Olympus WS Series Digital Voice Recorders

• WS-650S replaced by the new Olympus WS-811
• WS-750M replaced by the new Olympus WS-812
• WS-760M replaced by the new Olympus WS-813

Memory sizes remain the same across the range with 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb respectively. All new WS series voice recorders now sport a microSD card slot for expanded memory, handy to store other documents, photos, videos or music on your recorder alongside your recorded meetings and interviews. As is usual with a revamp the WS series shells also get a make over with a new modern look while retaining the small compact size traditional in the WS series. New key features added to the range are some new recording innovations like voice changer, voice playback and voice balancer discussed in this earlier blog post. As usual with the Olympus range both Mac and Windows are fully supported with plug-and-play – no software required to access and play your audio on any computer.

Click here for a previous blog post giving an overview of the features of each new WS series voice recorder.

Olympus VN Series Budget Digital Voice Recorders

• VN-8500PC replaced by the new VN-711PC
• VN-8600PC replaced by the new VN-712PC

Both new VN series voice recorders come with 2Gb of in built memory, the VN-712PC also has a microSD card slot for additional memory expansion. Just like the WS series they can be USB connected to any Windows PC or Mac without the need for software to access and playback your recordings.

All recorders should be fully available mid to end April 2012. RRP in Australia is set as:

• Olympus WS-811 – $139 incl. GST
• Olympus WS-812 – $169 incl. GST
• Olympus WS-813 – $199 incl. GST
• Olympus VN-711PC – $79 incl. GST
• Olympus VN-712PC – $99 incl. GST

With all the hoo-haa surrounding the Julia Gillard vs Kevin Rudd showdown in Parliament recently I have found myself glued to the TV and twitterstream (in particular the fantastic work by @latikambourke) for news and updates on the goings on in Canberra. One thing I find myself doing when a press conference is on or a politician is hijacked as they leave Canberra Airport is watching the press pack thrust various microphones and digital voice recorders in the face of said pollies.

So what are the types of digital voice recorders that journalists use to capture that all important soundbite for later reference, broadcast or replay on Soundcloud? Digital notetakers are the norm for this kind of scenario, they are small, power up instantly but more importantly can capture the crisp clear bleatings of our elected representatives [earlier blog post - what is the difference between a digital notetaker and digital dictaphone].

These types of digital voice recorders are not expensive (between $100-$200 AUD) and are designed for just this type of media melee, generally running off one single AAA battery and Mac and Windows compatible with no need for software they are the perfect choice. Often I notice the budget VN series recorders from Olympus but more often that not the journos who know what they are doing grab themselves a WS series digital voice recorder.

Some of the key features of the WS series recorder are the record quality settings (high bitrate MP3 ranging from 198kbps to 256kbps) or even high quality, uncompressed PCM .WAV files although .MP3 files are preferred as they tend to be smaller in file size making them quicker and easier to move around the Internet. Some recorders also sport a zoom mic, handy for the less physical journo unable to fight their way to the front of the press pack. The zoom mic acts like a laser pointer, without the small red dot appearing on the targets chest, to narrow the field of audio pickup and to concentrate on the speakers voice alone.

When you combine one of these small high quality digital voice recorders with the Olympus TP-7 (telephone pickup) microphone you also have the ability to record phone conversations from anywhere – your office, out in the field, from home etc. as the TP-7 can be used with any telephone and plugs straight into the mic jack on the voice recorder – link to earlier post re: Olympus mics – look for the TP-7, sample recording included in the post.

So next time you see journalists jostling for position to record the speaker at a press gathering you will have a better idea of what it is they are probing with.

Olympus voice are an innovative bunch, they don’t tend to sit on their hands doing not a lot, they keep refining and evolving their range of digital voice recorders. It is not uncommon to see digital voice recorder models come and go in the space of a single year. As such we often find customers coming back after years of use to replace their digital note taker or dictaphone only to find that their old model voice recorder has been replaced by a newer model.

