March, 2012 | iDictate - Digital Voice Blog

Australia: Olympus Voice DS Series Special Offer – Free Camera or WS Series Voice Recorder with a DS/AS-5000 Pro Bundle

May 15, 2012March 27, 2012 by @dictates

This post is only applicable in Australia. Here is a freebie from Olympus, take it while you can as these things are rare. From 1st march 2012 until 31st May 2012 if you buy an Olympus DS-5000/AS-5000 bundle then you are eligible for a free gift. The bundle is available from us for $999 incl. GST delivered.

Why bundle? Well many people looking to upgrade from analogue tape to digital will generally purchase both a transcription kit and a voice recorder in one go. If you have been thinking of moving to digital dictation now would be a great time especially as you can pick up a free digital camera or free WS series voice recorder as a part of your bundle.

Type What You Speak – Voice Recognition Software For Mac, Dragon Dictate from Nuance

July 27, 2024March 19, 2012 by @dictates

Using Dragon Dictate for Mac to type real time speech to text voice recognition

Voice recognition software is nothing new, it has been around since 1997 on Windows with the well known Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. Nuance the makers of NaturallySpeaking also have a Mac offering in the form of Dragon Dictate which shares the same voice recognition engine known as Dragon. In the following quick video I wanted to just show you Dragon as it is most commonly used, simply to type as you talk.

Perfect for those of you just want to speak your thoughts, maybe writing a blog post, your first novel or a story for publication if you are a journalist. Simply sit back, relax and talk using Dragon – yes there will be mistakes (there is one in the video, did you spot it?) but the key point is you can get your thoughts out without being interrupted or slowed down with your typing speed. Voice recognition, as I mention in the video, is said to be upto five times faster than typing yourself. Couple the speed of transcription with a quick run through proof read and you still have text down much quicker than typing it yourself.

Digital Transcription – All You Need To Transcribe Digital Audio Files

July 8, 2024March 14, 2012 by @dictates

All You Need To Do Digital Transcription - PC or Mac, Software and USB Foot Pedal

[audio:https://www.idictate.com.au/podcast/idictate-digital-transcriber.mp3|titles=Listen To This Blog Post – All You Need To Transcribe Digital Audio Files]

Transcription like most things these days has gone digital. Gone are the days of loading and listening to poor quality analogue tapes now we just load and listen to crystal clear digital audio which arrives via email, on a shared network drive or downloaded from a cloud. Regardless of whether you are an experienced micro cassette transcriptionist or someone who is new to transcription the equipment you will need is the same. Transcribing voice to text for digitally recorded audio letters, notes, interviews, focus groups, meetings etc is a highly skilled job, below are the key tools you will need to make this task easier:

Digital Voice Recorders In The Community – Audio Books

July 9, 2024March 9, 2012 by @dictates

LibriVox - Resource for downloading and recording public domain free audio books

[audio:https://www.idictate.com.au/podcast/idictate-audio-books.mp3|titles=Listen To This Blog Post – Voice Recorders And Audio Books]

Another example of digital voice being put to a great use is at a website I recently stumbled upon called LibriVox.org – I was on the hunt for audio books for my children when Google pointed me to this resource. Simple concept, they tend to be the best ones, which is take public domain books and have volunteers from around the world record themselves reading them. In turn producing a huge catalog of free audiobooks for the world to enjoy. This is a fantastic initiative, not just because my children get to listen to some classics but for the great many people who for some reason or another can’t or don’t want to read.

LibriVox was started back in 2005 by a man called Hugh McGuire and since then has amassed a few select sidekicks to help with web design, audio book cataloging and the day to day running of LibriVox. Add to that the legion of volunteers worldwide the LibriVox catalog has grown and grown very fast.

Mac: How To Email Dictation From Olympus DSS Player v7 Plus

March 12, 2012March 2, 2012 by @dictates

Email ds2 digital audio from Olympus dictaphone on Mac

Slowly but surely the Mac version of DSS Player is coming up to speed against its more mature Windows counterpart – called DSS Player v7 Plus on Mac and DSS Player Pro v5 Dictation Module on Windows. However the Mac DSS software is still lacking a couple of keys features that Windows users enjoy, one key feature is auto email of dictation audio files. Most Mac users will simply puff out their chests as they huff that they are quite capable of sending an email without software doing it for them, still it is a handy feature, especially if you have multiple audio files, and a feature that people often ask about and look for.

I was prompted to write this blog post as a couple of hits recently had people looking at how you actually send an audio file from DSS Player v7 Plus, this is when I noticed that it is not entirely obvious in the software – there is no email button or file option. In true Mac fashion emailing a file or files is intuitive – you simply drag and drop from DSS Player Pro into your mail client or into your browser if you use Gmail via the web interface, that’s it. If you are one of those people who like to select the file from disk the quickest way to locate your dictation file and folder is to double tap (or right click if you have set this) on the audio file name in the right window pain in DSS Player Plus, select Property then expand out the File Path to open a Finder window showing your file location. All of these are covered below in detail: