@@sprint955stBut, surely, once you put anything in your mouth, it negates the point of having a voice recorder in your left hand anyway. Still, a nice recorder with or without the cigar or scotch.
Yes, it's a marvel of miniaturization, but also of reliability, two things that you'd think are at odds with each other. This little machine works just like it did the year it was manufactured. With logic transport controls, autoreverse (never knew that even existed for the microcassette format), and all kinds of fancy functions you'd think are prone to failure years down the line, miniaturized on top of that, and yet, look at it! Such a survivor.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Also the feature set. In particular, the voice-activation feature would be great when combined with the "hold" switch. It works when you need it to work, with no danger of messing things up by hitting a button as you wave it around. A lot of "executive" level gadgets were overpriced crap, but this one definitely justifies its pricetag.
Oct. 5 is my birthday and I recently found out it was actually the most common birthday, at least in the US. Makes sense when you realize it's 9 months after New Year's Eve. I didn't want to think about that too much.
I was traveling with my family to the beach, and I always have this weird thing trying to find a thrift store in every city I go to. I found a very small one downtown, run by a very old, but gentle man. There, I bought my first Microcassette recorder (the black Olympus S924 you showed in the beginning). It still works, and I fell in love with it. Being very familiar with analog gear, I was completely amazed of how small things could get (the tape looked even smaller than I had seen on RUclips videos), and I still catch myself thrilled looking at that little cassette in the palm of my hands for hours. Anyway, it is a very intriguing format, even tough it has no advantages in the modern world, where you can just record anything in your phone with higher quality, but still, it amazes me. I am currently looking for a picocassette machine, but those are so hard to find!
4:40 - Being awkward to use with the right hand means it's unlikely to be activated by accident. As a lefty, I cannot picture any company intentionally targeting left handed users, especially a company based in Japan where forcing left handed kids to switch hands had been the norm for centuries..
@@CptJistuce That's how land line phones were designed, pick up the receiver with the left, write with the other hand, which screwed left handed people.
I actually own one of these. I think I stuck it away in a box somewhere. The thing about it that I didn't like was the light metal casing got caught in the items in your pockets. My door became bent because of it. But it sounded like you demonstrated. I'm thinking it was promoted as having an anti-wow and flutter mechanism, but I well could be wrong on that. Good video
Very impressive piece of tech, I can’t begin to imagine how much they had to compress the hardware to achieve this. Direct drive is a very nice bonus, it certainly looks ahead of its time.
Love these old tech reviews . I still have my original Olympus SR11 Stereo Microcassette Recorder with FM Radio. Although , my model was purchased in Canada , and maybe why it does NOT have any Road Runner branding on it . Olympus made Great products , high quality and still working after 40 years,
interesting, beautiful recorder, I didn't think that format was used in audio, I knew about it and used it on the Casio fx 801p calculator to store programs in basic, thanks for sharing it, greetings
The trouble with small tech is, it's more likely to be lost in the void that is down the back of the sofa, where things go to hide for a very long time... :P
Great video! And Olympus (OM System now) is actually still making small-sized voice recorders with full functions and features. I have been using their LS-P2 from 2016, not much bigger than a lighter but with 3 condenser mics, supports 24/96 linear PCM recording, and a full metal build powered by one AAA battery - just like this Pearlcorder
Good Grief! I haven't seen an Olympus micro cassette player for decades... I shouldn't have been surprised one popped up on VWestlife... I am surprised you found one of these working though. Great stuff. Edit: It is beautifully made, a little jewel.
At 0:46 a Pearcorder 5924. Mr. Westlife, I still have my Pearcorder 5912. It's more basic than yours, that it has no counter. My 5912 stopped working about a year ago(it might just be a belt), but my Sony M-527V Micro tape Recorder is still working. Kind Regards, PS: your vid is very informative, I gave it a like!!!!!!
The only standard size cassette player I can remember I had that had full logic control, metal tape selection, auto reverse, dolby noise reduction and was only fractionally bigger than the cassette was a JVC running off a single AA. I wonder if Olympus made the mech and electronics themselves? It certainly is a masterpiece of miniaturisation.
I have 2 different types of Realistic branded Microcassette recorders and they had the voice activation. It was good for hiding and bugging a room and listen if anyone went into your room and started talking.
