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You first have to navigate through the menu to EXT INPUT, select it, THEN plug in the patch cord, change the monaural/stereo setting, and back out of the menu options. However a note at the end of the section gives completely opposite instructions: "Be sure to set the external input BEFORE connecting a connecting cord to the jack on the recorder. On the bad side: Everything else. Otherwise, the input setting may be disabled." Great.To make matters worse, the settings don't 'stick'. I don't consider myself stupid or technologically challenged but it took me some few minutes to figure how to turn the darn thing on and off. PLUS - sometimes that drill doesn't work and you have to plug in the patch cord FIRST. It is small, the writing on the screen is small, and you cannot program the backlight to stay on for any length of time. INPUT settings from the menus.
The manual is typically inaccurate about this point. Save yourself a world of grief and don't get this model. So if I want to record phone calls or make recordings from any other audio device, I have to go through the 9-step setup (beep, beep, beep, beeping my way through the menus), plug and unplug the patch cord, and then keep the device on unless I want to go through the whole routine again. To give you some examples: 1) There's no on/off switch.
3) I record a lot of phone conferences. On the good side: The recording quality is superb. 2) The screen is very hard to read. In a 9-step numbered instruction, they tell you to connect the recorder to the audio device to be recorded from and THEN select the EXT. To record sound using the connecting cord, follow the procedure from step 1 again." Which brings me to the battery life. I am lucky to get 3 hours battery life from this little lemon. Only then is the recorder set up to record through the patch cord. Here's an additional note from the manual "Disconnecting the connecting cord or switching off the recorder cancels the external input setting and resets it to the automatic switching mode.
I don't know how this got any good reviews. Not so with this model. The design and interface is horrific and the user's guide is also atrocious -- inaccurate and user-unfriendly. With most recorders, plugging a cord into the earphone/mic jack makes the device record through the patch cord. There's a "hold" button that functions as the on/off switch. This is not documented anywhere in the user's manual. If you decide on an Olympus digital recorder, I highly recommend shopping at a store that accepts returns so you can send it back if it's as hard to use as this thing.
The recording quality on HQ is excellent. I own a DS-2200 and although it was a little pricey it is a tremendous performer. There is nothing I would change and I highly recommend it.
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