Olympus provide some of the best voice recorders on the market so it’ll come as little surprise that the DS-50 is of a very high standard. There’s no avoiding the fact that Digital Voice Recorders have done for Journalism what Digital SLR Cameras have done for Photography so for those who have yet to upgrade from analogue this really does provide you with the perfect reason to do so.

The first thing you’ll notice about the DS-50 is how beautiful the thing looks. This may sound a little strange but when I removed this from its packaging I felt as though I could show it off as much as someone might with a top of the range mobile phone. The next thing you’ll notice is how incredibly light it feels and when it comes to this type of item I believe that lighter means better quality.

If you’ve always fancied yourself as a bit of a James Bond character then, in an appropriate setting, you can record all kinds of conversations going on around you, at various distances, and messing about the the sound settings should make them clear enough to understand. The geography will probably mean little to you but on the very first day of my experience with the DS-50 I was walking around Glasgow and decided to find “quieter” surroundings in order to better test its capabilities. The quieter place I chose was the Gallery of Modern Art as downstairs there’s a library with a comfortable seating area but, it turned out to be noisier than I imagined, chairs were being scraped across the floor, plates were clashing, and many conversations were on the go. I decided to test the equipment anyway and the results were quite incredible. I connected the earphones and while recording I could hear people at the back of the noisy room and with a couple of button presses I could even hear people whispering but, don’t worry, it wasn’t anything too personal.

I attended a private members club for a Video Games PR event (ooh, fancy!) and like some kind of undercover agent I set the device to record and discreetly placed it in my pocket. This helped a great deal as any concerns I had that I might forget many of the details in conversations with people were taken care of and on the journey home I listened to the recording in its entirety, job done. Having said that, I wouldn’t advise placing the recorder in your pocket as the sound will be distorted and fuzzy as you move around and the mic brushes against clothing, which means that the clip-on mic which comes supplied with the DS-50 is a real life saver.

This clip-on mic was put to good use while at the London MCM Expo and anyone who has ever attended such an event will understand that it’s very busy and because of this there’s a great deal of background noise. This gave me the perfect opportunity to put the three recording settings – Lecture, Conference, and Dictaphone – through their paces. The Lecture setting was great for picking up the general atmosphere (not that I required a recording to remember that) and while the greater recording distance results in less quality as more sound is taken in I did find it very useful when recording a public Q&A session out in the main hall. I switched to Dictaphone any time I wanted to take personal notes, you know the type of thing, “some of these cos-players look really hot”. Those settings work perfectly well but the jewel in the crown for me was the Conference setting as this gave me a perfect recording of the Heroes Press Q&A session.

The device can also play MP3 files which helped fill the time on the long journeys to and from events. I was pleasantly surprised at the sound quality while listening to music as it’s not something I’d instantly associate with a voice recorder and I assumed the feature would be average at best. This won’t replace your beloved MP3 player but it’s certainly a nice bonus to an already fantastic bit of kit.

If you must buy one digital recorder, perhaps you’re a student and find it easier than scribbling down notes, or you’re a Journalist and require it for your work, or you simply don’t trust your memory and like the idea of recording your thoughts, I really can’t recommend the Olympus DS-50 enough. Also, admit it, you really love the idea of pretending you’re a spy, don’t you?

9/10

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