2 THUMBS UP for the Olympus DS-30!

Yang Wen · June 17th, 2008, 01:15 PM

I picked up a DS-30 along with a pair of Binaural microphones.. Gonna see if this works out!

Harry Lender · June 17th, 2008, 05:52 PM

My DS-30 arrived today and after trying it out...I love it. About a week ago I Taped a financial seminar using two Azden wireless mics. It was at a Holiday Inn. The A/C's and the rest of the electronic equipment played havoc all night long. Stray Frequency's all over the place. I already had a Olympus WS-300m which I used for weddings and it was great. For some reason I didn't use it for the seminar. Now that I have two recorders I will use nothing else. In July I've got another Seminar and I'll post a report here. I have no weddings in the near future.
Hope this helps
Harry
BTW my Mics from my Azdens work just fine in both recorders thank you.

Alastair Brown · June 22nd, 2008, 02:55 PM

Anyone else having a nightmare syncing these up? The audio is indeed gorgeous but....man...does it drift!

Travis Cossel · June 22nd, 2008, 03:45 PM

I returned your email. I think I also mentioned earlier in the thread how I deal with the "drift". It's a bit of a pain to deal with, but I still feel that these are worth it because I get perfect audio every time.

Alastair Brown · June 22nd, 2008, 03:52 PM

Phew...sweat over!
If you are a Vegas user you can right click on the clip and select properties.

You then go to Time stretch/pitch shift
Method Classic
You then set the new length value to approx 99.76% of the original length. (too tired to work it out exactly..sorry!)
You then have to go back and re-sync the start of the clip.
After that you go to the end of the clip and just adjust the new length a fraction at a time until you are in sync.
Took a few attempts but it's now spot on.

Alastair Brown · June 23rd, 2008, 09:06 AM

http://www.mfbb.net/myvideoproblems/...s-about25.html

Some great info.

Travis Cossel · June 23rd, 2008, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alastair Brown

http://www.mfbb.net/myvideoproblems/...s-about25.html

Some great info.

Awesome find. I just scanned the article for now, but I'm going to try it out this week on my current wedding I think.

Travis Cossel · July 1st, 2008, 12:52 PM

Okay, so I didn't do that proceedure, but I did use Quicktime to convert one of the Olympus AIIF files to a WAV file with 48khz for the sampling frequency. Then I just used trial and error to adjust the speed of the clip and got it so it's on from start to finish. For me that meant adjusting the speed to 100.12%. That was for the officiant's mic. Now for the groom. Hopefully the same percentage applies.

Travis Cossel · July 1st, 2008, 01:09 PM

Okay, this is VERY strange and annoying. I use a DS-30 on the officiant and one on the groom. Both are exactly the same with the same mics and all of the settings are exactly the same.

But after converting both to 48khz and figuring out the speed requirements, one needed to be at 100.12% and the other had to be at 100.17%. I don't understand why the speeds need to be different if they were both captured exactly the same. Bizarre.

The good news is that converting them to 48khz seems to remove the lag and negates the need to cut the sound clips every couple of minutes to resync them. That's a time-saver!

Dave Blackhurst · July 1st, 2008, 01:49 PM

This was discussed in another thread, but the short technical explanation is that there is a "clock" chip in most of these electronic devices. That chip can have variances from one to the next, even within the same production run (tolerances), and may even vary slightly over time.

Unless you spend huge amounts of money, electronic circuits will have tolerance related issues. Every component will have a range within which it will be "acceptable", and put a pile of components together, and so on...

I use the old saw "man with two watches never knows what time it is" - that's what you're seeing - you might mark your two recorders, keep a log of what the offsets are for future reference, and perhaps you can save some time in the future, presuming the devices don't drift with age and time...

Travis Cossel · July 1st, 2008, 02:00 PM

Great advice, Dave. I do seem to remember reading that somewhere on here recently. Thanks for reminding me. I mark all my cameras so I might as well mark these recorders.

Shaun Conner · July 2nd, 2008, 01:35 PM

Question. After reading this thread I went out and bought this same dvr. Where should i go to find a mic to hook up with this? I have a wedding saturday and i need something quick. And if I can't get it for this weekend what mics would you guys suggest I go with? I saw a post earlier about the Giant Squid website.

Travis Cossel · July 2nd, 2008, 01:41 PM

I simply used the mic's that came with my Azden wireless set. I imagine any mic with an 1/8" plugin will work.

Shaun Conner · July 2nd, 2008, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

I simply used the mic's that came with my Azden wireless set. I imagine any mic with an 1/8" plugin will work.

Cool. Thanks.

Dave Anderson · July 2nd, 2008, 01:51 PM

I purchased one of the Giant Squids and it did a fantastic job. I only had the one ds-30 and put it on the groom. I picked up both the bride and groom as if both had their own. It even picked up the preacher.