Hey West, thanks for showing us this. I always thought the Sony M-909 was the smallest. I own it and this Olympus unit does appear to be noticeably larger. Cheers. :)
@@vwestlife Hmm...interesting. Though, I'm a bit skeptical about it being 15 grams heavier. The M-909 doesn't even have a built-in speaker and that right there is some sizable weight. I wish I had both to compare now! Cheers, West. Great upload as usual. I always get excited to see you comment on Cassette Culture on Reddit or post a video here. :)
Olympus needs to make new Microcassette players again, because I used to record them in college class, we had to record our speeches and send them to the professor. I want to be able to listen to my old recordings, especially the guest speakers!
YES, and in this day and age, I think it would be a must for them to be digital (even though analog media such as tape is making a comeback), coming with 1 or 2 TB of expandable flash storage for studio-quality audio capture, and the option to select which audio file format the user wishes to use.
@@scratchpad7954 I just want to back up those old tape recordings from college! Because I remember having lots of fun recording those class discussions, and yes there’s now digital audio recorders that Olympus still makes now with expandable flash memory! But I want to hear the old stuff and I don’t have a microcassette player anymore, since I graduated college!
@@scratchpad7954personal recorders still exist and olympus/om systems is still in the market. they’re all digital nowadays and the mics are infinitely better
There’s really not much financial benefit for anyone to make simple dictation devices like this (especially ones with analog recording) because honestly, smartphones have replaced any need for a standalone device for dictation. It could be a neat novelty for some people, but unless they were offering something major that a basic iPhone couldn’t, I honestly can’t see the market for it.
That's what i love about 80's and 90's japanese electronics, so well made, and amazing engineering to shrink all those electro mechanisms as small as possible when physical formats were the rule.
Please also show one of the answering machines that run off of the micro cassettes for both your recorded announcement and the messages left. I always wondered how it knows where to find the messages. I think it uses a particular tone between logs, but wonder how the logic works inside. You always come prepared with an understanding of the history and every feature of the unit you review, as impressive as the item itself.
The micro-cassette answering machine I had at the time actually had a very small amount of digital memory into which to record the outgoing message. I think it had to be within 30 seconds and that was it, and the incoming messages where recorded onto a micro-cassette tape. Some I've seen some that had two tapes, one on to which to record your out-going message and the other for recording the incoming messages. Beyond that, also curious how the single-cassette units work. Is the out-going message recorded at the beginning of the tape, and then it somehow knows where to record the next message after fast-forwarding past any previously recorded messages? The answering machine I currently have is all digital.
I had all three types from the dual tape, to one tape, and then digital with red LEDs. Amazing how many of these things are almost completely obsolete.
I had a cassette recorder like that RCA one you showed but mine was made by GE. Wasn't the best quality as it kept messing up and I had to keep returning it. I have one made by Sony and the last time I tried it it still worked but the belts seem to be getting weak. Toted that thing around with me everywhere and recorded everything with it.
I think I once had a Pearlcorder S924, the black one you showed, it was OK, simple but did its job. Olympus made so many microcassette recorders, which makes sense since they developed the format.
At least, I think it was a Pearlcorder S924, it certainly looked very identical and had the model number written in the same place and same direction as yours does. And because of how the model number was written, I used to hold the recorder such that the speaker would be on the left and the cassette door on the right, with the transport controls facing towards me. I never understood why Olympus went with the 2.5 mm headphone and microphone sockets, I didn't have compatible headphones and so I couldn't plug my headphones into the recorder, I was only 11 or so years old when I had it.
Ha, I was about to say that it was a miracle that the belts were still whole, but those gear teeth mean this answering machine-audio quality unit will still be working long after the last of the still more expensive Dolby-equipped standard cassette Walkmen have died..
I used to like those dictation recorders. I still have two from the early 90's. one should store them without the belts and out the belts inside a bag with a dehumidifier bag.
What a cool recorder. Being that I've switched to digital I miss the older versions of those micro recorders. I have found though that my Sony 2GB unit has a better sound reproduction when recording music direct to the recorder itself. But wow - Thats neat that a recorder can come in that small style. Now I got to find one.
