Robert Lane
September 3rd, 2008, 03:40 PM
Thanks to a quick blurb by Noah Kadner on his site I decided to try out the newly released Oly LS-10 handheld PCM recorder for myself. The short version to the review: Get one, you won't regret it. Here's the long version:
The "test" so to speak, consisted of the unit sitting in the center console of a Toyota Prius while driving to lunch with a friend. What made it unplanned was that I had literally just taken the unit out of the retail box, snapped on the included windscreens (which are basically useless but will help protect the mic elements) put it in it's holster with the mic-heads sticking out and put it in the car to show my friend during lunch. (He wanted one too so I had his unit in the car also still in the box).
However unknown to me at the time was I had inadvertently hit the "rec" button twice while handling the unit (the power was still on after I had setup the menus) and so it ended up recording the entire lunch-break session, from the time I drove to my friends house, eating and during the ride home. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I had more than an hour recorded on the unit when I got home...more about the content of that trip below...
In listening to this audio I was absolutely amazed at what the Oly picked up; you can hear literally everything from the road rumble, A/C fans, turn signals, radar detector and of course our conversation ALL had their own space in the audio without one overriding the other. The vocals were clean and crisp, the road-noise was low and defined, the stereo imaging was natural... you really have to listen to this to appreciate all the aspects to the clip.
The unit was setup with everything at "normal", so there was no enhancement of the stereo field (which is an option), the low-cut filter was "off", "MIC SENSE" was at low or "normal" and the GAIN was set to AUTO. At this setting there was almost no perceptible pumping when the limiter kicked in.
However, somewhere through this clip I had again handled the unit and inadvertently switched the MIC SENSE to "HIGH" (@ 3m 25sec) so then the levels got doubled. At this setting the limiter was constantly being hit so the pumping is very audible, but manageable. If this had been a real, intentional test the GAIN would have been set manually eliminating any pumping.
The clip was recorded at DAT standard 48khz 16bit uncompressed WAV; the conversion was done at 320kpbs MP4/AAC to reduce the file size for posting here.
WARNING: Although it's been edited down the content of this clip contains over 7 minutes of completely **irreverent** "male humor" and nonsense (R-rated at times), remember we didn't know we were being recorded. So if you're at all offended by that type of humor you'd hear on Howard Stern for example, then consider yourself warned.
Remember that at 3m 25secs the clip level will double so be prepared.
NOTE: There seems to be trouble getting the clip to upload, I'll try later.
The "test" so to speak, consisted of the unit sitting in the center console of a Toyota Prius while driving to lunch with a friend. What made it unplanned was that I had literally just taken the unit out of the retail box, snapped on the included windscreens (which are basically useless but will help protect the mic elements) put it in it's holster with the mic-heads sticking out and put it in the car to show my friend during lunch. (He wanted one too so I had his unit in the car also still in the box).
However unknown to me at the time was I had inadvertently hit the "rec" button twice while handling the unit (the power was still on after I had setup the menus) and so it ended up recording the entire lunch-break session, from the time I drove to my friends house, eating and during the ride home. Imagine my surprise when I noticed I had more than an hour recorded on the unit when I got home...more about the content of that trip below...
In listening to this audio I was absolutely amazed at what the Oly picked up; you can hear literally everything from the road rumble, A/C fans, turn signals, radar detector and of course our conversation ALL had their own space in the audio without one overriding the other. The vocals were clean and crisp, the road-noise was low and defined, the stereo imaging was natural... you really have to listen to this to appreciate all the aspects to the clip.
The unit was setup with everything at "normal", so there was no enhancement of the stereo field (which is an option), the low-cut filter was "off", "MIC SENSE" was at low or "normal" and the GAIN was set to AUTO. At this setting there was almost no perceptible pumping when the limiter kicked in.
However, somewhere through this clip I had again handled the unit and inadvertently switched the MIC SENSE to "HIGH" (@ 3m 25sec) so then the levels got doubled. At this setting the limiter was constantly being hit so the pumping is very audible, but manageable. If this had been a real, intentional test the GAIN would have been set manually eliminating any pumping.
The clip was recorded at DAT standard 48khz 16bit uncompressed WAV; the conversion was done at 320kpbs MP4/AAC to reduce the file size for posting here.
WARNING: Although it's been edited down the content of this clip contains over 7 minutes of completely **irreverent** "male humor" and nonsense (R-rated at times), remember we didn't know we were being recorded. So if you're at all offended by that type of humor you'd hear on Howard Stern for example, then consider yourself warned.
Remember that at 3m 25secs the clip level will double so be prepared.
NOTE: There seems to be trouble getting the clip to upload, I'll try later.