Hallo -
some time ago I posted an enquiry re low-budget digital recorders. A friend has bought the Olympus DM-20, and since I have been using it all the time I thought it would be good to post a short assessment.
(Many thanks to all those who sent suggestions!)
Name: Olympus DM-20.
Specs: 128 MB in built memory. For recording frequencies (4 options) and all that see maker's site.
Price: 350 Euros in the Netherlands, nowhere to be found in the UK. We have to go trough Uni procurement, and that makes things worse. But even as a layman I could not find it anywhere worth travelling to (form Manchester, UK, at least).
Weight: trivial, can sit in a shirt pocket.
What you get: device; cradle; USB connecting cable; all fit in soft-box (some 14x8x2 cm approx); remote (wire control); headphones; batteries (2).
Usability: takes five seconds to unzip and place in front of the interviewee. Handy rec button, with waves indicating recording in progress. Five folders, in case you forget who you have interviewed. It has just one plug for headphones, remote and mic. Clever, but you cannot listen on the headphone while you record, or command an external mic with the remote. Shame.
User friendliness: not too bad, though I have not figured out how to pause the recorder during an interview. Sure, you can use the editing facility post hoc, but it would be rather easier to do it on the spot. And, I expect to figure that out without having to use the TM (technical manual, according to military jargon). That's not user friendly.
Output: Using Sony stereo T recorder: very good. Microphone is crucial, but that's always the case. Strange enough the two in-build mics are good, the one on the shuttle particularly good. I have used it at a conference, some 20 yards from the speaker, 64 bit rate on the Olympus DSS high quality mode. I pointed it at the speaker, and thought it would just get a lot of noise. Surprise, not the best recording in the world, but good enough for transcription.
Formats and autonomy: with stereo mic you get what they call 'S-Hi' quality, a WMA (Windows media audio) file, directly portable to computer. Some 8.5 hours recording. With Hi mono you get DSS file, which is Olympus proprietary compression. Some 16 Hours. Overall, if you are doing more than 8 hours recs on the move, and have no laptop to back up (and in that case you can use the laptop!), mini-disk is a better option.
Batteries: 10 hours recording the first set, at 9 hours now, but awaiting corroboration from second set.
Connectivity: USD from cradle or device to computer. Software is easy to use and quite straightforward. Can be configured from the computer, meaning one can change folder names, up/download stuff, edit. I have not tried DM-20 with Mac, I was told it makes no difference, but could not confirm.
Geek factor: if you are doing interviews with computer-literate interviewees, or just plain geeks :) the recorder makes quite an impression. Might be good to break ice :) (was good for us, actually).
Dangers: no solid state, meaning that you have all your precious material on the device memory until you download it to your PC. Thus, same risk of tea-spilling as for any other device, including mini-disks... Alas, I had my magnetic tape recorder along for back-up, and I assume all anxious people like me do have three-level redundancies at interviews....X-ray resistant (tested), no risk of data loss on that front.
Downs: it does not allow for voice recognition, according to the manual.... naahhh. Just more complicated. Saved my DSS into WMA, and all was fine. Mah.
Music & data: yeah, you can use it both as an MP3 - WMA reader, and as a USB virtual disk. Tried both, ordinary. I'll stick to my USK key for the time being.
Final note. Quite handy when we'll deposit data with the UKDA. Sure, it will be anonymised, and part of it embargoed, yet it will save us quite a lot of transcription time (and money).
Value for money: 8/10. And no, I'm not from Olympus. Quite a few things need improving, but overall good stuff.
I think I'll get one myself.
I'd be curious to know whether anyone else has tried it, and had different impressions. Send them along.
Best regards,
Wainer
ESRI - University of Salford
http://www.ipop.org.uk
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