I own a microcassette recorder. I discovered that, if you slightly push the "tape speed" switch between 1.2 and 2.4 (so there is no electrical contact in the switch), the playback/recording speeds skyrocket to maximum (maybe at 4?)
Great video. I managed to pick up one of these on Gumtree a couple of years ago for about $40 Australian. In very good condition. I was interested to hear your comment that it's most likely direct drive. Would hate to have to change belts on a device so small. Have you opened yours up and looked inside?
@6:35 - It was 1992 and I put my tape on the secretary desk. 4 years later - when I finally got a secretary, I advised her of the tape that I needed transcribed and she thought I was a creeper. She relocated the next day. The next secretary will probably handle it better. I am still waiting.
There was a format between standard cassettes and microcassette. I was, predictably, called minicassette. I don't think it had very wide acceptance, though.
We have a GE microcassette recorder and loads of blank tapes. It had a mic jack so we went and recorded sound files from the JFK assassination and a few other news stories... What's today's date again?
awesome, i got aware of this neat device by chance 2y ago or so. and bought one. fully working. my idea was to make a reel2reel mini tape for the dollhouse. so i got finaly 2 of them, one is a bit defective and will be slaugthered and modified. i want the first fully working r2r tape for a dollhjouse definitely, lol. i hope i dont forget to make pics and videos, as i usually forget about documenting it.
Too bad the stereo version of micro-cassette didn't work out.. this could have been a sweet shirt-pocket music player... especially with it being that easy on its single battery...
When you mentioned the lady that owned the Olympus Pearlcorder L400 tape recorder before you who did a test recording, the thought that raced through my mind as I heard it was: "October 5? When? At this point, that October 5 could have been as recent as just a couple of months ago or she could have made that test recording back when (if) she purchased it new in 1992, and that was about 31 years ago." That is why if one is doing a test recording in which one is announcing the date they made it, it is important to say the entire date: for example, "Today is Monday, January 22, 2024," with once being more than enough.
What a cute machine! I had one of those black Olympus recorders at the end kf the 90s, when I thought I was going to be a journalist 😅 unfortunately somebidy stole it and my journalistic career also took a nose dive 😂
I wonder if they had AC bias or DC bias? At this price, it should be AC bias. The bad DC bias really makes music recorded on these microcassettes sound terrible. But an AC bias machine could make them sound about as good as they can sound. I'm willing to bet that if it does have AC bias, it will sound 1/2 decent.
I remember my dad having one and I thought it was so cool. Its kinda crazy to me that MiniDV/HDV tapes were not much bigger than micro cassettes. Considering a MiniDV tape is 65mm x 45mm x 12mm and a Micro-cassette is 57mm x 34mm x 8mm. Tape is such a fascinating medium.
There are smaller cassette formats for small recorder devices: Mini-Cassette (Philips, 1967), Picocassette (Dictaphone & JVC collaboration, 1985) and NT cassette (Sony 1992). But, as already pointed out, Microcassette was the only format (not counting the ubiquitous Compact Cassette) that made any significant success.
@VWestlife as much as I love your channel, listening to it has always been difficult. There is a considerable spectral balance difference between the left and right channel of your left and right channels - all the treble is in the left channel, and none in the right When editing or recording the voiceover itself, would you mind downmixing it to mono?
@@41moose No. Firstly, I'm not watching this on a phone. Secondly, even on a phone, some people may be using headphones instead of speakers. Thirdly, even if some phones may have an accessibily option to enable mono audio, doing so for a single youtube channel with a minor flaw is … rather inconvenient. I'm fairly certain that @VWestlife would rather make that minor fix in video editing for the future rather than impair the experience of those subscribers affected.
I record my videos using camcorders with stereo microphones, so whichever side of the camcorder I'm on while I'm recording will be louder. I listen to all my videos using headphones and I don't find it to be disconcerting, but if you do, then all modern playback devices can be switched into mono mode easily in the sound or accessibility settings.
I know both Sony and Sanyo did make stereo microcassette recorders. And there was metal microcassettes as well, for higher quality with music. Techmoan made a video about the Sanyo stereo microcassette deck.
I just found one not that long ago. Not this model. But i have been looking for one for years now. I got a Deicide show I taped back in 1995 that I want to transfer. I know it will sound horrible. I only recorded 3 shows with it before i noticed.
