etc.

Simple enough, but you'll be reading the manual to learn the specific steps you'll need to take to get the most out of this Voice Recorder.

There is a button labelled "Folder Index" where you can select between folders A, B, C, D and E. Each folder can have 199 messages. The length of each message is only limited by the amount of memory you have left on the recorder...which is shown on the LCD readout.

There is a handy "Erase" button on the front that can be used to erase a single file or a whole directory of files.

Along the right edge of the Voice Recorder, there are two slide switches. Again, these are TINY!

The first is the "Hold" switch which effectively turns off the Voice Recorder and locks down the keys so they can't inadvertently start up the unit and wear down the battery.

The second is a "Voice - Music" slide selector. Move the slider to "Music" and then turn it on to play back MP3 or WMA files you have loaded into the Music folder on the Recorder.

Importantly, the Olympus WS-300M has 3.5mm mini-jacks for both a microphone and earphones or an audio output cable to play sound through your computer or powered speakers.

The recorder does have its own small (18mm) speaker that we judge as adequate for a unit of this size and weight. For clarity and comfort, most users will be happier listening with even the inexpensive earphones supplied with the unit.

The Olympus WS-300M utilizes a clever design to "split" itself when plugging into a USB port on your MAC or Windows PC. The battery compartment is released with a tiny button on the back of the unit and the whole bottom of the recorder is detached to reveal a USB plug.

This is wonderful if you are using a laptop or have a computer with USB ports on the front panel. It's fair to say most newer computers have that feature, but if you have an older one, with USB ports in the back, even the supplied USB extension cable probably won't be long enough to make you happy. Don't worry, they're cheap.

With the battery detached, this unit feels like it's about half an ounce. Moreover, the design allows the entire unit to be plugged into a USB connector even if another standard USB plug is inserted in an adjoining port.

Nice job, Olympus. That worked!

There's a hidden benefit here. Plugging a unit like this into the USB drive while it is powered up could create problems. By detaching the battery in order to connect the USB port, that risk is eliminated.

::: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS - PERFORMANCE :::

Olympus and other manufacturers of Digital Voice Recorders try to address two ends of the spectrum of users with all of their devices. It always comes down to a decision by the user to get better quality or longer recording times.

I would recommend only using the highest-quality recording settings for best results. If you need more recording time than 9 hours, consider versions of this recorder that will give you twice as much or four times as much recording time because they have more memory.

You can safely count on using the "Mono" settings on this recorder to get 17 1/2 Hours of High Quality recording time.

With the ability to easily transfer the files safely to your laptop or desktop, I fail to see the logic in paying for more than 256MB of flash memory in one of these.

Having said all that, you may find that the Standard Play (SP) settings are all you need. Experiment. It's a matter of personal preference and if SP works for you, you'll have 34 1/2 hours of record time.

Sampling Rates (Higher is better)

Stereo High Quality - 44.1kHz [8 Hrs. 45 min.]
High Quality (Mono) - 44.1kHz [17 Hrs. 30 min.]
SP - Standard Play - 22kHz [34 hrs. 35 min.]
LP - Long Play - 8kHz [68 hrs. 45 min.]

Overall Frequency Response (Broader is better)

Stereo High Quality - 100Hz- 15kHz
High Quality (Mono) - 100Hz - 12kHz
SP - Standard Play - 100Hz - 5kHz
LP - Long Play - 100Hz - 3kHz

The above specifications are taken from Olympus' own website and user guide. Taken at face value, they say this unit can record most of what humans can hear.

Probably more important, these files are all saved in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format at 64kbs, 16-bit depth in either Stereo HQ or 32kbs, HQ (mono) mode.

HQ Stereo mode appears to have slightly better sound than HQ mono.

We seem to have misplaced our racks of audio testing gear, so we suggest you rely on someone else (like we did) to test the capability of this format at this bitrate:

http://www.extremetech.com

Search for articles like "Digital Audio Primer" and "Audio Quality Codec Shootout" if you really want to learn more.

Basically, most of the surveys put these files directly into the quality range between radio and CD. It's not CD quality. But some surveys say it's better than FM. That's pretty good, considering the compression is something like 22:1 over uncompressed audio (a CD.)

Okay, so what does that mean?

It means you're getting excellent capability to record voice and pretty good capability to record ambient sound, like music with the Olympus WS-300M.

Is there a catch to that?

Yes. The internal microphone.

While we found the tiny stereo internal microphone to be very capable of getting good recordings, there were some important considerations.

There are two microphone sensitivity settings you can select from the Main Menu (accessed by pressing and holding down the "OK" button on the front panel.)

Conf - Conference Mode - Greater Sensitivity
Dict - Dictation Mode - Less Sensitivity

Less may be more. If you want to record a voice message that's clear, Dictation mode works well. Just keep the recorder 6 inches or so from your lips and be careful not to move your fingers around as you hold it.

Want to make a voice recording for your podcast? Set a pillow or towel down on your desktop and put the recorder on that. Use the earphones to monitor your recording as you make it. Really very good.

Conference mode is designed to pick up a room full of sound and it does exactly that. Including every cough, chair scrape, and echo. In a room with curtains and carpet, it seems to perform quite well, indeed. On hardwood floors in rooms with no sound absorbtion, it can be problematic.

Avoid holding this Voice Recorder in your hand while its sensitivity is set to "Conference." It's a formula for lots of noise in your sound file.

We can't predict how this will work in your University lecture hall or your conference room. But we've been very pleased with the overall performance. Telling you it will perform better than other models would be a guess, not a fact.

We can tell you that to get the maximum sound quality this unit is really capable of recording, you need an external microphone.

While connecting a high-quality microphone (more than $100) does produce startling results, it isn't practical for most people who buy an $85 Digital Voice Recorder. We found that relatively inexpensive units selling for around $25-$35 did just about as well.

See the Appendix at the end of this review for some links.

For dictation, a simple lavalier microphone with a small windscreen transforms this tiny unit into a Voice Recording wonder. The sound quality is surprising and certainly suitable for broadcast on the web or podcasting

For the conference room, an external microphone (in conference mode - higher sensitivity) does add a measure of clarity.

Try it first with the internal microphone, laying the entire unit down on something soft and sound absorbing. Don't hold it in your hand.

If you're in a University lecture hall, plug in the earphones to monitor the recording. If you're not getting the sound you want, move to another location. If you sit next to the public address system, try it in dictation mode to cut out unwanted background noise. Again, don't hold it in your hand.

If you think you need more quality in your recordings, then try the external microphone route.

::: TRANSFERRING FILES TO YOUR COMPUTER :::

Windows or Mac, this couldn't be easier. The Olympus WS-300M itself plugs into any standard USB port.

It is recognized as a portable storage device, like a thumbdrive. There's no software to load, no specialty method of transferring files. These are just recognized for what they are, basic Windows Media Audio files.

You can drag and drops files to any folder you want.

If there's a hazard here that needs to be pointed out it is this: The Voice Recorder is so small and fragile, it requires some caution when plugging into a laptop that is, literally, on your lap.

I look at this unit hanging off my Mac G4 right now and I'm nervous. One slip and all the weight of the computer would come to rest on the Voice Recorder.

Windows Media Player, available for both Windows and the Mac for free, will play these files. Many other digital media players will also handle these files.

In Mac, if you want to transfer the files to iTunes and ultimately your iPod, you will need to convert the file to MP3 or AIFF first. This is a simple process and I've placed links to some free files in the Appendix of this review.

iTunes for Windows automatically converts the file to WAV or MP3 depending on what you have set in your Import Preferences. WAV will be the best quality, MP3 will save lots of diskspace.

::: CONCLUSION :::

We think the Olympus WS-300M performs very well with the internal microphone for most applications.

Its recording times are more than we need and the ability to easily download files to Windows or Mac mean you can simply move files to your computer for storage. They will sound much better played through a computer, too.

While Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a proprietary format from Microsoft, you can play them out on any Mac using the free Windows Media Player.

Using a converter (see the Appendix) you can transfer them to iTunes and your iPod and play them there.

Is the Olympus WS-300M a viable MP3 Player? Well, yes, certainly. But don't plan on storing much of your collection on it. You could store a few albums in case you get caught at the airport. It's greatest strength in this area is the ease with which you can transfer files. Just plug it in like a thumb drive and store off your favorites or newest albums before a trip.

We don't use it as an MP3 player...but it works!

We also don't use the Variable Control Voice Activation that starts and stops the recording based on whether it picks up sound above a certain level. It does work, we just haven't used it much.

But we have used it extensively to record voices and ambient sounds and can recommend this player/recorder because of its features and the quality of its recordings.

We are only giving it three stars because it should have been made out of something stronger, it should have a small protective case supplied at the time of purchase and it doesn't support removable media.

::: APPENDIX - CONVERSION SOFTWARE :::

Converting files from the Olympus WS-300M's WMA format to other file types is free and easy thanks to an Australian company known as NCH Swift Sound.

You can download both Windows and Mac versions of a conversion utility that will turn the WMA files into WAV (uncompressed), AIFF (uncompressed) or MP3 and a lot more formats. The program is called Switch and you can get it here:

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/

They ask you to download a trial version of their audio editing program for Windows called WavePad. Go ahead, try it out. I carefully screened the downloads to ensure there isn't any malware lurking there. I've had no problems.

WavePad can easily amplify a low level recording, remove hiss and pops and much, much more. This comes in a free version, too. WavePad is "Windows Only" Software.

http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

Another nice (and FREE) program if you want to edit audio files on either Mac or Windows is Audacity.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/

Audacity and WavePad will both let you mix music with your voicetracks, export the files to various formats like WAV, MP3, or Ogg Vorbis.

