Olympus ME-51S Stereo Microphone

This Olympus ME-51S Stereo Microphone was purchased for use with an Olympus DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder to record my college lectures to be offered on my Website and via podcasting services, including Apple iTunes, Yahoo! and PodBlaster. I wanted high quality audio recording equipment to give a professional sound to my presentations, and the DS-30 had already been doing well with its own, built-in stereo mic. Unfortunately, some of the rooms in which I lecture have the acoustical qualities of a haunted house, complete with unfortunately troubled, noisy souls dedicated to howling incessantly. Hence, I bought the microphone to clip onto my tie so I could attach the recorder to my belt with a belt-clip case available from Olympus. The DS-30 has three recording modes: "lecture hall," "conference," and "dictation." (The DS-30 also has four recording quality levels, including "XQ" stereo, which I always use.) With the microphone, I was able to take the gain down from "lecture hall" to "conference," which cut the ambient noise level considerably. I was somewhat worried that the microphone being so close to my tie would cause occasional rubbing sounds as the mic hit the fabric, but in more than 50 hours of recording so far with the mic I have noticed that only twice while preparing the lectures for broadcast. The microphone comes with three feet of lead wire, so there is plenty of cord to loosely wrap the wire to the back of a tie, drop it down a shirt, and then bring it back out at the bottom to take over to where the recorder is attached to the belt (if you want to do it by such a complicated method to avoid having wire flapping about). I was also concerned that the microphone would not have the same audio quality as the built-in mic, but that has not been the case: the quality of sound being recorded with the ME-515 is exactly the same as that from the original, built-in mic, which detaches with a simple pull, allowing the jack from the ME-515 to be inserted with ease. I should caution that, even though the jack goes in easily, make sure it has gone in all the way. Once, I apparently didn't push hard enough, and the jack went in only partially, so I ended up with a really weird audio recording that ran mono instead of stereo, with the mono switching randomly from left to right. In summary, the Olympus ME-515 is a wonderful complement to any of the better Olympus stereo digital audio recorders with which it is compatible, including the WM and DS series. The microphone is unobtrusively small, lightweight, smoothly attractive in shape, durable, and ready for use right out of the package. I have used it now in well over 50 hours of recording, and I carry it in a simple little pouch alongside my Olympus DS-30. If you want a stereo microphone for your better Olympus recorder, this is the one. You will not be disappointed with the audio quality you get from it.

I originally bought this several months ago for my GoPro Hero 3+ Silver. Everything I read and the videos I saw said that they would work together, and believe me, I watched hundreds of videos on YouTube of every mic that I could find. They all sounded very good. Unfortunately, my experience was different. I purchased the mic and the adapter cord to plug into the GoPro (the adapter cord I bought directly from GoPro). I could not get ANY sound from it. As soon as I plugged it in, the sound disappeared. I thought it might be a bad mic, so I contacted Amazon and they replaced it immediately. Still nothing. I thought it might be the cord, so I bought another from GoPro. Still nothing. I made sure my camera had all the updates, still nothing. Finally I tried the mic through another adapter, into a PA system I have. It worked then. For some reason, this mic would NOT work with my GoPro Hero 3+ Silver. But today I received my new GoPro Hero 4 Black. After charging it, the first thing I tried was this mic, and VIOLA, it worked perfectly!! Go figure. I think there may be an issue with my GoPro Hero 3+ Silver, something that doesn't allow it to recognize when the mic is plugged in. So, despite it not working in my Hero 3+ Silver (I'm convinced it's an issue with my particular Hero3+), I am giving this mic a great review. For the price it costs, the sound is a HUGE improvement over the internal mic. I used the mic to record my car while driving (with a couple of wind screens I already had ready for it), and recorded some guitar playing. I am very happy with the sound now. Great purchase!