If Sony had tried to make the worlds smallest cassette recorder using their world’s smallest cassette format, the NT digital cassette, could they have made a smaller tape recorder then the Olympus L400? All of the Sony NT digital cassette recorder models I’ve seen look about the size of handheld microcassette recorder at their smallest. Though, at some point I question just how small you’d really want one of these to be for normal use (i.e. Outside of spy/surveillance work) as too small would necessitate really tiny controls that be difficult to use.
I wonder how responsive the VCVA mode is. Does the tape mechanism start fast enough to catch your first syllable or is a little bit cut off at the beginning?
I had a sony unit that used standard tapes and the voice activation was pretty much instant. It just stops and starts the motor with the tape already on the head ready to go as soon as the head is energised, which takes microseconds. It never missed anything so I presume this one has the same response time.
こんにちは！
私は40代の日本人で、最近アナログの音響機器に興味を持ち始めたのですが、このオリンパスのレコーダーは初めて見ました。
あまりの小ささに感動しました。
ありがとうございました！
It's made for the left hand because they expect a busy executive to be holding a cigarette in his right hand.
What about the ridiculously heavy crystal glass of scotch that they glug without flinching
Pretty sure at that price, it's a Cuban cigar.
It's convenient to have two arms
@@sprint955stBut, surely, once you put anything in your mouth, it negates the point of having a voice recorder in your left hand anyway. Still, a nice recorder with or without the cigar or scotch.
The auto stop is for when you take a big Puff
The fact it didn’t use some proprietary battery is amazing!
If it was Sony it would’ve for sure
AFAIK, that's not at all atypical for Olympus products. At least their early digital cameras used AAs.
@@41moose And had an _optional_ external pack for a AAA battery?
Its from the 90s it was not common for companies to do that yet .
Or worse a non-user replaceable rechargeable battery that's gonna go dead in a year. Or worse worse leak.
Yes, it's a marvel of miniaturization, but also of reliability, two things that you'd think are at odds with each other. This little machine works just like it did the year it was manufactured. With logic transport controls, autoreverse (never knew that even existed for the microcassette format), and all kinds of fancy functions you'd think are prone to failure years down the line, miniaturized on top of that, and yet, look at it! Such a survivor.
i'm surprised how well built this machine is. metal case, auto reverse, ALC, even direct drive.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Also the feature set. In particular, the voice-activation feature would be great when combined with the "hold" switch. It works when you need it to work, with no danger of messing things up by hitting a button as you wave it around.
A lot of "executive" level gadgets were overpriced crap, but this one definitely justifies its pricetag.
As a photographer of nearly 25 years, most of the time (and up until today) with Olympus gear, I love classic Oly gear :)
I agree, I have an old OM30 camera. A beautiful classic.
Oct. 5 is my birthday and I recently found out it was actually the most common birthday, at least in the US. Makes sense when you realize it's 9 months after New Year's Eve. I didn't want to think about that too much.
Then happy birthday! Today is in fact October 5th I've heard
in my country it's Sept. 30th... i guess we do it more on christmas day :D
The audio from the last clip could fit right into a humor horror movie
Years ago i worked for a NY electronic retailer and sold them, fell in love with it and picked one up. Great unit!
I was traveling with my family to the beach, and I always have this weird thing trying to find a thrift store in every city I go to. I found a very small one downtown, run by a very old, but gentle man. There, I bought my first Microcassette recorder (the black Olympus S924 you showed in the beginning). It still works, and I fell in love with it. Being very familiar with analog gear, I was completely amazed of how small things could get (the tape looked even smaller than I had seen on RUclips videos), and I still catch myself thrilled looking at that little cassette in the palm of my hands for hours.
Anyway, it is a very intriguing format, even tough it has no advantages in the modern world, where you can just record anything in your phone with higher quality, but still, it amazes me.
I am currently looking for a picocassette machine, but those are so hard to find!
A real marvel of miniaturised mechanics. Brilliant..
New vWestlife video, hooray!
This little tape recorder was such a technological marvel!
Every October 5th now, I am going to think of this video. Loved it!
Oh man, a new VWestLife video on cassettes‽ Always a good way to end the day!
Today is October 5th! She sure loved October 5th for some reason. That recorder is so cool, but I've always loved Micro Cassettes!
