2 THUMBS UP for the Olympus DS-30!

Renton Maclachlan · August 18th, 2008, 11:52 PM

You can get white giant squids with white cords, and white wind socks for them - or re the latter, do what I did, spray paint a couple of black ones white. I guess you could spray your black GS's for that matter.

Travis Cossel · August 19th, 2008, 10:07 AM

I have a large furry windscreen that I bought for my mics. I think they are Rycotes or something like that? They work great.

Troy Davis · August 25th, 2008, 03:07 PM

Hi,

Does the ds-30 support direct line-in connections? For example, if I wanted to connect
to a audio sound board.

Thanks,
Troy

Tim Gilbertson · August 25th, 2008, 08:06 PM

Only if you were coming out of a headphone monitor or something like that. Otherwise you'd have to knock it down quite a few dB. The sound coming out from a sound board output is too hot for any recorder like this to handle.

T

Troy Davis · August 31st, 2008, 04:33 PM

Hello,

I recorded a wedding this weekend and here are some sample audio/video clips using the olympus da30. Only the groom was mic'd and I think both audio clips were pretty good.
Also, I shoot w/ vx2100's and use Vegas as my editor. I say this because there were some post in this thread about sync problems. As you can see in the brides clip that the sync was dead on. Here is a really short .wav sample (see below) of the groom and a video/audio sample of the bride. Oh and by the way I am not affiliated with olympus in any way shape or form:-)

Hope this helps.
Troy D

groom (wav) : http://www.focusmd.com/olympus/groom..._da30_samp.wav
bride (flv): http://www.focusmd.com/olympus/video_samp.html

Michael Kirinovic · September 1st, 2008, 08:07 AM

Hello Troy - the two samples sound good and look great. Are you using the Giant Squid mics? If so are you using the standard mic clip - and what wind screen are you using? I found that the Olympus recorders and the GS mics work fantastic but the mics are larger than I'm used to and are harder to hide on the grooms jacket. I may order two more mics without the clips attached or see if he can position them differently. One black and one white( cause I know one day the groom will jump out of the limo wearing a white tux.)

Thanks,
Mike

Troy Davis · September 1st, 2008, 08:43 AM

Hi Mike,

Thanks. Yes, I only have 1 olympus and it was placed on the groom w/ the GS mic. I believe it's the standard mic. It looks pretty small to me and on a dark tux is hardly noticeable. You're correct about a white mic being needed. Does GS offer these? Also, i read in this thread about different windscreen options, but haven't purchase one yet. I've been booked all August and 4 more weddings in the coming months and only 1 is outside so I think I will need a windscreen. I will look at some older post to see what's best. Btw, I also used the Olympus at the reception with the plugin mic that comes with it and it worked great. I just placed it next to the DJ's speaker and it was crystal. As long as the DJ's music isn't too loud it works great. Hope this helps.

Travis Cossel · October 22nd, 2008, 11:36 PM

Okay, so I've mentioned before how the audio from these systems will not necessarily sync properly to your video footage, and it requires adjustment. Well, this situation is throwing me for a loop.

I had a ~25min clip that I have sync'd at the beginning, and it is still pretty close to sync'd near the end (just slightly off). The problem is that in the middle it is way off sync. I suppose this is related to the crystal in the device, maybe? I just can't believe that it could be correct at the beginning and the end but not in the middle. Very frustrating.

Renton Maclachlan · October 23rd, 2008, 02:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis Cossel

Okay, so I've mentioned before how the audio from these systems will not necessarily sync properly to your video footage, and it requires adjustment. Well, this situation is throwing me for a loop.

I had a ~25min clip that I have sync'd at the beginning, and it is still pretty close to sync'd near the end (just slightly off). The problem is that in the middle it is way off sync. I suppose this is related to the crystal in the device, maybe? I just can't believe that it could be correct at the beginning and the end but not in the middle. Very frustrating.

I had this happen also. I sync'd at the beginning then stretched the audio so it was also sync'd at the end, but the middle was out. I had to slide each of the multicam clips in the middle section that were out so they sync'd up.

Tim Gilbertson · October 23rd, 2008, 11:07 AM

Hmm, I've never had that happen.

Usually what I do is line up the audio at the very start without changing the speed of the audio. Then I make it so the audio doesn't start until the very first moment it needs to be perfectly synched. Then I go to the very end and tweak the speed until it's just right.

Cutting the start of the audio is important because it keeps the whole thing from getting out of whack when you start messing with the speed. That's not to sound condescending, just a thought.

T

Travis Cossel · October 23rd, 2008, 02:33 PM

I isolated the problem. On the DVR audio there is about a 3/4 second segment of audio missing about a 1/3 of the way into the clip. It's just gone, like the DVR glitched and didn't record for that split second. This explains why the audio suddenly went out of wack so quickly. However, I still haven't figured out why it's out of wack near the end, but not nearly as badly. Once I cut the track and slid it to compensate for the missing audio segment, it sync'd perfectly from there until the end.

I thought maybe there was a glitch in the conversion from the DVR file to the WAV file, but the original file I have saved in the DSS Player software has the glitch as well. It's possible that the glitch occurred during capture of the file from the DVR to the software, but I can't test that since the original file is no longer on the DVR. Hopefully this only happens this one time as a freak occurrence.

William Dortignac · October 26th, 2008, 04:45 PM

so how does the DS-30 compare to the Zoom H2 audio quality wise?

and how come the zoom is like, more then twice the price?

Dave Blackhurst · October 27th, 2008, 09:20 AM

From a brief search it looked like the DS30 is discontinued (meaning closeout pricing, and the replacements are closer to the H2 price...

AND, they are two different animals - the H2 is designed around being able to record surround sound, and oriented towards the music market (that's where the Zoom brand started), where Olympus (stereo) is oriented towards a "office" or business dictation market.

Practically, this is where the small and mono iRiver still works pretty well - easy to stick in a jacket pocket, rig a lav, press record, pick it up later, dump the audio and you're good to go. And it would appear the DS30 is in that same vein, where the H2 is getting a bit big to "pocket".

I think of the H2 as more of an "ambient" pickup, and with the multiple mic/camera sources the way I'm setting up, I'm finding I don't use it... Last wedding I set up two of the Sony bluetooth mics discreetly strapped on each side of the wedding arch, and got very good audio (even though apparently one mics batteries died... backup systems GOOD). I was happy to find that while no one could hear ANYTHING during the actual ceremony (priest didn't turn his wireless on, or more accurately the sound guy goofed up), I have perfect clear audio for everything but a scripture reading where the MOB wasn't near ANY mics... had to boost gain, but got something sort of usable... I think my end result is actually far better than actually being there, as the audio is good!

Ethan Cooper · October 27th, 2008, 09:25 AM

Good audio is by far the hardest thing about live events. When they start having scripture readings one place, singing in another, priests not turning on mics, brides and grooms whispering vows, strings playing the bride down the aisle, and organs blasting out the church it gets really hard to not botch something.

I've learned long ago not to trust whoever is running the audio board (if there is one) with all my audio. I do still pull that feed, but you do need plenty of other mics scattered around.

Peter Rush · December 7th, 2008, 05:02 AM

Hi All...

This information is exactly what I need - Past experience of wireless systems makes me nervous to use them again and I was looking for a slimmer recorder than the Zoom H2 (which I'm presently using).

Regarding the lav microphone I use the Audio-Technica ATR53s (about £15) which works fine with my Zoom

Pete

August 19th, 2008, 10:07 AM	#62
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I have a large furry windscreen that I bought for my mics. I think they are Rycotes or something like that? They work great. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

August 25th, 2008, 03:07 PM	#63
Troy Davis Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Raleigh,NC Posts: 263	DS-30 Line-in support Hi, Does the ds-30 support direct line-in connections? For example, if I wanted to connect to a audio sound board. Thanks, Troy

August 25th, 2008, 08:06 PM	#64
Tim Gilbertson Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 59	Only if you were coming out of a headphone monitor or something like that. Otherwise you'd have to knock it down quite a few dB. The sound coming out from a sound board output is too hot for any recorder like this to handle. T __________________ Edmonton Wedding Photography, Video, and PhotoFusion - Infinitelink Free Backlinking Project

August 31st, 2008, 04:33 PM	#65
Troy Davis Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Raleigh,NC Posts: 263	Olympus DA-30 Wedding Audio Samples Hello, I recorded a wedding this weekend and here are some sample audio/video clips using the olympus da30. Only the groom was mic'd and I think both audio clips were pretty good. Also, I shoot w/ vx2100's and use Vegas as my editor. I say this because there were some post in this thread about sync problems. As you can see in the brides clip that the sync was dead on. Here is a really short .wav sample (see below) of the groom and a video/audio sample of the bride. Oh and by the way I am not affiliated with olympus in any way shape or form:-) Hope this helps. Troy D groom (wav) : http://www.focusmd.com/olympus/groom..._da30_samp.wav bride (flv): http://www.focusmd.com/olympus/video_samp.html

October 22nd, 2008, 11:36 PM	#68
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	Okay, so I've mentioned before how the audio from these systems will not necessarily sync properly to your video footage, and it requires adjustment. Well, this situation is throwing me for a loop. I had a ~25min clip that I have sync'd at the beginning, and it is still pretty close to sync'd near the end (just slightly off). The problem is that in the middle it is way off sync. I suppose this is related to the crystal in the device, maybe? I just can't believe that it could be correct at the beginning and the end but not in the middle. Very frustrating. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

August 18th, 2008, 11:52 PM	#61
Renton Maclachlan Trustee Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New Zealand Posts: 1,180	You can get white giant squids with white cords, and white wind socks for them - or re the latter, do what I did, spray paint a couple of black ones white. I guess you could spray your black GS's for that matter.