In an attempt to make finding the current equivalent voice recorder to replace your old trusty Olympus digital voice recorder a little easier I have compiled a list of old models and their latest equivalents. This list covers PCM music recorders, interview/meeting/focus group recorders, budget recorders, the Pro range of digital dictaphones and finally Olympus digital transcription kits.

Olympus WS Series Digital Note Takers

The latest range of WS Series digital voice recorders from Olympus are:

• Olympus WS-811 – 2Gb – WMA, MP3 recording
• Olympus WS-812 – 4Gb – PCM WAV, WMA, MP3 recording
• Olympus WS-813 – 8Gb – PCM WAV, WMA, MP3 recording

These three replace the following list of WS series recorders:

• Olympus WS-100
• Olympus WS-110S
• Olympus WS-200S
• Olympus WS-210S
• Olympus WS-300M
• Olympus WS-310M
• Olympus WS-311M
• Olympus WS-320M
• Olympus WS-321M
• Olympus WS-331M
• Olympus WS-450S
• Olympus WS-550M
• Olympus WS-560M
• Olympus WS-650S
• Olympus WS-750M
• Olympus WS-760M

Olympus VN Series Basic Digital Notetakers

• Olympus VN-2100PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-3100PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-3500PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-5500PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-6800PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-8500PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-711PC
• Olympus VN-8600PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-712PC

Olympus DP Series Basic Digital Notetaker

• Olympus DP-20 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DP-211

Olympus DM Series Digital Meeting Recorders

• Olympus DM-450 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DM-550 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-5

Olympus DS Series Digital Meeting Recorders

• Olympus DS-30 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-40 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-50 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-55 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-65 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3

Olympus DS Series Digital Dictaphones

• Olympus DS-2200 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-2500
• Olympus DS-2300 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-2500
• Olympus DS-3300 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-3500
• Olympus DS-4000 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-7000
• Olympus DS-2400 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-2500
• Olympus DS-3400 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-3500
• Olympus DS-5000 & DS-5000iD discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-7000

Olympus LS Series Digital PCM Music Recorders

• Olympus LS-10 discontinued, equivalent Olympus LS-3
• Olympus LS-11 discontinued, equivalent Olympus LS-3

Olympus Digital Transcription Kits

• Olympus AS-2300 discontinued, equivalent AS-2400
• Olympus AS-4000 discontinued, equivalent AS-7000
• Olympus AS-5000 discontinued, equivalent AS-7000

If your older model Olympus digital voice recorder is not on the list please leave a comment with the model number and I will add it.

Olympus Imaging yesterday revised the price on a number of their hugely popular digital notetakers (used mainly for voice notes, interviews, meetings, conferences, lectures etc.) in a downward direction. Last year we had a flood of downward price movements after the middle man, Nationwide Dictating, was removed and Olympus Imaging took over Australian distribution of the voice products. This downward trend seems to be continuing with Olympus in Australia making their voice recorders even more competitive and surely sending dread through most of their competitors who continue to struggle to get close to Olympus.

With Olympus though it is not just price reductions for the sake of it. They are busy, we continually see new models churn out of their factories so innovation continues while at the same time making the recorders much more affordable. Students in particular will be happy with this round as some of the budget recorders have been reduced. Here are the new Australian RRPs for the models affected (all prices stated include GST):

• Olympus DP-20 down to $59 from $69
• Olympus VN-8500PC down to $79 from $99
• Olympus VN-8600PC down to $99 from $129
• Olympus WS-650S down to $139 from $169
• Olympus WS-750M down to $169 from $229
• Olympus WS-760M down to $199 from $269
• Olympus DM-5 down to $499 from $599

Left out of the price cuts are the popular DM-450 and DM-550 meeting/interview recorders and the LS-10 and LS-11 PCM music recorders.

So why the price cuts? One can only speculate and speculate we shall !! I would say Olympus want to continue to put pressure on the other players in the digital voice market. These include Philips who sit at number 2 in Australia and to a smaller extent Sony who seem to merely play at the voice recorder game and trade off their brand name rather than their cutting edge technology and local Australian support. We may see a revamp of the WS series models later this year and we may also get to see the DM-3 put in an appearance down under.