Then during the lighting of the unity candle, both the bride and groom whispered their prayers and it picked that up also.

June 22nd, 2008, 03:45 PM	#34
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I returned your email. I think I also mentioned earlier in the thread how I deal with the "drift". It's a bit of a pain to deal with, but I still feel that these are worth it because I get perfect audio every time. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

July 1st, 2008, 12:52 PM	#38
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	Okay, so I didn't do that proceedure, but I did use Quicktime to convert one of the Olympus AIIF files to a WAV file with 48khz for the sampling frequency. Then I just used trial and error to adjust the speed of the clip and got it so it's on from start to finish. For me that meant adjusting the speed to 100.12%. That was for the officiant's mic. Now for the groom. Hopefully the same percentage applies. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

July 1st, 2008, 01:09 PM	#39
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	Okay, this is VERY strange and annoying. I use a DS-30 on the officiant and one on the groom. Both are exactly the same with the same mics and all of the settings are exactly the same. But after converting both to 48khz and figuring out the speed requirements, one needed to be at 100.12% and the other had to be at 100.17%. I don't understand why the speeds need to be different if they were both captured exactly the same. Bizarre. The good news is that converting them to 48khz seems to remove the lag and negates the need to cut the sound clips every couple of minutes to resync them. That's a time-saver! __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

July 1st, 2008, 02:00 PM	#41
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	Great advice, Dave. I do seem to remember reading that somewhere on here recently. Thanks for reminding me. I mark all my cameras so I might as well mark these recorders. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

July 2nd, 2008, 01:41 PM	#43
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I simply used the mic's that came with my Azden wireless set. I imagine any mic with an 1/8" plugin will work. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

June 17th, 2008, 01:15 PM	#31
Yang Wen Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 991	I picked up a DS-30 along with a pair of Binaural microphones.. Gonna see if this works out!

June 17th, 2008, 05:52 PM	#32
Harry Lender Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: St Charles, Mo Posts: 261	My DS-30 arrived today and after trying it out...I love it. About a week ago I Taped a financial seminar using two Azden wireless mics. It was at a Holiday Inn. The A/C's and the rest of the electronic equipment played havoc all night long. Stray Frequency's all over the place. I already had a Olympus WS-300m which I used for weddings and it was great. For some reason I didn't use it for the seminar. Now that I have two recorders I will use nothing else. In July I've got another Seminar and I'll post a report here. I have no weddings in the near future. Hope this helps Harry BTW my Mics from my Azdens work just fine in both recorders thank you.

June 22nd, 2008, 02:55 PM	#33
Alastair Brown Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Glasgow/Scotland Posts: 626	Anyone else having a nightmare syncing these up? The audio is indeed gorgeous but....man...does it drift!

June 22nd, 2008, 03:52 PM	#35
Alastair Brown Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Glasgow/Scotland Posts: 626	Phew...sweat over! If you are a Vegas user you can right click on the clip and select properties. You then go to Time stretch/pitch shift Method Classic You then set the new length value to approx 99.76% of the original length. (too tired to work it out exactly..sorry!) You then have to go back and re-sync the start of the clip. After that you go to the end of the clip and just adjust the new length a fraction at a time until you are in sync. Took a few attempts but it's now spot on.

June 23rd, 2008, 09:06 AM	#36
Alastair Brown Major Player Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Glasgow/Scotland Posts: 626	http://www.mfbb.net/myvideoproblems/...s-about25.html Some great info.

July 1st, 2008, 01:49 PM	#40
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	This was discussed in another thread, but the short technical explanation is that there is a "clock" chip in most of these electronic devices. That chip can have variances from one to the next, even within the same production run (tolerances), and may even vary slightly over time. Unless you spend huge amounts of money, electronic circuits will have tolerance related issues. Every component will have a range within which it will be "acceptable", and put a pile of components together, and so on... I use the old saw "man with two watches never knows what time it is" - that's what you're seeing - you might mark your two recorders, keep a log of what the offsets are for future reference, and perhaps you can save some time in the future, presuming the devices don't drift with age and time...

July 2nd, 2008, 01:35 PM	#42
Shaun Conner Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Baton Rouge, LA Posts: 196	Question. After reading this thread I went out and bought this same dvr. Where should i go to find a mic to hook up with this? I have a wedding saturday and i need something quick. And if I can't get it for this weekend what mics would you guys suggest I go with? I saw a post earlier about the Giant Squid website.

July 2nd, 2008, 01:51 PM	#45
Dave Anderson New Boot Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Mt Vernon, IN Posts: 16	I purchased one of the Giant Squids and it did a fantastic job. I only had the one ds-30 and put it on the groom. I picked up both the bride and groom as if both had their own. It even picked up the preacher. Then during the lighting of the unity candle, both the bride and groom whispered their prayers and it picked that up also.