Alas, this video wasn't released on October 5th.
4:40 - Being awkward to use with the right hand means it's unlikely to be activated by accident. As a lefty, I cannot picture any company intentionally targeting left handed users, especially a company based in Japan where forcing left handed kids to switch hands had been the norm for centuries..
I suspect the design intent was a right-handed user holding it in their left hand, leaving the right free for something else.
@@CptJistuce That's how land line phones were designed, pick up the receiver with the left, write with the other hand, which screwed left handed people.
I actually own one of these. I think I stuck it away in a box somewhere. The thing about it that I didn't like was the light metal casing got caught in the items in your pockets. My door became bent because of it. But it sounded like you demonstrated. I'm thinking it was promoted as having an anti-wow and flutter mechanism, but I well could be wrong on that. Good video
Took me a while to realize you were talking about the door of the player, not your actual door... :D
Very impressive piece of tech, I can’t begin to imagine how much they had to compress the hardware to achieve this. Direct drive is a very nice bonus, it certainly looks ahead of its time.
Love these old tech reviews .
I still have my original Olympus SR11 Stereo Microcassette Recorder with FM Radio.
Although , my model was purchased in Canada , and maybe why it does NOT have any Road Runner branding on it . Olympus made Great products , high quality and still working after 40 years,
7:00 Reminds me old TV news, the same quality!
This is how I gauge peak dork. "Did you have a microcassette recorder in the 90's even though it was completely unnecessary?"
Yeah I did
Olympus was the king titan of the format.
They invented it, so that makes sense.
interesting, beautiful recorder, I didn't think that format was used in audio, I knew about it and used it on the Casio fx 801p calculator to store programs in basic, thanks for sharing it, greetings
I love the microcassettes recorder this one look very neat love these kind of mini cassettes too
I remembered RetroPCDOS repairing one of these twelve years ago.
The trouble with small tech is, it's more likely to be lost in the void that is down the back of the sofa, where things go to hide for a very long time... :P
I guess the upside to that is it gets perfectly preserved.
Or that someone loses a part of it when attempting repair
I got one of these in 1995 at Service Merchandise after a price drop. Still have it to this day! plus i'm a lefty so it's natural for me to use.
Great video! And Olympus (OM System now) is actually still making small-sized voice recorders with full functions and features. I have been using their LS-P2 from 2016, not much bigger than a lighter but with 3 condenser mics, supports 24/96 linear PCM recording, and a full metal build powered by one AAA battery - just like this Pearlcorder
Good Grief! I haven't seen an Olympus micro cassette player for decades... I shouldn't have been surprised one popped up on VWestlife... I am surprised you found one of these working though. Great stuff. Edit: It is beautifully made, a little jewel.
awesome vidya as always bud. id like to see a modern smartphone last this long
At 0:46 a Pearcorder 5924. Mr. Westlife, I still have my Pearcorder 5912. It's more basic than yours, that it has no counter. My 5912 stopped working about a year ago(it might just be a belt), but my Sony M-527V Micro tape Recorder is still working. Kind Regards, PS: your vid is very informative, I gave it a like!!!!!!
S924, not 5924.
I've always been a fan of Olympus dictation machines. Built to last. I've had one for well over 20 years and it's never let me down.
very useful demo. cute and practical machine.
Very cool video, thanks.
In the early 90s, had a Sony double micro-cassette answering machine. Worked awesome.
beautiful piece of engineering
The only standard size cassette player I can remember I had that had full logic control, metal tape selection, auto reverse, dolby noise reduction and was only fractionally bigger than the cassette was a JVC running off a single AA. I wonder if Olympus made the mech and electronics themselves? It certainly is a masterpiece of miniaturisation.
I have 2 different types of Realistic branded Microcassette recorders and they had the voice activation. It was good for hiding and bugging a room and listen if anyone went into your room and started talking.
Incredible miniaturization. Thank you for this video!
Hey West, thanks for showing us this. I always thought the Sony M-909 was the smallest. I own it and this Olympus unit does appear to be noticeably larger. Cheers. :)
You’re right. The Sony M-909 is noticeably smaller than this one.
The Sony M909 is slightly shorter and a tiny amount thinner than the Olympus L400, but it is over 1 cm wider, and about 15 grams heavier.