All RRP price changes effective from 8th February and always buy from an official Olympus Australia partner.

Lets start with the new range of WS series recorders; perfect for interviews, meetings, focus groups, lectures and conferences.

Here are their features at a glance …

Olympus WS-650S (RRP $169 incl. GST)

• 2Gb In built memory
• .mp3 or .wma recording
• Mac & Windows compatible

Olympus WS-750M (RRP $229 incl. GST)

• 4Gb In built memory
• Linear PCM recording (.wav)
• .mp3 or .wma recording
• Micro SD slot for expanded memory
• USB chargeable battery
• Mac & Windows compatible

Olympus WS-760M (RRP $269 incl. GST)

• Massive 8Gb in built memory
• Linear PCM recording (.wav)
• .mp3 or .wma recording
• Micro SD slot for expanded memory
• USB chargeable battery
• FM Radio Receiver
• FM Radio Recording
• Virtual Zoom Mic – Focus precisely on a single, distant audio source
• Auto Recording – Essential for long recording sessions, save battery power and cuts down superfluous recording.
• Mac & Windows compatible

As you can see a very slight design change from the last set of WS series recorders, the mics have been placed on the top of the unit now. One of the reasons for this is to allow the recorder to sit in a shirt or jacket top pocket and record. Also, there is a choice of colours for the units, well overseas anyway, we are yet to see if colour options come to Australia. What continues to amaze me is the amount and the cheapness of the storage, 8Gb is a huge amount of storage for a voice recorder which obviously now transforms it from just an excellent digital voice recorder into being also a music/podcast player and media mass storage device.

Details on the new Olympus DM-5 to follow …. the DM-5 will have an RRP in Australia of $599 incl. GST

Of course all these recorders will be available to buy from Dictate Australia – Olympus Gold Partner – with super fast delivery Australia wide.

Any questions or for further information grab us in one of many ways. Not sure of anything please ask, we are quite friendly you know:

• Phone: 1300 787 092 (option 2)
• Email: sales@dictate.com.au
• Twitter: @dictates
• Facebook: facebook.com/dictate.australia

Click here to read the Olympus Europe press release for the new WS series recorder.

This month we have seen the demise of some digital notetakers from Olympus’ current range. Out go the Olympus WS-550M, VN-5500PC and VN-6800PC. The VN series recorders ends the line of super cheap discount recorders although some will still be available in the short term through national chains like Officeworks, no loss there I was never a fan of these.

The dropping of the WS-550M was a bit of a surprise, traditionally Olympus kept a range of two or three recorders in a series line up, with the loss of the WS-550M this just leaves the WS-450S and the WS-560M as the two remaining WS series recorders. These are fantastic little recorders with amazing audio pickup.

Not content with dropping recorders Olympus also have some new recorders in the pipeline for next month, we are just waiting for confirmation before announcing what they will be. You will be pleasantly surprised, some very cool recorders are coming.

This week I was lucky enough to attend FlyingSoloLIVE, an expo run by the FlyingSolo team held at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. The day consisted of a number of keynote speeches by well known successful Australian business people and social media experts all aimed to educate and inspire Australian solo and small business people. The event was held as part of the New South Wales Governments Small Business Month.

For the event I decided to take along three very good but very different digital audio recorders. The Olympus WS-450s digital voice recorder, the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen and loaded on my iPhone an app called iProRecorder. I wanted to see how each performed, which gave the best audio quality and how they lasted during a full day of recording. All my recordings were made in the Theatre Atrium at the Australian Technology Park. I took sample recordings from the back of the theatre (around 90 feet from the stage), the middle (approx. 40 feet back) and from the front row. The event had professional audio visual and the speakers had microphones.