September 1st, 2008, 08:07 AM	#66
Michael Kirinovic Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Pt. Pleasant, NJ Posts: 45	Hello Troy - the two samples sound good and look great. Are you using the Giant Squid mics? If so are you using the standard mic clip - and what wind screen are you using? I found that the Olympus recorders and the GS mics work fantastic but the mics are larger than I'm used to and are harder to hide on the grooms jacket. I may order two more mics without the clips attached or see if he can position them differently. One black and one white( cause I know one day the groom will jump out of the limo wearing a white tux.) Thanks, Mike

September 1st, 2008, 08:43 AM	#67
Troy Davis Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Raleigh,NC Posts: 263	Hi Mike, Thanks. Yes, I only have 1 olympus and it was placed on the groom w/ the GS mic. I believe it's the standard mic. It looks pretty small to me and on a dark tux is hardly noticeable. You're correct about a white mic being needed. Does GS offer these? Also, i read in this thread about different windscreen options, but haven't purchase one yet. I've been booked all August and 4 more weddings in the coming months and only 1 is outside so I think I will need a windscreen. I will look at some older post to see what's best. Btw, I also used the Olympus at the reception with the plugin mic that comes with it and it worked great. I just placed it next to the DJ's speaker and it was crystal. As long as the DJ's music isn't too loud it works great. Hope this helps.

October 23rd, 2008, 11:07 AM	#70
Tim Gilbertson Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Edmonton, Alberta Posts: 59	Hmm, I've never had that happen. Usually what I do is line up the audio at the very start without changing the speed of the audio. Then I make it so the audio doesn't start until the very first moment it needs to be perfectly synched. Then I go to the very end and tweak the speed until it's just right. Cutting the start of the audio is important because it keeps the whole thing from getting out of whack when you start messing with the speed. That's not to sound condescending, just a thought. T __________________ Edmonton Wedding Photography, Video, and PhotoFusion - Infinitelink Free Backlinking Project

October 23rd, 2008, 02:33 PM	#71
Travis Cossel Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 2,933	I isolated the problem. On the DVR audio there is about a 3/4 second segment of audio missing about a 1/3 of the way into the clip. It's just gone, like the DVR glitched and didn't record for that split second. This explains why the audio suddenly went out of wack so quickly. However, I still haven't figured out why it's out of wack near the end, but not nearly as badly. Once I cut the track and slid it to compensate for the missing audio segment, it sync'd perfectly from there until the end. I thought maybe there was a glitch in the conversion from the DVR file to the WAV file, but the original file I have saved in the DSS Player software has the glitch as well. It's possible that the glitch occurred during capture of the file from the DVR to the software, but I can't test that since the original file is no longer on the DVR. Hopefully this only happens this one time as a freak occurrence. __________________ Black Label Films www.blacklabelweddingfilms.com

October 26th, 2008, 04:45 PM	#72
William Dortignac Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Whittier, CA Posts: 40	so how does the DS-30 compare to the Zoom H2 audio quality wise? and how come the zoom is like, more then twice the price?

October 27th, 2008, 09:20 AM	#73
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	From a brief search it looked like the DS30 is discontinued (meaning closeout pricing, and the replacements are closer to the H2 price... AND, they are two different animals - the H2 is designed around being able to record surround sound, and oriented towards the music market (that's where the Zoom brand started), where Olympus (stereo) is oriented towards a "office" or business dictation market. Practically, this is where the small and mono iRiver still works pretty well - easy to stick in a jacket pocket, rig a lav, press record, pick it up later, dump the audio and you're good to go. And it would appear the DS30 is in that same vein, where the H2 is getting a bit big to "pocket". I think of the H2 as more of an "ambient" pickup, and with the multiple mic/camera sources the way I'm setting up, I'm finding I don't use it... Last wedding I set up two of the Sony bluetooth mics discreetly strapped on each side of the wedding arch, and got very good audio (even though apparently one mics batteries died... backup systems GOOD). I was happy to find that while no one could hear ANYTHING during the actual ceremony (priest didn't turn his wireless on, or more accurately the sound guy goofed up), I have perfect clear audio for everything but a scripture reading where the MOB wasn't near ANY mics... had to boost gain, but got something sort of usable... I think my end result is actually far better than actually being there, as the audio is good!

October 27th, 2008, 09:25 AM	#74
Ethan Cooper Trustee Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Houma, La. Posts: 1,400 Images: 5	Good audio is by far the hardest thing about live events. When they start having scripture readings one place, singing in another, priests not turning on mics, brides and grooms whispering vows, strings playing the bride down the aisle, and organs blasting out the church it gets really hard to not botch something. I've learned long ago not to trust whoever is running the audio board (if there is one) with all my audio. I do still pull that feed, but you do need plenty of other mics scattered around. __________________ ∅ -Ethan Cooper

December 7th, 2008, 05:02 AM	#75
Peter Rush Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: UK/Yorkshire Posts: 2,069	Hi All... This information is exactly what I need - Past experience of wireless systems makes me nervous to use them again and I was looking for a slimmer recorder than the Zoom H2 (which I'm presently using). Regarding the lav microphone I use the Audio-Technica ATR53s (about £15) which works fine with my Zoom Pete