Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black)

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

Excellent little recorder. I use it to record solo violin, then transfer the recordings to my computer.
I use Sonar to edit the recordings,so I didn't bother to load the included software.
Several reviewers commented on the weak sound volume from this unit. If they would read the comprehensive instruction booklet, they would discover as a safety precaution, the unit is shipped from the factory with the sound output set to "Headphone". Use the menu to change the sound out to "Line Out" and the use the volume control and the speaker is just fine.
It always helps to read the instructions.
By the way, the instruction booklet is over 100 pages, and it's not in triplicate, (English/French/Spanish) it's all English. So plan on spending some time reading.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

Had a hard time deciding between PCM-M10 and PCMD50. Decided on M10 because it records in both WAV and MP3, small size, and good price. Was not disappointed. Great for portability and on-site recording. Generally use with external mikes.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I use this product all the time. I recorded walla and crowds while on vacation and it turned out great. Looking forward to using it in my next movie.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I was tempted to give the product 5 stars. For the price, you really can't expect it to perform any better. Its voice recording is excellent. Its music recording is passable. However, you can't expect such microphones to do any better.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I mainly use this recorder for field recording and FX-recording, but basically bought it because I want to have quick access to a small, light recording device whenever an opportunity to capture sounds arise. The quality of the internal mics are amazing (relatively speaking), not to mention how sensitive they are. I still only use the "low" sensitivity setting, and that seems to be more than enough for casual, outdoors recording.

Stereo imaging is pretty mediocre from the internal mics, but that's to be expected, and, not least, and it can be improved in post processing through some MS encoding.

Startup time is amazing (it can't be more than 5-6 seconds!), menus are pretty self-explanatory (but not as intuitive as on the Edirol R-09HR), and build quality seems excellent - particularly for the lovely input level wheel to the right.

Battery life is astonishing, and by *far* surpasses that of other similar recorders I have tried. The pre-record feature (the PCM-M10 always buffers five seconds of sound even when you are not recording) is also pretty handy, and means it's a bit more easy to NOT miss the sound that made you press REC in the first place.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I made just one record with this nice recorder and I'm amaze with the quality. It surprise me because it's not a very expensive recorder, but very good results.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I use the Sony Audio Recorder mostly as a Field Recorder, during speeches and meeting.
I put it normally on the table of speakers, with the two microphones pointed on both sides of the table, and it works great.
I can record every single word the speakers say, even when they stand-up and keep talking while getting a little far from the table.
I am really happy with the length of recording, which, in MP3, is around 27 hours!
A recommend buying quality headphones, to check the audio levels before starting record.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I still need to learn some things and figure out how to make adjustments for what I am using it for, but it preformed perfectly. I was able to pick up extremely soft sounds in the environment I was in. Excecllent recorder.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

This is an easy to use recorder with pro features. The only thing I miss is a clock that actually tells you the current time without having to begin a recording- no big thing.

The self-noise is quite low, but only if you use a manual record level. Much better s/n with an external mic, although the built in mics are good and quiet.

The limiter really is virtually useless however- it does not instantly limit peaks, and takes too long to be much good, so forget about the built in limiter. Auto level for recording is also far too low.

Funny, I bought the fake knock off Chinese Sony stereo mic on e bay, the 70P, and it is a EXCELLENT addition for about $5. Believe it or not (and I didn't until I did a careful comparison) the Chinese mic sounds better (by a whisper) than the great built in mics on this.

It does NOT come with a case that can be used to operate so I had to MAKE one out of an soft pocket eyeglass case, and cut and glue a .010" acrylic vinyl plastic window to access the controls and see the display. Sony USED TO make nice padded cases for their small recorders that would protect and allow operation with the case still on. Not any more.

Battery life is amazing.

An excellent buy.

For far less money, the cheapest mono Sony voice recorder sounds just about as good, and I got one of those for $29 at the Sony Style sore locally. ($60 retail)It's hard to believe, also, but true. The cheap recorder just does 196K mp3 however, only has a mono built in mike (they make another with stereo mics for a few more bucks, although with a stereo plug-in mic, it will record true stereo tracks.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

This is my first field recorder. It is well designed and easy to use. Sound quality is great!

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

This is a great little recorder! It is small (roughly 4½"x 2½" x 7/8".) I found it super-easy to get started with the basic functions. I haven't tried anything fancy yet.

Some of my intended uses include:
1) recording meetings.
2) converting LP/tapes to mp3's
3) Capturing sound/sound effects for videos
4) Replacing my iPod for playback

The file handling is a bit awkward. Initially you get 10 directories, named Folder01 thru Folder10. Each folder can hold up to 99 tracks (separate audio files). If you insert a MicroSD (or MicroSDHC) card, you get another 10 directories on it and again they are named Folder01 thru Folder10 making it easy to get confused as to which set you are using. You can't rename folders or files or create new folders with the device. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to do so using a connected computer.