Olympus WS-450S – This is a very new digital voice recorder launched in Australia just last month.  This is the type of digital voice recorder we sell day in/day out on our online store dictate.com.au and is a fantastic all-round performer in the digital voice world. Both Mac and Windows compatible this recorder I recommend typically for single speaker note taking, interviews and small to medium sized meetings. This is not the kind of recorder I would usually recommend for a conference type situation. For this I would generally advise the next models up (WS-550M, WS-560M or DS-55, DS-65) but I was confident that the results would be good. The device was set to SHQ recording mode and records audio in stereo .WMA audio format. The Olympus WS-450S has an RRP of AU$295 incl. GST.

The Olympus WS-450S performed very well and I was impressed, as I always am by Olympus, by the pickup quality of the audio. Staying power was no issue for the recorder and hardly made a dent in its power source which is one AAA battery. There was also no need to stress about how much audio I could squeeze onto the recorder as it has 1Gb of flash memory, even recording on the highest quality audio setting allows for 17 hours plus of recording so five or six one hour sessions were nothing.

• Ease of use:
• Staying power:
• Audio Quality:
• Value for Money:

LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen – This is my current favourite gadget. Not only will the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen record the audio but also allows you to hand write notes in a special note pad as you are recording audio. Your hand written notes can be viewed on your computer (Windows or Mac) and the audio can be played back from any point  just by the click of a mouse or the touch of the pen on any of your hand written words or doodles. These digital hand written notes and audio can be easily shared online. This expo, as well as lectures, conferences, meetings and interviews is exactly what the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen is designed for so I had high expectations of this gadget. The device was set to High audio quality and the microphone sensitivity set to Automatic -  audio can be exported on a Mac in .aac format. The 2Gb LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen has an RRP of AU$329 incl. GST.

Well well … hands down the best audio recorder of the three the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen performed brilliantly. Regardless of where I was sat in the conference hall the audio pickup was very very good. Considering that most of the time the pen was laid on the chair next to me or I was writing notes in the LiveScribe Dot Paper pad. Not only do you get amazing audio pickup but the bonus of your handwritten notes as well, so really an amazing package. Like the Olympus, no issues with staying power with hardly a dent in the battery life and with a massive 2Gb of storage I could have recorded all day without a worry. I plan to write a blog post very soon dedicated to the LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen and will include video so you can see the hand written notes in the software on a PC or Mac.

• Ease of use:
• Staying power:
• Audio Quality:
• Value for Money:

iProRecorder iPhone App – This is the very first digital voice recorder app I loaded onto my iPhone and it has been used many times to record my notes and the occasional interview. Although iProRecorder can be used for conference/lecture recording as mentioned in the notes in the app store I was skeptical to see how the recorder would cope. The app was set to record in HQ recording mode and records in mono .WAV audio format. iProRecorder is currently AU$3.99 available from iTunes.

Although the audio quality was good the volume of the audio was very low. Using some software like Audacity or WavePad you can easily boost the volume but that adds time and complexity. Just listening to the audio through my computer was a struggle with the audio turned up. I could hear better with headphones connected listening to the audio on the iPhone. Staying power was also an issue, after a morning of recording, checking and sending email and tweeting by around 2pm (my phone was on from 6am) the battery was just about gone. I bought with me a Mophie Juice Pack Air rechargeable battery case to boost the iPhone power and that took my through to the end of the day but without my recording would have been cut short. A little disappointing, I think this app is best used in close proximity interviews and meetings and for lectures in your average sized classroom instead of an auditorium. Via its in built web server the audio can be easily accessed across Wi-Fi from any Windows or Mac computer.

• Ease of use:
• Staying power:
• Audio Quality:
• Value for Money:

Discontinued: In the digital note taker range the very pricey but sheek WS-331M finally gets the chop along with the very popular WS-210S, which of course had to happen just as I wrote a huge review on the recorder! Also removed from the product range is the J300 analogue micro cassette dictaphone.

