Customer Reviews

Olympus WS-510M 4GB Digital Voice Recorder and WMA/MP3 Music Player

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I own another Olympus recorder which I bought years ago and I paid a ton of money for it. It was money well spent. I was intimidated by the "digital" part of it for a long, long time, but once you get the hang of it, these are so fabulous.

There's a button on the front that lets you move between folders A-E. That letter will appear on the screen and you can work on 5 different projects easily---just press the little button and it will take you to the folder you want where you can store all your notes for that project.

Within each folder are 199 files---I know this sounds confusing if you are new to the digital world, but the recorder does it all for you. You just go to the folder (tap the far right top button several times and it will go from A to E on the screen. You stop at the letter you want). Then press record and Talk! Easy!

When you are done, you'll see on the screeen 1/1---which means two things: you have just created a file and there are a total of 1 files in your folder, 1/1. The next time you record, it will say 2/2---which means you are in the second file and there are 2 files in your folder and on and on it goes until you get 199 files.

Now let's say you want to go back and listen to file 1 of your 199 files. You click back through them manually with the (<---) arrow which is on the front wheel until you get to it. The screen will say 1/199 and you will be at the first file and know you have 199 files total. I think that is just so easy and so cool!

To record, you press the top button in the middle which you can see in the picture (it's just below the screen) and talk---that's it. You don't press two buttons at the same time like in the olden days.

If you want to pause, click it again. If you want to stop recording, the top button on the left is stop and you click it. NOTHING could be easier.

At first, I was afraid to buy a recorder with the buttons on the front because my old one had them on the side, so I went to a store and looked at the product. THE FRONT IS BETTER. You have to remember that this little guy is the size of a heath bar. It's small! And holding it in your hand makes it super easy to click all the buttons with your thumb. Another reviewer said they were too small---I think they are PERFECT...go and look at Office Depot and you'll see the size. If you can't read them, the red one is record and the black one is stop. I can see them just fine, and if you can't remember this few buttons, then you probably are not reading this review.

Now, this gadget has all sorts of hidden menus to do all sorts of detailed things---I flip through the menus now and then and check them out, but basically, I just want to record and download.

It comes with a foam pouch which is really nice. My old one didn't have that.

It comes with a rechargeable battery and it's supposed to recharge anytime you have it hooked up to your computer. I haven't taken the time to charge it.

The second reason I bought another olympus is because my first one had 1/4 of a gig and this one has 4 Gigs! I filled the old one up in a week, so I'm thinking this one should last two months!!! Unbelievable for the price I paid which was $109---my old one cost over $300, I think.

Olympus makes a ton of these little recorders and I went to their website to try to figure out what was what. They could do a lot better job of telling you.

I narrowed the choices by the USB port. The old one I have snaps apart (too cool) and one side is a usb insert (like a flash drive). This one has a little USB thing that slides out of the bottom and then retracts. This was a deal breaker for me with the other models---I will lose a cord and I wanted the USB thing to be built in. The whole point of having a digital recorder is to hook it to your computer.

I like the voice activated feature(unlike another reviewer).

The other reviewer is right that you do have to go through several buttons to erase, but if you think about it, better to be asked to confirm, then to erase by mistake. I *think* (but I'm not sure if I remember this correctly) there might be an erase for the whole folder on one of the menus.

At this price and this size, there's no reason not to have one with you all the time. It will work with Dragon and actually type up your files, but I am here to tell you that the Dragon people are as unfriendly as they come. After I spent DAYS trying to figure out why my Dragon software would not work when I was trying to train Dragon with their mic, I paid the $20 to talk to someone who

He/she finally said it was an issue they knew about and that I could not use their headphone/mic that came with the software. They refunded my $20 and I bought a new mic---but what about all MY TIME!? The DAYS I lost!?

I think they owe me for that. And Dragon ruined one of my audio drivers on my computer causing it to crash over and over---GRRR and I had to pay to get that fixed by the Geeks, like I will ever see that money back from Dragon.

If anyone knows of any voice recognition software that actually works and is made by a company that's nice, responsible, and friendly, please comment to this post. I paid Dragon to figure out how to convert the wma files this recorder produces to wav files (I know it can be done because I've done it), but he said it couldn't AND took my money. Yes, I love them. If anyone knows how to do it, please also comment. Using voice recognition with this recorder is a very important reason for getting it.

UPDATE: If Olympus reads these (and they should)---could you please make one with more files---5 is not enough. I work on a lot of projects at once. Give me 10! And could someone please explain what the index thing does?

ANOTHER UPDATE--May 22, 2010: Amazon just sent me a product update on Dragon, since they now make software that converts WMA files to print. In other words, I won't have to convert the voice files I make on this recorder to WAV files before they will print---at least that's what the box says. We'll see. I'll be back with an update after I use it.

