Olympus LS-10 Recorder

[flintstone]

Prices for 8GB continue to fall.  I saw several deals for 8GB Class 6 SDHC for $16 USD
over the weekend.

[colargol]

Hi!

I've been trying out my LS-10 with two different setups:

* CA14s > CA-9100 > LS-10 (line in)
* Core Sound cardioids > Sonic Studios PA-3SX-U > LS-10 (line in)

For both of these setups I need to have a very loud sound source to get decent levels, even with the LS-10 rec volume on 10. Is this normal? Anyone else has had the same problem?

-Colargol

[Church-Audio]

Hi!

I've been trying out my LS-10 with two different setups:

* CA14s > CA-9100 > LS-10 (line in)
* Core Sound cardioids > Sonic Studios PA-3SX-U > LS-10 (line in)

For both of these setups I need to have a very loud sound source to get decent levels, even with the LS-10 rec volume on 10. Is this normal? Anyone else has had the same problem?

-Colargol

The ls-10 does not provide any gain what so ever in the line input, As a matter of fact you have to set the level control to 10 in order to get unity gain. I suggest setting the mic input sensitivity to low and the plug in power off then use my preamp on the mic input with all the gains down low.

Chris

[colargol]

Hi!

I've been trying out my LS-10 with two different setups:

* CA14s > CA-9100 > LS-10 (line in)
* Core Sound cardioids > Sonic Studios PA-3SX-U > LS-10 (line in)

For both of these setups I need to have a very loud sound source to get decent levels, even with the LS-10 rec volume on 10. Is this normal? Anyone else has had the same problem?

-Colargol

The ls-10 does not provide any gain what so ever in the line input, As a matter of fact you have to set the level control to 10 in order to get unity gain. I suggest setting the mic input sensitivity to low and the plug in power off then use my preamp on the mic input with all the gains down low.

Chris

But that mic input has that strange bass-roll-off feature that I would not want, right? Maybe I'll have to use my R09 for a while still...

If Olympus could fix the line input level and 2gb file limit, it would be an awesome recorder... Right now it does not seem like one...

-Colargol

[Church-Audio]

Hi!

I've been trying out my LS-10 with two different setups:

* CA14s > CA-9100 > LS-10 (line in)
* Core Sound cardioids > Sonic Studios PA-3SX-U > LS-10 (line in)

For both of these setups I need to have a very loud sound source to get decent levels, even with the LS-10 rec volume on 10. Is this normal? Anyone else has had the same problem?

-Colargol

The ls-10 does not provide any gain what so ever in the line input, As a matter of fact you have to set the level control to 10 in order to get unity gain. I suggest setting the mic input sensitivity to low and the plug in power off then use my preamp on the mic input with all the gains down low.

Chris

But that mic input has that strange bass-roll-off feature that I would not want, right? Maybe I'll have to use my R09 for a while still...

If Olympus could fix the line input level and 2gb file limit, it would be an awesome recorder... Right now it does not seem like one...

-Colargol

That is the reason I got rid of mine. It was a great recorder for voice but that stupid roll off on the low end for the mic input was crazy and the line input not having any gain what so ever was also crazy. It seems it was designed for recording a headphone output from a cd player and nothing more. And the built in mics sound like crap for another other then speech and even then I find the speech to be totaly unnatural sounding and thin.
The self noise is very low but hell anyone can make a recorder with no self noise if they DONT PUT ANY GAIN STAGE INTO IT

Chris

[Arni99]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

[Church-Audio]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

If you dont mind losing all that bottom end in your recordings by all means use the mic input for mics like the DPA 4060 it might not be such a bad thing but for Cardioid mics like the 853 or my mics you dont want to lose any bottom end at all. And at almost 20 db down at 25hz... you really dont want to lose all that even before you start recording. * as can be seen in the purple line *

[Arni99]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

If you dont mind losing all that bottom end in your recordings by all means use the mic input for mics like the DPA 4060 it might not be such a bad thing but for Cardioid mics like the 853 or my mics you dont want to lose any bottom end at all. And at almost 20 db down at 25hz... you really dont want to lose all that even before you start recording. * as can be seen in the purple line *

yes, for my dpa 4061 setup mic-in is no problem as the bass-roll off is not bad for these boomy mics.
With sp-cmc-8 mics Line-In works great aswell.
I knew about the mic-in and internal-mic bass-roll-off before I purchased the ls-10.
I´d go line-in with just a bbox and my sp-cmc-8 for loud rock shows and it works great as you can hear in the Steve Lukather sample above from dimeadozen(NOT my recording though).

Additionally I can use my SP-PREAMP and even record speech on line-in ...with lotsa gain from thy external pre of course.
The result still sounds great though.
=> no issue at all for me using the ls-10.

[Church-Audio]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

If you dont mind losing all that bottom end in your recordings by all means use the mic input for mics like the DPA 4060 it might not be such a bad thing but for Cardioid mics like the 853 or my mics you dont want to lose any bottom end at all. And at almost 20 db down at 25hz... you really dont want to lose all that even before you start recording. * as can be seen in the purple line *

yes, for my dpa 4061 setup mic-in is no problem as the bass-roll off is not bad for these boomy mics.
With sp-cmc-8 mics Line-In works great aswell.
I knew about the mic-in and internal-mic bass-roll-off before I purchased the ls-10.
I´d go line-in with just a bbox and my sp-cmc-8 for loud rock shows and it works great as you can hear in the Steve Lukather sample above from dimeadozen(NOT my recording though).

Additionally I can use my SP-PREAMP and even record speech on line-in ...with lotsa gain from thy external pre of course.
The result still sounds great though.
=> no issue at all for me using the ls-10.

