Olympus LS-10 – What’s it all about?
Posted 5/02/2010John Willett MIBS reports on his experiences with a diminutive field recorder.
There seems to have been a massive growth in inexpensive hand-held flash recorders over the last couple of years, especially in the sub-£400 price range. Some of these are okay, some a bit ‘iffy’ and a lot are quite plasticky – not that being made with a plastic case is necessarily bad, but a good solid case is important. I wanted a small recorder as a back-up device and as a small pocketable machine that I could use as the audio equivalent of a pocket camera. I looked at many of the models on the market and gradually whittled the choice down to just a few – eventually choosing the Olympus LS-10.
The LS-10 recorder
When I first saw the LS-10 at the London International Music Show I was immediately hooked – I picked it up and it just felt right; it had a solid feel to it, the controls are ergonomically laid out, and the weight feels perfect in the hand. It’s also the perfect size for the pocket in all three dimensions, which means it easily becomes a ‘carry everywhere’ device (it’s about the same size as a mobile phone).
Olympus is not known for professional audio recorders but the company is a market leader in portable high quality dictation machines which are easy and instinctive to use, stylish and reliable. It seems that Olympus has taken all these fundamental qualities, added a few more useful professional features, and incorporated them into the LS-10.
Layout
At the top is a pair of cardioid microphones mounted at 90 degrees to each other, with a clear, backlit LCD display just below which is used to show all the parameters of the recorder, including the metering. Underneath the display are Stop and Record buttons separated by a peak light, and then a quartet of large cursor buttons with an OK/Play button in the centre. Next to this is an Erase button, while a row of four buttons at the bottom provides Fn (function), A-B Repeat, Menu and (file) List facilities.
On the left side is a 3.5mm headphones socket and replay volume control, with a compartment for an SD or SDHC memory card just below. Also on this side are the USB socket and a power On-Off-Hold slide switch. The right hand side has two 3.5mm jack sockets for Line In (nominal -6dBV level) and External (Stereo) Mic. The record level control, input sensitivity switch (Low/High), and a Low Cut switch are also here, plus an eyelet for attaching the supplied wrist strap.
Between the two microphones at the top of the machine is a 2.5mm jack socket for an optional infra-red remote control accessory, and on the base of the recorder is a socket for external 5V DC power. Usefully, on the underside of the machine is a standard quarter-inch camera tripod socket, a pair of miniature loudspeakers, the battery compartment, and four small rubber feet. The LS-10 will run for about 12 hours from just two AA size alkaline batteries (16 hours on NiMH batteries). The recorder is supplied complete with a handy zipped soft carrying case, wrist strap, batteries and a pair of foam windshields. As a tempting optional extra, Rycote makes a Mini-Windjammer set for the LS-10 that fits snugly on the supplied foam windshields.
Frquency response of the integral microphones
Features
The LS-10 can record with resolutions from 16/44.1 up to 24/96 in linear PCM, MP3 or WMA file formats, the audio being stored on the built-in 2GB flash memory, or removable SD or SDHC cards installed in the side slot. I must say that the microphone inputs do exhibit a slight bass roll-off, presumably to minimise wind and handling noise, but I did not find this a problem. Importantly, the line inputs have a completely flat response.
Unusually, the LS-10 has a pair of built-in loudspeakers, and although they aren’t much good for stereo listening (even if you hold the recorder on your nose!) they are handy for quick auditions to make sure things are OK without having to plug headphones in.
In Use
The LS-10 is extremely simple and easy to use, and very instinctive. In the simplest terms: switch on, press Rec (record light flashes), set the recording levels, and press Rec again (record light goes steady) – and that’s it really. Recorded files are stored in folders labelled A to E and ‘Music.’ The A-E folders are used to store recordings made with the LS-10 and the ‘Music’ folder is intended for storing your music library, enabling the machine to double-up as your MP3 player – though why anyone would want to listen to MP3 after recording at 24/96 mystifies me.
The business end, showing the microphone capsules and remote control socket
I took the LS-10 with me when I went up to the Whitley Bay Jazz Festival in July last year and used it to record several sessions which all came out extremely well. I had a small, foldable, camera tripod with me that I used to support the LS-10 and just had it in the aisle next to me as I sat in the audience. I started out by recording at 24/96, but thought this a bit silly while using the internal microphones, so I dropped this to 24/44.1 to reduce the memory required. At a late night jam session I just put it on a table in front of the players (microphones just clear of the table to avoid nasty boundary effects).
I also tried my luck at some hand-held recording in a cathedral I visited on the way back, as well as for some wildlife recordings in Slovakia including capturing the sound of a flock of sheep with bells around their necks – the supplied foam windshields working very well in these conditions. I even used it for recording an open-air ‘Oompah’ band concert in a Slovak village. In all these different situations I was very happy with the results.
Back at base (or even in the back of the car), it was simple to connect the Olympus recorder via USB2 to a laptop which immediately recognised it as a standard external drive – and it was easy to drag and drop the recorded files into archive folders on the laptop for later processing.
Summary
The back view, showing the camera mount socket
I found that all the controls came instinctively to hand, so much so that the machine can almost be operated blindfold. Okay, it’s not designed as a professional location recorder, but it is the perfect pocket recorder to accompany you everywhere you go. It is solidly built, extremely easy to use, and produces very good recordings. If I had to find a criticism, it would just be that it lacks a digital input – it would have been nice if Olympus had included an optical S/PDIF input at the bottom of the ‘line-in’ socket so that the LS-10 could be used as a back-up recorder in digital systems. As it is, though, the back-up recorder use is limited to the analogue line-in socket.
Do I recommend it? Yes – it’s the perfect pocket recorder for a wide variety of uses. Being small enough to put in your pocket it’s always to hand when you need it rather than being left at home because it’s too big or heavy. It’s an ideal recorder for the radio reporter too, and can be used with either the internal mics or a wired external mic. It’s a great little back-up recorder for a serious system and just perfect as a ‘fun’ recorder that you can take anywhere for recording sound snapshots. I would feel naked without it, now!
Details
Olympus LS-10
www.olympus-europa.com/site/consumer/campaign/ls-10/uk_en/
Typical Price: £212 (inc VAT)
The LS-11 improves on the LS-10's internal memory capacity and battery life
Update
Olympus has also released the LS-11 model which is very similar (identical size, shape and weight) but is claimed to have improved clock accuracy and frequency response, incorporates an 8GB internal memory instead of the LS10’s 2GB, is supplied with a remote control and receiver, and nearly twice as much battery life (23 hours instead of 12 on a pair of alkaline AA cells). Still no digital input, though. The LS-11 typically retails for around £299, and both models ship with a copy of Steinberg’s Cubase 4 LE DAW software.
Tags: hand held recorder
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Hi, thanks for this review. I wonder what you felt about the display in full sunlight? I’ve been using an edirol R-09 that I bought a couple of years ago. It’s a handy little device, similar specs (no internal speakers though), but in direct sunlight, the display was unreadable.
Comment by Richard Gott — 07/05/2010 @ 15:03
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