I use my DVR for almost everything; journal, shopping lists, work to-do lists, and personal to-do lists. I decided that I wanted to also have something that I could playback some audio files for customers and potential customers, so I looked into a DVR that could also play MP3 files. I first got the Olympus DS-40 and I was very happy with that one. It had great playback sound, great for dictation, robust, and very easy to use buttons. But as I decided to load some music on it, I found that the memory was way too limited for me (512MB). So, I looked into the same capabilities but with more memory. I swapped it for this one and I have been very happy. The pro's:
Massive memory
Can swap between voice and music; making it truly like 2 devices in one
Lightweight
Embedded USB port
Lighted screen
Noise cancelling for playback (have to use: see con's)
Did I say massive memory?
There is a rechargeable battery, but I can't say if that works as well.

Con's:
Buttons are so small that you can mispress easily
VCGA doesn't work very well and end up cutting off bits of your recording
PLAYBACK- the speaker for the playback must've been where they cut the costs. Its soft and not crisp at all. However, don't let that fool you into thinking that its not recording good. When you play it back with the WOW, it sounds like you're right there in the room-crystal clear even in HQ mode.
Doesn't have a hard switch to go between dictation, conference, and lecture microphone sensitivities on the fly like the DS-40 does (GREAT feature)

All around, this is a great recorder and will do awesome serving multiple functions for you. With its memory size and embedded USB you can use it effectively as your memory stick, too. I'm very happy with this purchase and would definitely trade off the lousy speaker for the memory...

I love everything about this recorder except that it created corrupt wma files. By corrupt I mean that after I downloaded the file to my pc, when I listened to the file it played fine for a while then the playback would hang in the middle of the recording. I figured out, and a few hours later was instructed by Olympus support, to format the recorder. So far that's fixed the problem. Also, it's in the manual but be sure you realize that if the battery runs out during a recording the file doesn't get closed and you lose that recording. So don't forget to press stop when you're finished recording. One nice surprise is that the battery supplied is a 900mah NIMH AAA which is as far as I know is currently about the highest capacity AAA nimh available.

edit: There is an file copy of the user manual in the recorder's memory that's accessible when it's connected to a pc and is considerably easier to read than the paper copy. If you care anything about it copy it to another location since if you format the recorder the file goes bye bye. It's available on the olympus web site though.

edit: there is now a firmware upgrade that allows mp3 recording but the files are MUCH larger.

question: I finally got around to using the mp3 music player function. Rewind works but I simply cannot get it to fast-forward. If anyone knows the secret I'd appreciate a comment. thanks

edit: I just picked up an ETM-001 external microphone and it picks up much better than with the internal microphones. I wish I'd tried it ages ago.

You can read my previous posts on this product line (WS-331M) - this model is another great evolution to the Olympus line of Digital Voice Recorders. Olympus has the BEST sound recording quality of these devices - I have used others mfg. tools and was not impressed. This model represents my 5th generation since 2000. These recorders are fantastic tools for students and professionals. I record meetings, calls, training materials and listen to all my podcasts. Having 4G is a tremendous improvement.

Real Positives...
1. Mic pickup & recording quality is just as good as previous models.
2. Storing 1,000 hours in the Long Play mode - which is easily a usable quality
3. the WMV encoding is very efficient - creating incredibly small files

The menus have changed a bit from the WS-331M with 2G - all the control buttons have been moved to the front of the device and the push-out USB port with in-unit recharging is a nice addition. Battery life seems to be a little better than the 331. USB interface is 2.0, fast and convenient - no cables. Listening to recordings and podcasts without earbuds using the built-in speaker, try that with an iPod. They have even added a lanyard connection point - a suggestion I made in a previous review. There is a dual-sided record LED (that can be turned off from a menu option). I am so glad the unit still uses AAA batteries - it's nice to recharge and go, but sometimes you are traveling and can not recharge - so a few spare AAAs give you unlimited recording time.

Negatives:
1. Earbuds that ship with the device leave much to be improved - plan on purchasing or using your own favorites ear buds or headphones
2. New user manual is brief and compact with tiny fonts - could be a little more user friendly / easier to read - but, you can download the manual in PDF form and the online version is more complete.

When I first got my Olympus I loved it. It is small and lightweight enough to fit perfectly in my shirt pocket, which I often do to record myself giving speeches for self-evaluation. I loved the rechargeable battery, back-lit screen, 4 GB of memory, and pop-out USB connector. And the learning curve to use it was not too bad. However, as I began to use it for the purpose for which I bought it, the playback sound quality was not good at all. I tried every quality and mic sensitivity setting, and nothing produced a quality nearly as good as what I was used to with my 5-year old Sony that had died. I even tried downloading the firmware that allows for recording in MP3 format instead of WMA, and the playback quality was worse. Plus, with MP3 recording, all of the quality setting options were no longer available. As much as I liked this product for the reasons first stated, I returned it because I was unable to secure a decent recording with the recorder in my shirt pocket. I continued to look and research because I still needed to replace my dead Sony. I ended up buying a Sony ICD-PX820 from Best Buy, which I have used for about a week now and absolutely love. It only has 2 GB of memory instead of 4, but that still gives me 24 hours of recording time on the highest quality setting. (More than enough for me.) It is slightly larger than the Olympus, but is still very small, light weight, and pocket sized. The tiny buttons and controls of the Olympus were not a problem for me, but the larger controls on the Sony are nicer. The Sony's batteries are not built-in rechargeables, but battery life is good and you can buy AAA rechargeable batteries if that is an issue. I wish the Sony's screen was back-lit, but that is not a major issue for me. It is also nice that the Sony records everything in the more versatile MP3 format by default. But here is the MAJOR issue for me - the quality of recording is wonderful! And the Sony sold for about $30 less than the Olympus. I should have bought the Sony from the beginning. I might have kept the Olympus if I had not had the old Sony to compare the playback quality to. I would not recommend this Olympus. Anyone who buys the Sony needs to pay attention to the model. If you want to download recorded files to your computer (which I do), make sure you get the 820 model.