Price Cuts: The J500 analogue micro cassette dictaphone has been dropped to the same price as the axed J300 and is RRP $149.00 incl. GST now. But of note is a huge price cut for the WS-110 digital note taker dropping from RRP $355.00 incl. GST to only RRP $195.00 incl. GST

Launched: As reported in my last blog post “Olympus Australia Revamp Entire WS Series Range Of Digital Voice Recorders” the new replacement WS series digital note takers are now officially launched in Australia and their pricing has been confirmed.

• WS-450S (replaces the WS-210S) – RRP $295.00 incl. GST
• WS-550M (replaces the WS-311M) – RRP $395.00 incl. GST
• WS-560M (replaces the WS-321M & WS-331M) – RRP $495.00 incl. GST

The release of these new recorders came a week earlier than expected.

Already the WS-311M and WS-321M recorders are discontinued and I hear that the WS-210S and WS-331 are close to being retired also in the coming week or so. These massively popular recorders are going to need something pretty special to take their place and here they are:

A complete new range of WS series recorders soon to hit Australia, the WS-450S, the WS-550M and the WS-560M. Yep they look similar, they are a similar size and carry the same features as the old recorders like multiple folders, multiple recording modes and amazing audio pickup. The main differences I can see from my first look are:

• More available memory.
• Retractable or slide out USB connector.
• Battery recharged while USB connected (WS-550M & WS-560M only).

More available memory

Only to be expected as the price of solid state memory falls and becomes more affordable that Olympus cram more into their WS series recorders. By having more memory available the recorders can start to again compete to be multi function devices, not content with being some of the best digital note takers around they can also act as your memory stick for storing your digital media and also, in the case of the WS-550M and WS-560M, will function as your music player.

Maximum recording times for the new WS series recorders:

Olympus WS-450S – 1Gb of built in flash memory

• [ST XQ] mode: 17 h. 20 min – stereo
• [ST HQ] mode: 34 h. 45 min – stereo
• [ST SP] mode: 69 h. 35 min – stereo
• [HQ] mode: 69 h. 35 min – mono
• [SP] mode: 137 h. 00 min – mono
• [LP] mode: 272 h. 25 min – mono

Olympus WS-550M – 2Gb of built in flash memory

• [ST XQ] mode: 34 h. 30 min – stereo
• [ST HQ] mode: 69 h. 40 min – stereo
• [ST SP] mode: 139 h. 25 min – stereo
• [HQ] mode: 139 h. 25 min – mono
• [SP] mode: 247 h. 10 min – mono
• [LP] mode: 544 h. 55 min – mono

Olympus WS-560M – 4Gb of built in flash memory

• [ST XQ] mode: 69 h. 30 min – stereo
• [ST HQ] mode: 139 h. 35 min – stereo
• [ST SP] mode: 278 h. 10 min – stereo
• [HQ] mode: 278 h. 10 min – mono
• [SP] mode: 547 h. 25 min – mono
• [LP] mode: 1,088 h. 05 min – mono

Retractable or slide out USB connector

This is something new and from me something very welcome. The old WS series design, although ingenious, did not lend itself to blokes like me. The units themselves used to pull apart seperating into two pieces, one held the battery the other the USB connector and display unit. The release button which had to be held down while pulling the unit apart was small and for large handed people like me a bit tricky. This new design looks fantastic, its simple and doesn’t require you to have small fingers to operate it successfully. A slide switch on the side of the new WS series models extends out a high speed USB 2.0 connector from the bottom of the unit.

Battery recharge while USB connected

Oh Olympus you were so close to perfection with this one. The WS-550M and WS-560M recorders come with a single rechargeable AAA battery (BR401 is the code if you ever need to order one) which can be recharged by the unit itself when USB plugged to a computer, very handy. What I would have loved to have seen would be the units actually powered by USB, never mind, USB recharge of batteries is a step in the right direction. From a single battery you still get an impressive 15 to 20 hours of recording time (depending on the recording mode selected).

No news as yet on the price of these new Olympus models or their release date. I would expect them to all be available in Australia before the end of August and I would estimate that they will come in at similar pricing to the outgoing WS-210S, WS-311M and WS-321M models.

