OM SYSTEM WS-883 digital voice recorder with built-in stereo microphones, Direct USB, Noise Cancel, Simple Mode, Low-Cut Filter, Intelligent Auto Mode, 8 GB memory and VCVA

Olympus have been one of the main brands in this market for over 30 years, though in those days they used tapes, and they are still one of, if not, 'the' best.I've had 5 of this model over the last 4 years. No they don't break but I had reasons to use them heavily, more than the average peson would need to.They are solidly built and easy to use with excellent results.To use it's much like the old days & tape recorders.The 2 main buttons are are the top ones and the largest. Stop & Rec.And it's that easy....you press Rec to record & Stop to end it.If you press record whilst its recording it will pause until you start it recording by pressing the Rec button again.Under those is a 4 way button which also has the play button in the middle of it.It's left & right for fast forward or rewind of a recording, and left & right in the menus.Top & bottom are + and - volume when listening or up & down in the menus.Play being in the middles as I said and you can alter the playback speed with it too.Under that it's the menu button to the left & the folder/index button to the right.They take 2 AAA batteries.You can use either Ni-Cad or Alkaline. The screen will list both types when you insert the batteries & you just select the type you've installed.You can then go into the menus to set the time & date, the file menus, rec modes, low cut filters, voice activated recording, noise canceller, screen contrast, language etc etc.Or...you can just hit record & you're off.On the back, half way up there is a flick out bit of plastic that acts as a stand if you want to put it on a desk or tabls to record.Above that is a plastic button that, when you push it in slightly and slide it upwards to the top makes the usb jack pop out from behind it's flap in the top of the recorder. Very neat.Theres 8gb of memory which equates to 132 hours, 35mins & 31seconds of available recording space in the 5 folders...A thru' E.It will automatically put the recordings into the next folder when you reach the 99 recordings limit for each folder.Using Ni-Cad batteries these will run for about 36 hours before going flat.Recording quality is fine & in Stereo.Obviously, they are not meant to record live gigs, I tried lol but they distort a bit above a certain level,but they'll be fine if its not turned up to 11 and besides I have studio quality recorders for recording live gigs.Ideal for meetings and also phone calls if needed, just hold it against the phone & they easily pick up both ends of the call.Great recorders.

Interim review as still evaluating and getting used to this, but so far so good. The speaker and sound is far more tinny than my Sony Xperia IV whose sound is far superior....but the Olympus is more than adequate. The card can be formatted outside the device BUT in order to place sound files on the card you have to transfer onto the card via USB using the device with the SD card within. If not, it will not see the files.Aside from this quirk and the slightly decreased sound quality. This is good. I use it for learning languages where I can rewind a set number of seconds quite quick. I cannot do this easily with my mobile where I have to unlock the phone first, sometimes navigate to the player app etc....by that time the moment has passed.Got it for a decent price. Have not yet recorded ambient sound yet, but voice recordings are also clear.

Recording choir practise, works well.

Great product

Faulty did not workSending it back

The media could not be loaded. Whilst this is a very outdated device , a phone app will be much faster have more options , possibly a better mic (although you could use an external dynamic mic) and obviously an app is way cheaper , a device like this may still be useful to some.Firstly the manual misses out complete functions , such as podcast , nothing about this option or ‘shadowing’ and some other function are left completely unexplained.The screen isn’t back lit and will be next to useless outside and is not great indoors to start with , even in the larger font simple mode’The mic is stereo and is decent , but the highest quality you can record is 128kps mp3 ? Fine for dictation but anything else , field recording etc , this is 2023.The processor is slow at normalising audio , yet can handle pitch and time functions (increasing speed of playback without changing pitch of voice) the optimisation is all over the place.I could go on , the price for instance is unrealistic for this 2000s type device…All in all it begs the question why on Earth would anybody buy such an antiquated device ?Well, it does have some saving graces over a phone and an app. I will list them as I think it is important to note that minority will find a use for this recorder.Firstly apps can vary in quality and can be discontinued at a moments notice.The recorder has excellent limiting , preventing distortion, and compression mode equaling the level of several voices so everybody is heard.If you are a group of people sharing it on a budget , if it goes missing or gets damaged , it will be cheaper to replace.It is a dedicated device that is instant to use , just hit record you are going, not to be underestimated in a busy environment.But honestly at the end of the day , and especially with the terrible screen , for many it will feel like using a mechanical typewriter when there are computers available. I just can’t recommend the experience and paying £70 for seriously outdated technology seems silly. I myself wanted to use it with an external mic as a field recorder , but why is the max recording quality only 128kps , memory is cheap and there are mono options to lower file size.Where this device does well is the actual recording process itself , it is one button and has ‘scenes’ which are basically just macro settings to optimise your recording. So the learning curve isn’t steep.There are other things like playing mp3s , again most people stream audio these days although this can at least play back .wav audio. The headphone jack is able to drive high impedance headphones, nice.File transfer to my iPad was a breeze and fast via the usb A slide out plug, wouldn’t want that sticking from one of my computers native ports however, in case it snapped one.But ultimately it’s all like painting through a letterbox. The GUI belongs in the last century really , things have progressed.