I bought my recorder for my college lectures. I'm a nursing student and I was told that recording the lectures would be helpful. It is great! I'm soooo pleased with my purchase. Whenever I might've missed any of the notes, I have a digital recording of everything that was said! I plug it right into my usb on my computer to charge it (and yes, you have to hold the STOP button down as you insert it into the computer's USB port order for it to charge, but that's no biggie). It is Mac compatible!!!!! I have a Macbook Pro and there are no compatibility issues there. I don't charge it up but every 2-3 weeks, but that's based on my usage. Easy to use, just read the manual. As for portability, it's super small, so make sure you don't lose it! I always triple check to make sure I have packed it away. I keep it in a soft case to protect it in case it gets dropped so "i have a lot of peace of mind with that. The sound quality is wonderful. When you play it back live it sounds only ok. When I put it on my computer and listen back, I hear everything so clearly! Yes, I sit at the front of the class in order to get good audio, but when the professor walks around the classroom to the middle and back, it still picks it up well. So, I'm thrilled with my purchase and would highly recommend it to you!

UPDATE: March 11, 2011 - I've had my recorder over a year now and I still love it, love it, love it! Very pleased with my purchase!

I purchased this for voice recording and also for the MP3 music player. Its amazing how well it picks up all the sounds around it, very impressive. The music player also sounds great, and with 4 gigs you can put lots of songs on it. Overall I'm very happy with this unit and would highly recommend it.

Pros: Small, light, portable. Very sensitive microphone. Cons: Small, light, portable, almost too small to operate. Microphone is so sensitive that the rustling of pages being turned in a book sounds like a rushing mountain stream and can overwhelm the voice of the speaker. (Yes, I read the manual and it was set to ST HQ "business negotiations with a small number of people" per the instructions on page 24.) My BIGGEST complaint is that none of the marketing materials I read clearly disclosed that it records ONLY in WMA format. I would not have purchased this recorder if I had known it was limited to WMA only. If you want your files formatted in WAV, MP3, OGG or something else, you have to convert them yourself. It's not technically difficult, but I am annoyed that Olympus chose to use a proprietary sound format without giving the user the option to record in an open-source format. I'm going to adjust the microphone settings to a less-sensitive level and test its performance. The built-in speaker is pathetic. To gauge the quality of your recordings, you have to listen to the recorded file on computer speakers. On balance, this product gets three stars. Ergonomically it should be a few ounces heavier, have a larger speaker, and larger controls. It will get the job done, but is not the world-class product I expected. Why they included the ability to listen to MP3 music on this thing I'll never know. Waste of effort. Definitely *not* an Ipod replacement.

UPDATE 05/30/2010: I bought the Olympus ME-51S Stereo Microphone thinking it might improve sound quality. BIG MISTAKE. Makes the microphone so sensitive that the slightest extraneous noise in the room overwhelms the speaker's voice. I have managed to achieve the best sound quality for my purposes (recording meetings around a 6' diameter table with no more than five people inside a quiet room) by lowering the sound quality to plain 'HQ', setting the microphone sensitivity to 'DICT' rather than 'CONF' and using only the tiny built-in microphone. The mike on this thing is WAAAAY too sensitive.

BIGGEST 'GOTCHA': As noted above, records only in WMA format. If this is a problem for you and you don't know how to convert WMA to your preferred format, look for another recorder. This limitation was not adequately disclosed in any of the marketing literature (or the Amazon listing). I understand the WS-520 will record in MP3 but have not confirmed that fact. Caveat emptor!

OVERALL: It works, but the microphone is too sensitive, the speaker is lame, it records in a proprietary format, and the controls are too small. I do not think the price is commensurate with the value received. With hindsight, I'd choose a different recorder.

Used this the first time out of the box and without instructions. Someone I know had one and they told me how to use it. :-)
Love the slideout USB port, but it may not fit easily into all USB ports or hubs due to recorder getting in the way. The USB port can't be too deep or inset too far as the recorder will hit the computer and not fit but one way, however it still is a great little recorder. Seems like the battery is eaten a bit too fast, but that may be personal perception. Very easy to transfer files to hard drive and compact design. Would definitely recommend over other recorders. Sound quality was a lot better than others I tried.

I've used a Olympus 4100 PCfor several years - excellent. I bought the 510 for the extra features. Found it too complicated to use with poor audio quality. It attempts to be a mini audio studio in too small a package. Decided to stick with the 4100, which creates audio programs with excellent clarity and ease of use.