A portable option for transferring files from an audio recorder

February 12, 2007 7:35 AM

I have an Olympus WS-100 Digital Recorder. I am looking for an alternative to lugging around a laptop just to transfer files off the recorder in order to make space for new recordings. Any suggestions?

My partner is a Folklore student working on her dissertation. She'll often go on extended research trips, and has to lug around a laptop just to be able to transfer the recordings off of the recorder in order to make space for new ones. Is there a small, more portable (and inexpensive) gadget that she could use to plug her recorder into which would transfer the sound files? For example, something with USB connectivity that grabs any files on a flash drive connected to it would do the trick.

posted by doctorcurly to technology (5 comments total)

I just bought one of these to take on a trip with me next month. I read good things about them, maybe it will work for you too.
posted by o0dano0o at 7:58 AM on February 12, 2007

I have an 'iAudio X5L' MP3 player that doubles as a USB host device. I use it to transfer files from my digital camera. Not sure if this counts as 'inexpensive', but as well it is an excellent MP3/video player. The iAudio website forum has an onoing list of what devices are supported.
posted by Flashman at 8:11 AM on February 12, 2007

The recorder doesn't use memory cards (like CompactFlash, or SD etc). The gadget would have to be able to accept the equivalent of a flash drive.
posted by doctorcurly at 8:17 AM on February 12, 2007

How about one of these? It connects 2 usb devices together.
posted by o0dano0o at 9:43 AM on February 12, 2007

I think that it is going to be very difficult to do. I have an older Olympus digital recorder. Unless they have changed how it is structured, when you are pulling files off of the device without using their proprietary software, you would have to navigate into the file structure of the device (ie. --> --> , etc) to get to the audio files. So I think that you would be looking for a portable device with USB host capabilities that would be able to navigate the folder structure on the device.
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 5:38 AM on February 13, 2007