voice recorder for Mac

April 3, 2007 3:38 PM

A decent voice recorder for mac?

Hi, I bought an Olympus (VN-960PC) voice recorder recently and realized that it won't work with my MacBook. Can anyone recommend me a decent voice recorder (I use it to record interviews and conversations with others) that would play nicely with Mac?

Thanks for your time.

posted by phluke to technology (12 comments total)

Do you own a 5th generation iPod? iPods can record sound with the addition of the handy-dandy iTalk Pro and a mic.
posted by nathan_teske at 3:54 PM on April 3, 2007

I record onto a sony with memory stick, don't recall which model, and then load onto my mac. Works fine.
posted by londongeezer at 4:10 PM on April 3, 2007

That's really terrible about the Olympus. I'm rather surprised, because I have an older Olympus recorder, a DS-330, and I use it with my Mac all the time.

The only thing is that for some (idiotic) reason, the recorder doesn't mount as a standard USB Mass Storage Class device. In order to get the stuff off of it, I need to use this not-exactly-elegant program called "DSS Player". It downloads the stuff from the recorder via USB and then will organize it, or convert it to AIFF so I can organize it in iTunes. I can't really bitch too much because it works, it's just a tad clunky.

It seems like the VN-960PC that you have uses "Digital Wave," an even-more-obscure recording format than DSS (Digital Speech Standard, the format used by the DS-330 and most of their 'professional' dictation products), which is highly proprietary, in order to get really ridiculous recording times. Ironically, the files produced by the 960 won't even work with Olympus' own transcription machines. It sounds like something the kludged together to foist off on consumers who don't know any better.

If you can get a model (the DS-330, DM-20, DM-2...most of them say "Macintosh compatible" on the Amazon page) that uses DSS to store the voice, you'll be in good shape. Almost all of their higher-end recorders do, AFAICT it's only the sub-$100 recorders that use that Digital Wave crap.
posted by Kadin2048 at 4:34 PM on April 3, 2007

Previously.
posted by dmd at 4:55 PM on April 3, 2007

I have an Olympus WS-300M that works with my Mac. I don't like it as much as my Sony ICD-MS1, but the Sony doesn't work with my Mac. I had the Sony for years and then misplaced it so got the Olympus. When I found my Sony, I put the Olympus away and haven't touched it--I was actually going to eBay it but can't find the box/manual.
posted by dobbs at 5:38 PM on April 3, 2007

Thanks, guys.

Yeah, Olympus is kind of lame. I emailed them and they just said, oh sorry, there's nothing we can do. And when you try looking on Amazon, you need to click into each recorder to find out if it is Mac-compatible (most are not, and the ones that are, I read that the software is terrible).

Thanks dmd - I saw that, but the (similar) question was asked 2 years ago, and the person had a $1000 budget.
posted by phluke at 8:52 PM on April 3, 2007

Don't hold me to this if I'm wrong, but I think that there's some method in Olympus' model-numbering scheme madness.

I think that the models that start with "D" are DSS recorders, and the ones that start with something else, like your VN-960, are not.

I'm basing this on the Olympus website and a random sample of the models on their front page that I clicked on. It looks like the VN models use that bizarro super-compressed 'Wave' format that's only useful with the special PC software (and even then, not very), while the D models use DSS and note that they work with the DSS Player program (of which there's a Mac version).

Anyway, check before you buy obviously, but I think you ought to be pretty safe with any of the D-series. If you can drop the dough, the DS-2300 is pretty nice, because it uses removable xD cards instead of internal memory. The DS-2 looks like the cheapest model, and the DS-30 appears to be the successor to the one I have, and is being marketed towards low-end field recording and podcasting.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:59 PM on April 3, 2007

It all depends on the quality of recording you need. Olympus recorders are designed for voice transcription and have, in my opinion, poor mics and lousy sound quality. For around the same money there are digital recorders from Zoom and Edirol and MAudio and Marantz that record 16 or 24 bit, have good onboard mics, etc. And they're small. And they may adequate music recordings too.
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:51 AM on April 4, 2007

What about the WS-100? It apparently mounts as a USB mass storage device, and records WMA files (which Quicktime and iTunes VLC can play, and pretty much everything can convert to mp3).
posted by dmd at 8:08 AM on April 4, 2007

Thanks for the responses, guys!

I looked up Olympus DS-2300 on Amazon and found this comment:

Received the DS-2300 yesterday. The machine is a keeper. However, if you are thinking of buying this because of it's Mac compatibility, read on.

The DSS Player software installs OK but the first time you connect the recorder with the supplied USB cord, an error pops up that the system extension was not properly installed, that it should be either reinstalled or a replacement obtained from the vendor.

Many of the software functions do not work because of the issue with the extension. Although you can see the device as a drive and the file import function works, none of the functions in the download area of the software are available. You cannot download a folder from that menu, you cannot change the user name, rename a folder on the machine, set the time from the computer, etc.

I paid to activate DSS Player Plus so I can use the software to either split or join files. I tried to split a file a couple of times. It doesn't work, the software crashes and in the process only one half of the split is completed.

I spoke with Olympus tech support on the phone about this hoping to find out there's a replacement driver. No. They confirmed the DSS Player does not run well with Mac OS X (10.4+). No information on when there may be an update.

An email 5 days later from Olympus Tech Support in answer to the same question basically claimed the problem is Apple's fault.

Next question. I can find nothing in the documentation that indicates whether the unit will work with the new M-type XD cards larger than 512MB. On the phone, tech support said I could run the firmware update that's on the Olympus America website and that the unit would work with the 1GB XD card.

However, the email from tech support 5 days later says there is no firmware update for the DS-2300 (it's on their website as an EXE file - I could do the update with a PC), and that the M-type XD cards cannot be used with the DS-2300.

Today I noticed that the description for the firmware update on their website has been changed and now lists the 1GB M-XD card as one of those that can be used.

----

It's kind of strange that it's so hard to find a decent voice recorder for Mac... :(

I'll look around some more, and if I can't find anything, I'll probably just settle for DS-30 or DS-2.
posted by phluke at 8:51 AM on April 4, 2007

I second the Ipod suggestion, though I use the TuneTalk Stereo.

I'm getting a cheap (under $50) backup, though: I search for "2gb usb voice recorder." I mostly work from Linux, & I can let you know how that works out.
posted by Pronoiac at 12:14 AM on April 5, 2007

(I've also used the MicroMemo accessory.)
posted by Pronoiac at 12:19 AM on April 5, 2007