@@vwestlife Hmm...interesting. Though, I'm a bit skeptical about it being 15 grams heavier. The M-909 doesn't even have a built-in speaker and that right there is some sizable weight. I wish I had both to compare now! Cheers, West. Great upload as usual. I always get excited to see you comment on Cassette Culture on Reddit or post a video here. :)
The M-909 does look sleeker and more stylish, but the L400 is smaller than the M-909 when measured by overall volume.
In high school I had a Sharp portable CD player that was barely larger than a CD case, while all classmates had bulky Sony Discmans 😎
Olympus needs to make new Microcassette players again, because I used to record them in college class, we had to record our speeches and send them to the professor. I want to be able to listen to my old recordings, especially the guest speakers!
YES, and in this day and age, I think it would be a must for them to be digital (even though analog media such as tape is making a comeback), coming with 1 or 2 TB of expandable flash storage for studio-quality audio capture, and the option to select which audio file format the user wishes to use.
@@scratchpad7954 I just want to back up those old tape recordings from college! Because I remember having lots of fun recording those class discussions, and yes there’s now digital audio recorders that Olympus still makes now with expandable flash memory! But I want to hear the old stuff and I don’t have a microcassette player anymore, since I graduated college!
@@scratchpad7954personal recorders still exist and olympus/om systems is still in the market. they’re all digital nowadays and the mics are infinitely better
There’s really not much financial benefit for anyone to make simple dictation devices like this (especially ones with analog recording) because honestly, smartphones have replaced any need for a standalone device for dictation.
It could be a neat novelty for some people, but unless they were offering something major that a basic iPhone couldn’t, I honestly can’t see the market for it.
@@TundieRice Distraction free recording.
Used to have a couple of those Sony units. Used them for recording piano classes and they were great.
I like the name Pearlcorder. Still have mine.
I just so happen to have one of those recorders. I recently got it from Goodwill.
Dang, lucky find. I can't even find a VCR at any thrift stores near me anymore.
That's what i love about 80's and 90's japanese electronics, so well made, and amazing engineering to shrink all those electro mechanisms as small as possible when physical formats were the rule.
I think this thing appeared in Better Call Saul. Seen used by Kim Wexler a couple of times. I couldn't find the scene where it appeared the most.
Such a beautiful little device.
Please also show one of the answering machines that run off of the micro cassettes for both your recorded announcement and the messages left. I always wondered how it knows where to find the messages. I think it uses a particular tone between logs, but wonder how the logic works inside. You always come prepared with an understanding of the history and every feature of the unit you review, as impressive as the item itself.
The micro-cassette answering machine I had at the time actually had a very small amount of digital memory into which to record the outgoing message. I think it had to be within 30 seconds and that was it, and the incoming messages where recorded onto a micro-cassette tape. Some I've seen some that had two tapes, one on to which to record your out-going message and the other for recording the incoming messages. Beyond that, also curious how the single-cassette units work. Is the out-going message recorded at the beginning of the tape, and then it somehow knows where to record the next message after fast-forwarding past any previously recorded messages? The answering machine I currently have is all digital.
I had all three types from the dual tape, to one tape, and then digital with red LEDs. Amazing how many of these things are almost completely obsolete.
I really wish physical media like cassettes an discs didn't go out o style...
You and me both brother.
Cassettes have made a comeback, but only in a very niche market though unfortunately.
@@christo930 🤝
Really? Where can I find more info?
@@adamholmes91
makes sense that it's a left handed unit, lets you take notes with your right hand (if you're right handed)
You should've held on to this video and released it on Oct. 5th.
I had a cassette recorder like that RCA one you showed but mine was made by GE. Wasn't the best quality as it kept messing up and I had to keep returning it. I have one made by Sony and the last time I tried it it still worked but the belts seem to be getting weak. Toted that thing around with me everywhere and recorded everything with it.
I think I once had a Pearlcorder S924, the black one you showed, it was OK, simple but did its job. Olympus made so many microcassette recorders, which makes sense since they developed the format.
At least, I think it was a Pearlcorder S924, it certainly looked very identical and had the model number written in the same place and same direction as yours does. And because of how the model number was written, I used to hold the recorder such that the speaker would be on the left and the cassette door on the right, with the transport controls facing towards me. I never understood why Olympus went with the 2.5 mm headphone and microphone sockets, I didn't have compatible headphones and so I couldn't plug my headphones into the recorder, I was only 11 or so years old when I had it.
