Feel like a spy with this sweet little recording gadget

One good thing about being a student is that sometimes you get to buy things you otherwise wouldn't. (Honestly, I needed more RAM so I could run that microscale modeling program!) Voice recorders are a good example of a luxury product that can nearly become a necessity for certain situations -- like rapid-fire lectures you'll need to review later.

I finally had to upgrade from my old Olympus VN-2000, which was also a great recorder. I just needed more space, and wanted the ability to quickly transfer files to my computer. The Olympus WS-311M really suits my every need. It has six different recording quality selections, and different ways to filter out noise. You can set it for close-up or conference recording, and tell it that you're trying to record a voice, and it will filter out some ambient noise for you.

The basics

This recorder from the "digital recorder with music storage" line from Olympus. It comes with an extra USB cord (even though it has a built-in USB attachment), a pair of headphones, and a users manual.

It measures 3.75 x 1.5 x .5 inches, which means it's a little longer and narrower than a pack of Trident. It takes one AAA battery, and only weighs a few ounces.

The design is nothing fancy: it's rectangular and silver-colored, with basic play, pause, volume, etc. buttons. I actually like how it looks, but it's not as nice as something like an iPod.

Sound Quality

I primarily use this to record lectures at school, and it's very good. It picks up things like people opening Doritos packages during class, but the quality is good enough that I can still hear the lecture. I actually haven't even tried the highest-quality recording mode, because the lower ones are so good.

I have the recorder set to "voice filter" to cut out high and low frequency tones during playback. A separate option is "noise cancel" (you can't use both at once). I did a few test runs with both features -- I turned on my washing machine and my alarm clock to try to get low and high frequency noises, then talked into the recorder. (Wonder what my neighbors thought I was doing that day!) I think the voice filter mode did a little better than the noise cancel one, but it's a close call. Both however, were an improvement over normal recording.

The only disappointment on this is the Variable Control Voice Actuator (VCVA), which was also a disappointment on my old recorder. It's supposed to start recording when it senses a voice, but the reaction time means that it cuts off the first part of the sentence, making for a choppy recording. It might come in handy if there are really long pauses in whatever you're recording, but for normal speech it's not worth it.

The specifications say this recorder holds up to 138 hours of recordings but of course that's with the lowest quality setting, which you'll only use if you're speaking directly into the device. For a small classroom setting I use the HQ mode, while for an auditorium or a mumbly professor I'll use the Stereo HQ mode. Here's how the recording time breaks down:

Stereo XQ Mode: 8 hours, 50 minutes
Stereo HQ Mode: 17 hours, 40 minutes
Stereo SP Mode: 35 hours, 25 minutes
HQ Mode: 35 hours, 25 minutes
SP Mode: 69 hours, 40 minutes
LP Mode: 138 hours, 30 minutes

External Microphone

*Update (7/4/08): I found a microphone (it was just randomly in my house -- don't know where it came from!) and tried it with the recorder. It's a big improvement. Using it, I can use the SP mode for lectures. I don't know the brand or model of the microphone, just that it says "Advance" on the front.

An added benefit of using an external mic is that you can move the recorder around, pick it up to check it, etc., without recording loud noises from bumping it against things. In my previous recordings, every time I started or stopped the recorder I had to jostle it a bit, which came across really loud in playback. Now, as long as I leave the mic somewhere undisturbed I don't have that extra noise. So I'd definitely recommend getting a mic.

Storage and Files

Eighteen to 36 hours is not a huge amount of storage, but I'm an impoverished student, so I'll take the extra six minutes a week necessary to transfer the files to my PC. Olympus also makes a 321 and a 331 model, which have 1 GB and 2 GB of memory. The Olympus website has the technical specs on all their recorders: www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_voicerecorders.asp

I haven't used this as a flash drive (i.e., to store non-audio files), but that could be useful. It is nice to be able to keep some songs in the "music" folder, although that will cut down on how many recordings you can store. In general, I can store several weeks' worth of lectures, as well as enough music to keep me occupied for the day.

File transfer is very simple. I was worried about it because I just got Vista and who knows what might go wrong there, but I've had no problems whatsoever. The users manual is actually a bit confusing on this point, but I finally got the courage to try just dragging and dropping files, and it did work.

Battery and more

The battery life is okay, but I always make sure to keep an extra battery on hand. Since I use reachargeables, it's not a big deal to go through batteries. Olympus specifies 21 hour battery life for alkaline batteries, and I think I actually get pretty close to this with rechargeables. It's just that using this as an mp3 player and recording lectures too means it's on for maybe 7 hours a day, so you change batteries every few days.

I love how small and light this is, but I'm always worried about breaking it. Fortunately, I have an old case (I think it used to hold a leathermans tool) that fits the recorder pretty well. Olympus does make a carrying case if you want to get all fancy. Right now it's selling for $19.95 on Amazon.

Price and Availability

This was a big purchase for me: about $76 from Amazon. I don't think it gets much cheaper than that, unless you want to got to eBay or something. Fortunately, a lot of major stores like Circuit City and OfficeMax carry this recorder, so you can do some comparison shopping, and maybe see if they do price matching. One nice feature of buying from Amazon is that if their price goes down within 30 days of your purchase they'll credit you the difference. This actually happened when I bought the Olympus 311M: I happened to check the price and it was about $3 lower. I contacted Amazon and they immediately gave me the difference back.

Overall

Although this recorder cost me almost $80, I think it's been worth it and I haven't even used it for a month yet. I can listen to lectures or play music anytime, and can transfer files just by plugging into a USB port. It works for a variety of different noise situations, and 512 MB is more than enough storage for me. If you want to store a lot of music on it, you'll probably want to consider going up to the WS-321 (1 GB, ~$110) or WS-331 (2 GB, ~$135) model. Since file transfer is so easy, though, I don't mind moving stuff around with my PC when I want new music.

Product Specs from Olympus

Recording Format WMA (Windows Media Audio)
Recording Media Built-in 512 MB flash memory
Card Format N/A
Input Level -70 dBv
PC Interface USB Direct 2.0 high speed
LCD Yes
LED Yes
Folders Messages 5/200 per folder

Sampling Frequency
Stereo XQ Mode: 44.1kHz
Stereo HQ Mode: 44.1kHz
Stereo SP Mode: 44.1kHz
HQ Mode:44.1kHz
SP Mode: 22.0kHz
LP Mode: 8.0kHz

Overall Frequency Response Stereo
XQ Mode: 50-19,000Hz
Stereo HQ Mode: 50-15,000 Hz
Stereo SP Mode: 50-9,000Hz
HQ Mode:50-13,000Hz
SP Mode: 100-7,000Hz
LP Mode: 100-3,000Hz

Voice Activation Available via menu setting
Demographic Data Input N/A
Practical Maximum Output 70 mW
Write Protection N/A
Speaker Built-in ø18 mm round dynamic speaker
Microphone Jack Yes
Earphone Jack Yes
Power Supply One AAA battery
Batteries One AAA battery
External Power Supply N/A
Battery Life Approx. 21 hours (using alkaline dry cell battery)
Size 3.7"L x 1.5"W x 0.4"D (94.7 mm x 38.6 mm x 10.9 mm), excluding protrusions
Weight 1.7 oz. (47 g), including battery
OS Supported Microsoft® Windows® 2000 / Windows XP / Windows Vista™
CPU N/A
RAM N/A
Sound Board N/A
Video Card and Display N/A
Removable Drive N/A
USB Port One free port
Audio Output N/A