Olympus Europe press release announcing the new WS series digital voice recorders.

For more information on these and other Olympus voice recorders in Australia contact us via:  twitter.com/dictates – sales@dictate.com.au or on the phone at 1300 787 092

• Small and lightweight
• Very easy to use
• Excellent audio pickup and quality
• Great price point for a quality voice recorder
• Compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 Preferred
• Both Windows and Intel Mac compatible
• Fully featured with variable voice activation (VCVA) and low cut noise filtering

These are just a few of its qualities. So lets look a little closer at this recorder and what it can do.

Click image for larger view

What Can It Be Used For?

The Olympus WS-210S is a bit of all rounder when it comes to digital voice recorders. It is excellent for single speaker note taking, but if you are going to use the recorder for this bear in mind it is a notetaker and not a dictaphone, so audio is recorded in one take, unlike a dictaphone which allows you to stop/start rewind/review your audio. So, because it is a one take recorder it makes it excellent for interviews and small meetings (upto 6 to 8 people but this also depends on the location where recorded). The recorder can also be used in lecture and conference situations where the attendee wants to record what is being said. As a general rule of thumb I tend to say if you can hear the audio clearly then so will the recorder. If you are struggling to hear then recorder will also struggle.

How Do I Listen To My Recordings?

You have a few options.

1. The recorder itself has a small speaker built into the back of it, you can play the audio on the recorder through this small speaker. Be warned it doesn’t sound great through the speaker but is ok for checking that you have captured some audio.
2. Using the supplied stereo headset simply plug that (or your iPod headphones) into the earpiece jack in the top of the unit and listen through the headset where the audio quality will sound alot better than the inbuilt speaker.
3. On your Windows computer or Intel Mac using a huge range of audio playing software like Windows Media Player, Player Lite from Olympus,  ExpressScribe, Audacity the list goes on.

What Software Do I Need?

The recorder does not come with software, it doesn’t need any. The device is pure plug-and-play on any Windows computer or Intel Mac. Once connected the recorder becomes an additional drive and a USB mass storage device allowing you to also store files on the recorder. Audio is recorded to any of the five folders on the device and moving the audio off is simply drag and drop from the recorder to your computer. The Olympus WS-210S records its audio in .WMA (Windows Media Audio) format.

I Use A Mac, I Thought Mac’s Couldn’t Play Windows Media Files?

I use a Mac also and am a huge fan. By default .WMA files can not be played on a Mac, however there are a couple of free plugins that will let you play your .WMA audio on your Mac. One is from Microsoft itself and is Windows Media Player, the other is Flip4Mac – both can be downloaded free from the Microsoft for Mac website – www.mactopia.com

Recording Modes

The Olympus WS-210S comes with 6 different recording modes ranging from Long Play (LP) which will give you a huge 138 hours and 30 minutes of recording time down to STereo eXtra high Quality (STXQ) mode which will give you 8 hours and 50 minutes of recording before the internal memory (512Mb) is full. Please don’t be too excited by the huge amount of recording time in LP mode, there has to be a trade off and this comes in terms of audio quality and pickup.

Whenever I speak to people about the recorders I always recommend you record in the highest recording mode you can, this gives you crisp audio and excellent audio pickup. In STXQ mode you may think 8 hours plus is not much but it is generally way longer than the majority of meetings, interviews and lectures will ever go for. If you are concerned about using up the internal memory just move the audio off the recorder and onto your Windows machine or Mac, the USB 2.0 connection will quickly transfer the audio files from the recorder to your computer. Below is a breakdown of the recording modes and recording times in those modes:

• STXQ (Stereo) Mode – 8 hours, 50 minutes
• STHQ (Stereo) Mode – 17 hours, 40 minutes
• STSP (Stereo) Mode -35 hours, 25 minutes
• HQ Mode – 35 hours 25 minutes
• SP Mode – 69 hours 40 minutes
• LP Mode – 138 hours 30 minutes

Microphone Sensitivity For Dictation or Conference/Meeting/Lectures/Interviews

One of the features of the WS-210S is the ability to change the microphone sensitivity. There are two settings, High Sensitivity to opens the mic up to record sound from all around and Low Sensitivity which narrows the directional recording of the microphone.