Really reminds me of a Walkman with how small they made it and it's a bit odd to me someone who's into cameras seeing an Olympus brand tape player
Although it doesn't surprise me they branched out as most camera and film brand did
Great some other rare vintage tech I need to hunt for 😅
They are going for $60 on eBay. But thrift stores sell these for $7. The Olympus ones are to chunky. I mostly buy the Sony micro cassette recorders.
A very cool little machine.
Petition for October 5 to be World Microcassette Day.
Ha, I was about to say that it was a miracle that the belts were still whole, but those gear teeth mean this answering machine-audio quality unit will still be working long after the last of the still more expensive Dolby-equipped standard cassette Walkmen have died..
I used to like those dictation recorders. I still have two from the early 90's. one should store them without the belts and out the belts inside a bag with a dehumidifier bag.
This would have been top-of-the-line spy gear in the 1960's, had it existed then.
What a cool recorder. Being that I've switched to digital I miss the older versions of those micro recorders. I have found though that my Sony 2GB unit has a better sound reproduction when recording music direct to the recorder itself. But wow - Thats neat that a recorder can come in that small style. Now I got to find one.
I own a microcassette recorder. I discovered that, if you slightly push the "tape speed" switch between 1.2 and 2.4 (so there is no electrical contact in the switch), the playback/recording speeds skyrocket to maximum (maybe at 4?)
Marvellous mini documentary on the product🤍💙👌🏼
Hope you do one featuring the journey of the mefia gormat too.👍🏻
Microcassetted and cassettes
interesting... things are starting to make sense!
Great video. I managed to pick up one of these on Gumtree a couple of years ago for about $40 Australian. In very good condition. I was interested to hear your comment that it's most likely direct drive. Would hate to have to change belts on a device so small.
Have you opened yours up and looked inside?
@6:35 - It was 1992 and I put my tape on the secretary desk. 4 years later - when I finally got a secretary, I advised her of the tape that I needed transcribed and she thought I was a creeper. She relocated the next day. The next secretary will probably handle it better.
I am still waiting.
There was a format between standard cassettes and microcassette. I was, predictably, called minicassette. I don't think it had very wide acceptance, though.
October 5th is my birthday!
94? Thought it would be mid 2000s tech. As kid of mid 90s, thought it would be like the size of home alone 2's tiger electronics tape recorder.
in the 2000s they stopped putting in much effort into tape recorders i am glad its not from the 80s.
SONY M-909, Smaller, Lighter, but no speaker or mic built in.
We have a GE microcassette recorder and loads of blank tapes. It had a mic jack so we went and recorded sound files from the JFK assassination and a few other news stories...
What's today's date again?
awesome, i got aware of this neat device by chance 2y ago or so. and bought one. fully working. my idea was to make a reel2reel mini tape for the dollhouse. so i got finaly 2 of them, one is a bit defective and will be slaugthered and modified. i want the first fully working r2r tape for a dollhjouse definitely, lol. i hope i dont forget to make pics and videos, as i usually forget about documenting it.
Too bad the stereo version of micro-cassette didn't work out.. this could have been a sweet shirt-pocket music player... especially with it being that easy on its single battery...
When you mentioned the lady that owned the Olympus Pearlcorder L400 tape recorder before you who did a test recording, the thought that raced through my mind as I heard it was: "October 5? When? At this point, that October 5 could have been as recent as just a couple of months ago or she could have made that test recording back when (if) she purchased it new in 1992, and that was about 31 years ago." That is why if one is doing a test recording in which one is announcing the date they made it, it is important to say the entire date: for example, "Today is Monday, January 22, 2024," with once being more than enough.
What a cute machine! I had one of those black Olympus recorders at the end kf the 90s, when I thought I was going to be a journalist 😅 unfortunately somebidy stole it and my journalistic career also took a nose dive 😂
I wonder if they had AC bias or DC bias? At this price, it should be AC bias. The bad DC bias really makes music recorded on these microcassettes sound terrible. But an AC bias machine could make them sound about as good as they can sound. I'm willing to bet that if it does have AC bias, it will sound 1/2 decent.
