Experience with Olympus VN-120PC? (1 Viewer)

[Tiraya]

Hello all, was looking at finding a sound-recording device and this came up...anyone have prior experience regarding recording of bird sounds with said device? What is the difference between the Olympus VN-120PC and the Olympus VN-120, if any? (Couldn't find any info)

Or, perhaps there are alternatives. It needs to be light (preferably one-handed) because I carry my heavy camera around. I am a complete amateur to the sound industry, I don't know anything about this topic at all so there are probably far better options. Its surprisingly difficult to find any information. I've spent a good few hours finding only 1 website come up, or perhaps I'm just searching for the wrong words...

 

[iveljay]

From Olympus FAQ:

What is the difference between the VN-120PC and the VN-120 digital voice recorders?

The VN-120PC ships with a USB cable and software so that recordings can be downloaded to a computer for storage, management and editing. The VN-120 cannot be connected to a computer. (In fact the USB socket appears to have been removed on that version.)

There is a fixed 16MB of internal memory and no provision for using any form of removable memory.

This recorder is a voice recorder and doesn't have any specifications published for the frequency range it records. It is probable that the results will be less than optimal for bird song. The microphones and pre-amps will also be less well specified.

Also, this model is not listed as current by Olympus UK, but it does still appear to be available in the USA, however it is a very old model first listed in 2004 I think and my guess is that they are using up old stock.

What do you intend record (i.e ambient birdsong or a solitary bird at a distance)? What are you going to do with your recordings and how much do you want to spend?

There are several possible answers, depending on your needs. Sound recording tends to have a far steeper learning curve than taking photographs with today's auto most things, cameras and trying to use the wrong kit can prety well put you off for life.

The entry point equipment possibly includes Olympus LS-12 or LS-3 within the Olympus kit range, however, you may well be better served by something else depending on your own needs. If you come back to us with your requirements, I am sure there are people with plenty of suggestions.

 

[HarryJ]

Olympus VN-120 series

experience regarding recording of bird sounds with said device? What is the difference between the Olympus VN-120PC and the Olympus VN-120

Not really experience, but I found some techincal info on these. They record in a special compressed proprietary format and in different modes:The LQ and SP mode are useless for birding, but with the HQ mode (frequency response 300 - 7,200 Hz and sampling 16KHz) you could be able to get some decent quality sounds from short distance. As this is really a (spoken) voice recorder, the input level seems low. You could add a mic though.

Sorry that I cannot give more accurate details, but I would seriously consider a recorder that can do PCM (or wav) format at least at 44.1KHz or 48 KHz sampling rates. These details if available are usually mentioned in the tech specs. And then depending on what you really want to do, possibly a microphone.

The Olympus LS series LS 5, LS 10, LS 11, LS 100 is a good series of recorders. You can sometimes find good deals on these. There are also other good ones that you can find for 200-400 money units (USD, Eur, UKP), but a check at least the PCM and sampling frequency.

Regards
Harry J