High Sensitivity should be used for multi speaker recording like interviews and meetings as well as when picking up audio from a distance like when in a lecture or conference. Low Sensitity mode would be used when recording single speaker dictation and note taking. The sensitivity level set on the recorder is clearly visable on the LCD display.

Even Your Computer Can’t Tell The Difference Between The Recorder And You

The audio that the WS-210S produces is recorded in .WMA (Windows Media Audio) format, this is one of the formats accepted by Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred version 10 for deferred transcription. This is when you record your dictation away from your computer, so for example on your WS-210S and when you return to your home or office you can play your recorded voice into Dragon and have it transcribe your dictation for you. Dragon NaturallySpeaking relies on the user training the software to recognise their voice by way of voice training. Training involves you reading a number of short text paragraphs to Dragon NaturallySpeaking and the software learns the way that you speak.

I created a small sample audio file on my Olympus WS-210S and played it into Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred to show you exactly how it works. The original audio file I used can be downloaded from here: WS210014.WMA or you can listen to the audio by clicking the icon below:

What’s In The Box?

The Olympus WS-210S comes in a snazzy looking black box and contains:

• Olympus WS-210S (obviously)
• 1x AAA Battery
• 1x Stereo Headphones
• 1x USB Extension Cable
• 1x User Guide (in a gazillion languages)

Are There Any Accessories That Go With The Olympus WS-210S?

The only additional options for the WS-210S are a range of microphones for specific tasks (recording phone conversations, noise reduction, tie pin mic) or a rather ugly brown protective case known as the Olympus CS116 WS Series carry case, there used to be a very nice black leather deluxe case for the WS series recorder called the CS115, this has been discontinued. The microphones available are:

• TP7 for recording telephone calls
• ME52W tie clip high sensitivity noise reduction mic
• ME12 noise cancellation mic
• ME15 tie clip mic

So to sum up the WS-210S is an excellent all round digital voice recorder. The only negatives I can find with it are that it is battery operated only, there is no USB power or external power option although on a single AAA it can go for upto 13 hours on STXQ mode using alkaline batteries. The other small niggle is the battery compartment can be fiddly to open if yuo have large fingers like me and some care needs to be taken with the battery cover door when it is open. As long as you remember this you will have a long happy relationship with your Olympus WS-210S.

The Olympus WS-210S, if purchased from an authorised Olympus Voice Australia reseller like Dictate Australia is covered by a 1 year parts and labour warranty. The RRP in Australia is $395 incl. GST.

When you compare them, there were only a few minor differences between the Olympus WS-311M and the Olympus WS-210S. Apart from being different colours, the WS-311M had it’s record button on the side, mimicking the digital dictaphones, as well as an additional stop and play button on the side, the WS-210S only has buttons on the front panel.

The WS-331M and WS-321M also had noise cancellation which was available via the DSS Player software, the WS-210S does not.

There was also a very slight difference in max. record times, this was due to a slightly higher frequency response used by the WS-311M/WS-321M recorders, not enough to be noticeable.

The WS-311M/WS-321M could also direct record to a Windows PC hard drive instead of the onboard memory using the supplied software.

The WS-311M was one of my personal favourite recorders and will be sadly missed, if you can sadly miss a digital voice recorder!

Usually we have an inkling that something is likely to change. We keep a very close eye on the Olympus America and Olympus Europe websites and quite often we can see up-and-coming new models. There appears to be no replacement coming for the WS-311M and the WS-321M so I think it is safe to say we are just going to be left with the WS 210S and a very classy looking piano black Olympus WS-331M in the small digital notetaker class.

This blog post was written using MacSpeech Dictate – Voice Recognition of Intel Mac