CES NEWS: Olympus puts a recording studio in your pocket

Always fancied yourself as a bit of a recording engineer? Like the idea of recording local bands or choirs or whatever, but not too sold on the idea of a car-full of equipment?

Olympus has the answer, in the form of this lovely-looking little recorder, small enough to fit in your pocket, yet packing two high-quality microphones and the ability to record 24-bit/96kHz Linear PCM stereo to its onboard memory or SD cards.

It has a durable aluminium case, a 1.8in LCD display with backlight, and manual record level adjustment. There's 2GB of onboard memory, and the recorder also accepts SD cards for longer recordings.

Stereo speakers are built-in for instant playback, there's an optional wireless remote control for easier recording, and the recorder comes bundled with CUBASE 4 editing software, and a USB cable.

And the most attractive thing about it is the price - in the States it'll sell for just $399, or about £200.

Andrew has written about audio and video products for the past 20+ years, and been a consumer journalist for more than 30 years, starting his career on camera magazines. Andrew has contributed to titles including What Hi-Fi?, GramophoneJazzwise and Hi-Fi CriticHi-Fi News & Record Review and Hi-Fi Choice. I’ve also written for a number of non-specialist and overseas magazines.