DC bias.
Today is October 5th!
I remember my dad having one and I thought it was so cool. Its kinda crazy to me that MiniDV/HDV tapes were not much bigger than micro cassettes. Considering a MiniDV tape is 65mm x 45mm x 12mm and a Micro-cassette is 57mm x 34mm x 8mm. Tape is such a fascinating medium.
I love microcassette
Great little unit. I used to use mine to interrogate and blackmail people back in the day
I keep seeing ‘143’ in my life and RUclips never fail me. Another 143 in a RUclips video. This is 7th ‘143’ on RUclips this month alone.
There are smaller cassette formats for small recorder devices: Mini-Cassette (Philips, 1967), Picocassette (Dictaphone & JVC collaboration, 1985) and NT cassette (Sony 1992). But, as already pointed out, Microcassette was the only format (not counting the ubiquitous Compact Cassette) that made any significant success.
@VWestlife as much as I love your channel, listening to it has always been difficult. There is a considerable spectral balance difference between the left and right channel of your left and right channels - all the treble is in the left channel, and none in the right When editing or recording the voiceover itself, would you mind downmixing it to mono?
Or YOU can put your phone in mono
@@41moose tbf I feel like this is a reasonable ask to a content creator, though it's just as reasonable for the content creator to say nah.
@@41moose No. Firstly, I'm not watching this on a phone. Secondly, even on a phone, some people may be using headphones instead of speakers. Thirdly, even if some phones may have an accessibily option to enable mono audio, doing so for a single youtube channel with a minor flaw is … rather inconvenient. I'm fairly certain that @VWestlife would rather make that minor fix in video editing for the future rather than impair the experience of those subscribers affected.
I record my videos using camcorders with stereo microphones, so whichever side of the camcorder I'm on while I'm recording will be louder. I listen to all my videos using headphones and I don't find it to be disconcerting, but if you do, then all modern playback devices can be switched into mono mode easily in the sound or accessibility settings.
I love mine, even have the "powered" electret microphone...
TODAY IS OCTOBER 5TH
I had an Olympus micro cassette recorder back the.
I believe there was a Panasonic stereo
Recorder deck that used microcassettes. 😊
I know both Sony and Sanyo did make stereo microcassette recorders. And there was metal microcassettes as well, for higher quality with music. Techmoan made a video about the Sanyo stereo microcassette deck.
Sweet find!
I just found one not that long ago. Not this model. But i have been looking for one for years now. I got a Deicide show I taped back in 1995 that I want to transfer. I know it will sound horrible. I only recorded 3 shows with it before i noticed.
That bit at the end scared me lol
If Sony had tried to make the worlds smallest cassette recorder using their world’s smallest cassette format, the NT digital cassette, could they have made a smaller tape recorder then the Olympus L400? All of the Sony NT digital cassette recorder models I’ve seen look about the size of handheld microcassette recorder at their smallest. Though, at some point I question just how small you’d really want one of these to be for normal use (i.e. Outside of spy/surveillance work) as too small would necessitate really tiny controls that be difficult to use.
Left hand so right hand is free to transcribe the dictation maybe
i used to have one .. cant remember what happened to it
I was waiting for you to put music on it and go rollerblading.
I wonder how responsive the VCVA mode is. Does the tape mechanism start fast enough to catch your first syllable or is a little bit cut off at the beginning?
I had a sony unit that used standard tapes and the voice activation was pretty much instant. It just stops and starts the motor with the tape already on the head ready to go as soon as the head is energised, which takes microseconds. It never missed anything so I presume this one has the same response time.
Yes, and not only that but he doesn't talk during it switching sides so you can't tell how much is lost as a result of the mechanics.
Thats really cool!
Sony won't be beaten! the M-909 :) Great show Kevin, thanks for the close up details.
The M909 _was_ the world's smallest microcassette recorder... until the L400 came out two years later and was even smaller than it.
It sounds way better w/ an external mic (and no motor noise).
I'M SORRY. YOU'RE RIGHT.(S912 AND S924)... MY BAD EYESIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! THAT WHY I'M SO BAD IN REPAIRING WATCHES AND THESE SMALL DEVICES... KIND REGARDS
A little part of me is sad that I began my professional journey after the era of "executive editions."