This
Olympus ME-51S Stereo Microphone
was purchased for use with an
Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder
to record my college lectures to be offered on my Website and via podcasting services, including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! and PodBlaster. I wanted high quality audio recording equipment to give a professional sound to my presentations, and the DS-30 had already been doing well with its own, built-in stereo mic. Unfortunately, some of the rooms in which I lecture have the acoustical qualities of a haunted house, complete with unfortunately troubled, noisy souls dedicated to howling incessantly.
Hence, I bought the microphone to clip onto my tie so I could attach the recorder to my belt with a belt-clip case available from Olympus. The DS-30 has three recording modes: "lecture hall," "conference," and "dictation." (The DS-30 also has four recording quality levels, including "XQ" stereo, which I always use.) With the microphone, I was able to take the gain down from "lecture hall" to "conference," which cut the ambient noise level considerably. I was somewhat worried that the microphone being so close to my tie would cause occasional rubbing sounds as the mic hit the fabric, but in more than 50 hours of recording so far with the mic I have noticed that only twice while preparing the lectures for broadcast.
The microphone comes with three feet of lead wire, so there is plenty of cord to loosely wrap the wire to the back of a tie, drop it down a shirt, and then bring it back out at the bottom to take over to where the recorder is attached to the belt (if you want to do it by such a complicated method to avoid having wire flapping about).
I was also concerned that the microphone would not have the same audio quality as the built-in mic, but that has not been the case: the quality of sound being recorded with the ME-515 is exactly the same as that from the original, built-in mic, which detaches with a simple pull, allowing the jack from the ME-515 to be inserted with ease. I should caution that, even though the jack goes in easily, make sure it has gone in all the way. Once, I apparently didn't push hard enough, and the jack went in only partially, so I ended up with a really weird audio recording that ran mono instead of stereo, with the mono switching randomly from left to right.
In summary, the Olympus ME-515 is a wonderful complement to any of the better Olympus stereo digital audio recorders with which it is compatible, including the WM and DS series. The microphone is unobtrusively small, lightweight, smoothly attractive in shape, durable, and ready for use right out of the package. I have used it now in well over 50 hours of recording, and I carry it in a simple little pouch alongside my Olympus DS-30. If you want a stereo microphone for your better Olympus recorder, this is the one. You will not be disappointed with the audio quality you get from it.
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Customer Review: Amazing sound quality for racing
Danny Kerbs
Reviews with images
Works well with my Canon 60D
preface: Photography/video is JUST a hobbyIf you have a dSLR with a 3.5mm mic input, this might be a great addition to add stereo to your videos. I decided to go with this microphone rather than a hot shoe mountable mic for a few reasons: the cost seemed reasonable and the portability. I can put this microphone and a right angle adapter in a mentos box that fits in my pant pocket. Since recording audio can happen at any time, being able to access the microphone and attach can be completed in less than a minute. This might have been the case if I was carrying the microphone in my camera bag. Perhaps my needs will change in the future, but this works for me right now.The tricky part about recording video directly rather than mixing (yes... I'm too lazy to edit at this time) is that you have to tweak the audio levels before you start recording. Clipping will happen if you're using auto levels or set too high. Wind noise is also an issue since there's no screen.It would have been nice if Olympus included a carrying pouch, but again, the mentos box works fine.As far as sound quality goes. This microphone definitely pics up more ambient noise than the builtin microphone in my Canon 60D. The audio separation seems fine and is definitely more realized when wearing headphones.if you're looking for examples check out my youtube channel: markazali