This works great. I love how small it is. I can use a aux cord to make it as long as I want if I want it 3 feet long or 20. I use this to record sound in my car during races. It's nice to be able to put the camera where I want and still be able to put the mic in the car. Sound quality is great. Sometimes there is wind noise but I've always got away from this by wrapping the mic in a tissue or towel.

I use this with my digital voice recorder, Olympus WS-321M. The sound quality of this ME-51S is better than the built-in mic my recorder comes with; more frequency range: it picks up bass better. Normally I have my recorder to record on this settings: mono HQ. This setting works well for classroom lectures. I got this mic because my teachers who walks around a lot while speaking or have high pitch voice are not recorded well. But the problem with this mic, when played back, is that the sound volume from left to right are significantly different, depending on where the teacher is standing. Also I have to record in stereo mode, because in mono, the right mic doesn't record any sound. Right now I think my built in mic, which is omni-directional, is better for what I use it for. I just have to set the recording to XQ, which is the highest quality. ME-51S has 2 unidirectional mic which I think would be useful for 2 people talking in each side of this mic.

preface: Photography/video is JUST a hobby If you have a dSLR with a 3.5mm mic input, this might be a great addition to add stereo to your videos. I decided to go with this microphone rather than a hot shoe mountable mic for a few reasons: the cost seemed reasonable and the portability. I can put this microphone and a right angle adapter in a mentos box that fits in my pant pocket. Since recording audio can happen at any time, being able to access the microphone and attach can be completed in less than a minute. This might have been the case if I was carrying the microphone in my camera bag. Perhaps my needs will change in the future, but this works for me right now. The tricky part about recording video directly rather than mixing (yes... I'm too lazy to edit at this time) is that you have to tweak the audio levels before you start recording. Clipping will happen if you're using auto levels or set too high. Wind noise is also an issue since there's no screen. It would have been nice if Olympus included a carrying pouch, but again, the mentos box works fine. As far as sound quality goes. This microphone definitely pics up more ambient noise than the builtin microphone in my Canon 60D. The audio separation seems fine and is definitely more realized when wearing headphones. if you're looking for examples check out my youtube channel: markazali

Used this mounted to my back bumper paired with a Movo WS1 Furry Microphone Windscreen and it captured the exhaust note of my car perfectly during my track sessions. I can’t speak for the noise cancellation abilities of the mic itself because I’ve only ever used it with the windscreen product I bought, but overall the mic is amazing. Really good product at a very reasonable price. This is exactly what I was looking for.

I purchased this with the intention of hiding it on my person because I was working in a rather chaotic environment where people would say one thing to set you up then deny having given that order when it was time to answer for whatever negative outcome was caused. This comes with a clip and I ran a wire from it to my Tascam DR-05 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004OU2IQG/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_33) and was very pleased with the results. This microphone was so sensitive that I was able to pick up on things people said under their breaths. The maximum radius, where I could always obtain crystal clear recordings was around 6ft; Anything over that tended to need to be filtered as it would include some varying amount of ambient noise. I ran the wire under my clothes and clipped it to the neck of my undershirt. Even from beneath all that fabric, I was able to pick up conversations without interference. When what I wanted to later record was important, I would run the wire through my lapel and hide the microphone within a flower or tucked into the top of my outer suit breast pocket, while wrapped up in the handkerchief I keep there. For personal yet discrete recordings, this is the device that you need. It would be a good idea to use Audacity when filtering and before you make copies. Always keep the original but clean up the copies. That way, if anyone accuses you of sound splicing, you always have the original to fall back on.

I bought this with the intent to use it to pick up my exhaust notes of my vehicle. Unfortunately the static back feed is outrageous. I initially thought it was one of my cables (top of the line btw) and I illuminated them all together and plugged this directly into my GoPro branded mic adapter. Same deal! Maybe I got a bad one, I don’t know, but I’ve been put on hold until I find a better product for the job. I was so excited about getting this from the couple reviews I read about doing the same thing, and the first video I recorded had so much backfeed and static that you couldn’t sit through and watch it without muting it.