Well if you take into consideration that your mics are going to be somewhere around -38 to -35 db with a acoustic level of around 105 db that's a whole lot of gain to make up...... I just personally think the R09HR is a much better recorder. And since I did own a ls-10 and now own a hr I can say that with certainty. Not to mention the better signal to noise specs on the HR.



Chris

[Arni99]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

If you dont mind losing all that bottom end in your recordings by all means use the mic input for mics like the DPA 4060 it might not be such a bad thing but for Cardioid mics like the 853 or my mics you dont want to lose any bottom end at all. And at almost 20 db down at 25hz... you really dont want to lose all that even before you start recording. * as can be seen in the purple line *

yes, for my dpa 4061 setup mic-in is no problem as the bass-roll off is not bad for these boomy mics.
With sp-cmc-8 mics Line-In works great aswell.
I knew about the mic-in and internal-mic bass-roll-off before I purchased the ls-10.
I´d go line-in with just a bbox and my sp-cmc-8 for loud rock shows and it works great as you can hear in the Steve Lukather sample above from dimeadozen(NOT my recording though).

Additionally I can use my SP-PREAMP and even record speech on line-in ...with lotsa gain from thy external pre of course.
The result still sounds great though.
=> no issue at all for me using the ls-10.

Well if you take into consideration that your mics are going to be somewhere around -38 to -35 db with a acoustic level of around 105 db that's a whole lot of gain to make up...... I just personally think the R09HR is a much better recorder. And since I did own a ls-10 and now own a hr I can say that with certainty. Not to mention the better signal to noise specs on the HR.



Chris

I ´ve also tested the R09HR for some weeks but like the ls-10 more.
Of course it always depends what you intend to record and what mics you are using.
I like the look and feel of the ls-10 more.
Both a great recorders for sure.

[Church-Audio]

Use high-sens mics like standard SP-CMC-8 +bbox on line-in.
No problem for amplified concerts with that setup.
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=212223&hit=1

OR low-sens mics like yours or dpa 4061 + preamp on line-in.

If you dont mind losing all that bottom end in your recordings by all means use the mic input for mics like the DPA 4060 it might not be such a bad thing but for Cardioid mics like the 853 or my mics you dont want to lose any bottom end at all. And at almost 20 db down at 25hz... you really dont want to lose all that even before you start recording. * as can be seen in the purple line *

yes, for my dpa 4061 setup mic-in is no problem as the bass-roll off is not bad for these boomy mics.
With sp-cmc-8 mics Line-In works great aswell.
I knew about the mic-in and internal-mic bass-roll-off before I purchased the ls-10.
I´d go line-in with just a bbox and my sp-cmc-8 for loud rock shows and it works great as you can hear in the Steve Lukather sample above from dimeadozen(NOT my recording though).

Additionally I can use my SP-PREAMP and even record speech on line-in ...with lotsa gain from thy external pre of course.
The result still sounds great though.
=> no issue at all for me using the ls-10.

Well if you take into consideration that your mics are going to be somewhere around -38 to -35 db with a acoustic level of around 105 db that's a whole lot of gain to make up...... I just personally think the R09HR is a much better recorder. And since I did own a ls-10 and now own a hr I can say that with certainty. Not to mention the better signal to noise specs on the HR.



Chris

I ´ve also tested the R09HR for some weeks but like the ls-10 more.
Of course it always depends what you intend to record and what mics you are using.
I like the look and feel of the ls-10 more.
Both a great recorders for sure.

I wish the R09 was built like the LS-10 For sure the LS10 is built very well. I tried finding out what surface mount caps were in the signal path so I could maybe replace them I suspect thats the problem with the low end roll off. Its always a compromise when you use surface mount caps and need to make something small its very hard to find tiny Mylar or other quality surface mount caps that are high in value say 5 to 10uf. I think if they can fix this flaw it could be a great recorder also adding at least 20 db of gain to the line input would be nice maybe they can fix these things in firmware.

[Arni99]

I´ll tape a blues-rock-show in a 300 people club tomorrow with the internals only and boost low frequencies in post.
Tried that yet some weeks ago and the result was great to my ears. Better than the dpa4061 recording from the same show.
The internals-bass-boosted result was much more sharp edged sounding with less boominess and still great low-end after the boost.

[IanR]

Just don't understand why the LS-10 was designed with the Line-in with the way it is. I've emailed Olympus about this but the reply basically said 'That's the way it is, there's nothing that can be done about it.'

But it works fine for recording in noisy environments. And the battery life is excellent unlike my R09HR, which eats through them like there's no tomorrow.

[dave570]

Battery life for my 09HR is pretty good.  A pair of Duracell Ultras last thru a 4 hour show and still have more than a half a life left.  And that is with another deck or headphones patched into it. When you turn down the display and kill the red blinking record light, it does save a lot of energy.  I also used regular Duracells at a 4 hour show recently, patched in another deck and came home with a 1/3 life left. In general, I don't see any need to go more than 5 hours of taping for any show I see. Of course I don't use re-chargeables. Can't trust them...

[Church-Audio]

I´ll tape a blues-rock-show in a 300 people club tomorrow with the internals only and boost low frequencies in post.
Tried that yet some weeks ago and the result was great to my ears. Better than the dpa4061 recording from the same show.
The internals-bass-boosted result was much more sharp edged sounding with less boominess and still great low-end after the boost.

Use my graph to create a boost model so you can put it all back... If you use a parametric eq and adjust the q properly and the center frequency you should be able to use 2 bands and get the bottom end to be flat again..

Chris