Note: Particularly when converting WMA files to WAV or AIFF, you may note low volume levels when you have used the Dictation settings on the WS-300M.

It takes about a minute to load the WAV or AIFF file in Wavepad or Audacity, highlight the whole file on the timeline and click on the "Amplify" button to raise the level.

::: APPENDIX - CARRY CASES :::

This Digital Voice Recorder is so small, you need a case for it. There are too many options to list here, but consider checking out the photographic site Op/Tech USA

They make a small-sized "Zippeez" pouch that will hold the recorder, a microphone and earphones. It's small enough to attach to any strap on a camera bag, purse, briefcase or backpack. And their double-locking velcro feature assures it won't easily come off.

http://optechusa.com/

::: APPENDIX - MICROPHONES :::

We were interested in really wringing all the sound quality we can out of this unit...and we have been pleasantly surprised with what it can do.

A good microphone adds a lot to this, as noted above. An Electrovoice 635A (the standard for radio news in the field for many, many years, delivers impressive results. But this and other "Pro" microphones cost $100 or more.

They also require XLR (3pin) connectors, which means buying a cable adapter. They are low impedence (100 ohms vs. the Voice Recorder's expectation of a 2k Ohm input) so you have to add an in-line transformer, too. We had all of that lying around so we could test it. We don't think you need to rush out and buy something as elaborate.

We found that inexpensive lavalier microphones and even an old Sony shotgun directional microphone for a video camera gave excellent results. Maybe not as rich in tone as the more expensive models, but excellent for voice work.

Radio Shack, Shure, Audio-Technica and other sites sell these lavalier microphones at various prices.

We have this one and can say it works GREAT.

AUDIO TECHNICA - AT829-SP

Cut and paste that into a Google search. We purchased it as part of a wireless microphone package but it retails at soundprofessionals.com for $50

Frankly, I would avoid "deals" on eBay for these items unless you have researched the specific product. You are looking for a microphone with these features:

3.5mm mini-plug
100Hz-15kHz frequency response
1k Ohm or better yet 2k Ohm impedence

Olympus also supplies a few microphones of its own that can be either plugged into the Voice Recorder directly or attached to a tie clip with an extension cord and used as a lavalier. (Both those capabilities are included in all of these products as they are sold.) These range in price from $20 to $60.

ME-51S stereo microphone - $60

ME-52W Noise cancelling Microphone - $20

ME-15 - Small tie-clip uni-directional - $25

You can buy these directly from Olympus or find them at Circuit City, Office Depot and similar stores or online retailers. The prices listed above are direct from the Olympus website. Amazon had them a bit cheaper.

I haven't tried these yet.

Any one of them would probably improve your sound quality.

If you have a detachable shotgun microphone you use with your video handycam, it would be great for recording interviews or ambient sound.

::: APPENDIX -More Software :::

Have your own website? Do you publish photos to it to share with the whole family?

Add sound to your photo slideshows with a program that's as easy as it is elegant. Publish them on your site in Flash format. This Soundslides software is a bargain at $40 dollars and they let you try it out for as long as you want. Windows or Mac versions.

http://www.soundslides.com

This is the same software being used by many newspapers to produce professional audio enriched slide shows on their web sites.

::: APPENDIX - Backup Your Soundfiles :::

Well, could it get any simpler?

In a word, yes!

2BrightSparks makes a little Windows freeware program called SyncBack that will download your entire directory of files to your backup directory in a single pass.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware

For absolute beginners, just open the program and click on Profiles --> New

Name your profile "Olympus," or "Voice Recorder" or anything you like.

When you plug in your Olympus WS-300M you will see a drive letter associated with it. Simply list that root drive letter as your source directory...like K:\ Use the browse option to highlight your Voice Recorder Drive.

(You'll get a warning message that you shouldn't do this to your root directory on the drive running the Windows OS but that's not what you're doing, so just keep going!)

Choose a directory where you want those files to be stored on your computer -- your destination directory.

On the Simple Menu - Choose "Backup the souce directories files, including all its sub-directories.

On the Advanced Menu - Choose "Source overwrites destination always (backup)" Also choose to "Copy File to Destination" and next, under the heading What to do if a file is in the destination but not in the source, select "Do nothing, skip the file."

You can skip the "Copy/Delete" section.

Under the "Filter" tab enter the following:

Files to copy: *.WMA
Directories to copy: DSS_FL*

If you are using the "MUSIC" directory to store MP3 files and want that backed up as well, then you can "+Add" that directory name to be backed up.

Now, just double clicking on your profile name when you open SyncBack will tell it to download all of the files in all of the soundfile directories, A, B, C, D and E. If you included "MUSIC," that will also be copied to your hard drive.

If you have added a file to one of your folders, it will automatically be found and backed up. If you haven't touched a folder, nothing that is already saved in your archive will be backed up.

If you deleted files off the recorder, they will be maintained in your archive.

Fast. Easy. Backs up all your Digital Voice Files.

Hope that helps someone!