Perfect for my needs

I’ve been part of a 5-piece Irish/Celtic band for the past 3 years, and in that time I’ve never needed a recorder since three of the other members had portable recorders to record our rehearsals, and provided the rest of us with CDs to use for our own practice. However, I’ve moved on and teamed up with one of the best Irish fiddlers/bouzouki players in the area as a duo. But wait……no more recorder!! He didn’t have one either. We went three months without a recorder and lost a LOT of good ideas because of no way to record them. We definitely needed something to capture those fleeting inspirational moments when we’d come up with some good musical ideas but unfortunately were forgotten between rehearsals. “Hey, what was that cool guitar part you came up with last week?” “I don’t know…..can’t remember.” Time to get serious about a recorder. So I began doing a lot of online research, as well as asked the guys in my old band which recorders they had (I left that up to them and never really paid any attention). I discovered they all had expensive MP3 recorders (unlike me, they all have high paying jobs) and I certainly can’t afford what they paid. So I had to set my sights a bit lower in price but hopefully still find something with quality and would fit my needs. After days of searching, reading reviews, listening to sound clips when available, and knowing from experience that Olympus makes fine audio recorders, I decided on the Olympus WS100. The local Radio Shack right down the street had them in stock, so off I went. When I first saw it, I was surprised at the tiny size and thought “how can that little piece of plastic be $100? But I slapped down my credit card and did it.

IN THE PACKAGE
The WS100 recorder, earbuds, neckstrap, warranty, instruction manual, (1) AAA battery.

APPEARANCE/SIZE
The WS100 is a very tiny, thin, sleek design with a silver finish on all surfaces (except the display window). It’s a very nice looking recorder. All operational buttons are silver as well, except for the REC button on the right side, and the Erase button on the front. You can see a photo here: http://mineroff.com/olympus/WS100.htm, as well as all the specs. Dimensions are 3.7"L x 1.57"W x 0.59"D. Pretty small! The WS100 easily fits into the palm of my hand and disappears into a shirt pocket. Weight is negligible at less than 2oz including the battery.

LAYOUT
On the front, you’ll find the 3/4" x 3/4" display screen at the top, with the Folder Menu, Erase, and Index buttons located just below the window. The speaker is located just below the buttons. On the right side (when viewing the WS100 from the front), are from top to bottom: REC, STOP, PLAY, FF/REW rocker switch, and the VOL rocker switch. On the back are the HOLD and POWER switches, both sliders. One of the coolest things about the WS100 is the built-in USB. Access the link above, and in the photo, you’ll see a contoured piece on the left side, which is the removable battery compartment. This is removed by holding the main body in one hand, grasping the battery compartment in the other, and pulling. This exposes the USB connector that’s at the bottom of the main body. Very cool indeed. No need for a docking station or cables. It can also be used as a storage device. The internal mic is located at the top right. The WS100 is a monaural device.

As expected, the buttons are rather small and it takes some practice and getting used to operating them without looking. People with large hands/fingers may have a problem operating the side buttons in particular.

FEATURES
The WS100 has lots of useful features, such as 64 MB of memory, three record modes…HQ (~4hr 20 min), SP (~8 hrs 40 min), and LP (~27 hrs 20 min), WMA format, USB direct, Voice Activation switchable ON/OFF, five folders with 199 files per folder, earphone and mic jacks, variable speed playback, adjustable mic sensitivity…HI/LO, 16mm diam speaker, HOLD switch that locks all functions.

RECORD/SOUND QUALITY
The WS100 provides excellent sound quality for my needs. All I really need is something to capture our rehearsal sessions, and the WS100 excels, providing crisp, clear, and surprisingly good quality audio of our instruments and vocals. It captures every nuance, every note, and every vocal clearly. We usually sit about 6’ apart, and with the WS100 placed in the middle on HQ and the LO mic setting, it does an excellent job. Naturally, we don’t listen to the internal speaker, but when run through my Altec Lansing system on my computer, it’s amazing how good it sounds with no tweaking. I have GoldWave audio editing software, and I’ve run raw tracks recorded on the WS100 through it, adding effects such as Reverb, EQ, etc, and come up with some amazingly good stuff for a little voice recorder. Best of all, I can quickly and easily download the files to my computer and burn CDs for my partner to take home and use for practice or just to listen to in the car. This is the perfect recorder for my needs. The WS100 requires one AAA battery for power, and I'm getting at least the advertised 13 hrs per alkaline battery. NiMH batteries will yield slightly less.

I stick it my shirt or coat pocket every time I leave the house. Often, I’ll be in a store looking at various products that I’d like to check out online. With the WS100, I can easily dictate the product info instead of trying to find something to write on. I was just at Burger King and dictated the “nutritional” (or should I say lack of nutrition) information so I could let the folks at home know we shouldn’t be eating that stuff!!

NOTE & SUGGESTION:
It would seem to me since the WS100's finish is paint, the areas where it comes into contact with whatever it's placed upon (usually on its back) will begin to show wear very quickly. In order to better protect it, I laid the WS100 on a piece of glass so I could see where it was touching on the back. I found it touches in two main areas: on the very outside corner edge of the main body (closest to the HOLD button), and inside part of the larger battery compartment. So I cut an 1/8" wide piece of green (hey, I'm Irish) plastic decorative tape and carefully ran it between the HOLD button and the edge of the flat section where the side buttons are located. I used an Exacto knife to carefully cut the tape where the battery compartment joins the main body so I can get it apart. I then cut a 3/8" wide piece of tape and ran it along the inside edge of the battery compartment cover so it covers that curve. This is where it comes into contact with objects you lay it on. Not rocket science and easy to do, and it should help protect the finish on the back. I'm sure with use over time, the finish will wear off in many areas anyway, but at least the back will still look good!

SPECIFICATIONS
See http://mineroff.com/olympus/WS100.htm for the WS100 specs.

BOTTOM LINE
The WS100 may not be for everyone. In fact, no product will appeal or be useful to everyone. But for me, the WS100 works beautifully for our band rehearsal needs….and then some. The tiny size, features, direct USB, audio quality, and price make the WS100 a winner for me. I’d have absolutely no problem recommending it.