Using a computer you can copy folders and files to either the main memory or the SD card via a USB cable (or by putting the SD card in your computer.) Thus, you can load up an SD card with your favorite music and use the PCM-M10 instead of an iPod!

T-Marks can be inserted as a recording is made and the file later split automatically at those points. This should be useful when copying LP/Tapes to mp3 so they can be split apart into individual songs easily.

The only bad thing I've found so far is that the speaker volume and earphone volume are both rather low. I don't know if that is by design to conserve battery power or if I just got a lemon.

Overall I'm pretty pleased and am looking forward to using this device a lot.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I love this wee guy. I take with me always. Compact and easy to use, and for me that is a must. The internal 4g is ok, I use a 16g micro in the memory slot -- hours of fun. Sure, it would be nice if we could adjust the mics and yes, it may have a little more noise than it's big and way more expensive brothers and sisters but, it's a goodie and at this price unbeatable. It's a cracker. Sonds even better with a flash mic plugged in too. I also use a Fostex FR2LE for those more "Set up" recordings. [...]

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

My use for PCM-M10: Sound recording for filmed footage with Canon EOS 7D. For now interviews and events in swimming halls. Others to follow.

Splendid product, very well designed, solid build, quality buttons placed exactly where you would expect to find them; the unit can be easily operated even without looking at it or in low lighted environment.

I will not rate recorded sound quality since I am at the beginning in this domain and did not use very many alternatives until now. Anyhow to my ears and for my use PCM-M10 delivers better results than actually needed.

If you are in a similar situation as myself to record sound with a dSLR just think that such cameras are not designed for this job. The quality of the build-in microphone is very poor, my 7D (probably many others the same) has automatic gain control (AGC) - which is very bad and I assume the sound amplifiers in the camera are far from being state-of-the-art.

Before buying PCM-M10 I tried to use lavalier wireless systems like Sony UWP-V1 and Azden 310LT UHF, borrowed from friends. As long as these deliver the signal to the camera sound recording system the results will be bad. Additional you may end up with even more problems related to the wireless sound transmission. Sony UWP-V1 was quite ok in the environment where I used it, namely in a swimming hall; but Azden 310LT UHF occasionally lost signal or induced glitches. Even if you would not go for a wireless system and would use a quality external microphone coupled directly to the camera - you would end up with same AGC poor quality camera recording. Using a recorder like PCM-M10 solves all these problems and you obtain a sound recording of excellent quality.

PCM-M10 with its build-in microphones is very good but it really shines when used with an external microphone. For interview jobs even a low-cost Sony ECM-CS3 omni-directional stereo lavalier microphone is excellent. I used also a (borrowed) Sennheiser MKE-400 which deliverd expected quality if used in the right situation. I expect higher valued units will deliver even better results but did not have the chance to test such a setup.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

This thing rocks. I bought it to record audio at a concert and the quality is astonishing for what it costs. Lightweight and extremely user friendly.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

It makes a very clear recording. It captures ALL the sound so if there is ambient sound or an air conditioner running or what not, it will capture all of it. at 5 feet away, it even picked up the person's voice who was speaking to my wife on her cell phone which was not on speaker phone. That could come in handy for some people. :) So far, no downers. Nice and easy to use.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I bought this little guy to replace a Sony mini disc player that was faulty (purchased right before they were discontinued) and it does everything the MD could and more. My only real complaint is that custom folders you create don't show up until you copy music to them, making it difficult to pre-organize, and it seems like you have to do everything file system-related over a USB connection. Also, I haven't found anywhere to set the button backlights to always on, but I probably just missed it in the manual. Overall, this thing would be fantastic for twice the price.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

Great on location recorder for interviews and ambient sound. The M10 has the ability to capture
high quality secondary audio for video. A well built piece of equipment- I recommend getting the case for this recorder.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

This product is now discontinued, but we only found out about it recently and had to search the world to find the remaining stock. Thanks to you we are very grateful and very pleased with the product. We can't understand why it has been discontinued. We would like to buy more if we can persuade the boss.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

Terrific machine. Batteries last seemingly forever. Using MP3 fidelity level the machine has a 140 hours recording capacity on a 4 gig micro chip. The playback sound on the machine itself is very limited because of tiny speakers. With headphones the sound is great. Sturdy, light and small.

Comments about Sony PCM-M10 Portable Audio Recorder (Black):

I am a musician and use this recorder to make quick and easy recordings in situations like: recording a rehearsal, a vocal coaching session, a performance for study later, etc. This recorder is very easy to use and the sound quality is more than adequate for this type of work. I find the controls easy to understand and to be well laid out, and appreciate the dedicated volume knob. I also like the built in speaker, which many hand held recorders do not have. Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase.