Topic: Olympus LS-10 + Roland CS-10EM

[Hank H.]

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to record nature and city atmosphere sounds, maybe also some musical performances from time to time for radio broadcasts with an old Olympus LS-10 and the Roland binaurals CS-10EM. I hardly ever used the Olympus mic-in before, only its internals or the line-in. Now I remember the mic-in had this bass roll-off. Does anyone else use the Olympus with the Rolands? How bad is the roll-off with this combination? Should I use an external battery box to power the mics and get better results? Which one do you recommend?

Thanks!

[dyneq]

I had the LS-10 and, while it's a really nicely made piece of equipment, it does have that bass rolloff issue. If your goal is to capture the really low end (say a freight train or thunder), then you may be disappointed. However, I think those mics are omnis and will be able to capture ample low frequency energy. You may find that it still sounds pretty good (it really depends on what you play it back on too).

I'd just go out and try it as-is. If you're happy with the results, there is no reason to spend more money. If you find that the low end is lacking, and you want to stick with that recorder, you could add a mic preamplifier and go line in (which obviously has no rolloff). A battery box is recommended for very loud sound sources, but most likely not necessary for anything else (depending on the powering requirements of those mics).

[aaronji]

I don't have any personal experience with the LS-10, but here is some useful information from guysonic (there are some plots/text about the mic-in bass roll-off):  http://www.sonicstudios.com/ls10revw.htm.  Also, judging from his plots of noise levels, a battery-box would be a good idea.

[rjp]

LS-10 owner here. While I don't have the Roland mics, I've used it with Sound Professionals SP-TFB-2 in-ear mics and had good results, but my best recordings have involved a Naiant Littlebox and phantom-powered mics, connected to the LS-10 line in. If the bass rolloff is an issue, line-in (with external preamp) is the way to go.