This blog is created and maintained by the team at Dictate Australia Pty Ltd – dictate.com.au - one of Australia’s leading suppliers of Olympus audio products and voice recognition software for Mac and Windows from Nuance.
Dictate Australia deals with digital voice products, be it digital voice recorders, voice recognition software or digital transcription equipment. Dictate is one of the largest Australian online resellers for Olympus voice products. We also supply Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows and Dragon Dictate for Mac, both from Nuance.
Dictate Australia is a Gold Olympus Australia reseller, certified Gold Nuance Dragon NaturallySpeaking reseller and beta tester for Dragon Dictate for Mac.
We don’t just supply this equipment and software we actually use it. Our office is a mix of Windows and Mac so all equipment is tested on both platforms. We run both Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows and we are beta testers for Dragon Dictate for Mac. We are also very closely aligned with our sister company The Transcription People who are one of Australia’s top outsourced transcription service providers, so we know dictation and transcription.
This blog is our attempt to bring you the latest news, hints and tips on all the products we sell so that you can either get the most out of your existing product or to help inform you if you are thinking of buying a new product. It is also an attempt by me to break out of my ‘techie’ mould and become more creative … its a long road.
We love to hear comments and suggestions from anyone on our products or on products we should be looking at.
Thanks for dropping by.
Dave Holmes
Director
Dictate Australia Pty Ltd
We have a client (financial adviser) currently using an old analog dictaphone plus transcriber. Needs to move to the digital world.
Needs to take notes in a meeting and maybe in the car after a client meeting as well as at his desk. These notes need to link with Dragon sw. What combination do you recommend?
Or what questions do we need to answer first?
Do you have a Melb. based rep or someone to talk to in order to make sure the business requirements are clearly understood before making a reommendation?
Thanks,
Peter 0417-546-509.
Hello Peter
Thanks for your comments. If your client is currently using analog tape dictaphones then they may need to look at the digital dictaphone options which are the lower end DS-2400 and the pro model DS-3400 and DS-5000 recorders all from Olympus. These recorders will make the transition for them to digital easier as they emulate the rewind/review capabilities of the older analog tape recorders.
However, with a switch in mindset and the way you dictate the cheaper digital notetakers could also be used, eg models like the Olympus WS-560M or DM-450. It really depends on primary use of the recorder, ie will it be used 90% for taking notes and if so will the notes be recorded in one hit or over multiple recordings.
All Olympus recorders can be used with Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 Preferred version and above.
I would be happy to give you a call to explain the nuances between the recorders and what might be best for your clients situation.
Our office is located on the NSW Central Coast, just North of Sydney. We ship recorders all over the country daily and can support clients all over Australia who use both Windows and Mac machines with their voice recorders and transcription kits.
Thanks
Dave
Dictate
Dear Dave, i work for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and we are conducting a qualitative research study in north-west Mozambique, using focus group discussions (FGD) and in-depth interviews (IDI). it will be hard to cut out all ambient background noise in this rather chaotic semi-rural setting. we need to buy at least 2 digital notetakers/audio recorders that will provide good quality FGD/IDI data for transcription. ive been looking at your blog, and looking online at stockists in south africa (i think we cant find here in Mozambique) and im confused with the wide range of models etc. I would greatly appreciate it if you could recommend me some models of digital notetakers that would work best for out purpose; i understand from your blog that the cheapest ones are not appropriate for FGD, so if you can recommend any mid to top end price models (preferably not the most expensive), i would appreciate. i dont know if there would also be any corresponding transcription devices you could recomment as well, i cant work out if transcription devices only work for one voice dictaction devices or if there are transcription devices to use with digital notetakers dealign with multiple voices. i anxiously await your reply! thank you, barbara
Hello Barbara
Thanks for your comment and let me say straight away – I Love Your Work – MSF is an amazing organisation.
I will email you directly with more in depth information. Basically the cheaper notetakers would be fine for IDI, for your FGD you would be better off with a higher range recorder, I would recommend the Olympus DM-3 to cover you for both. Background noise can always be an issue, Olympus do have noise cancelling mics and also an excellent zoom mic with a wind sock cover which would also help. Even a think sock over the recorder often helps (clean socks preferred
)
Dave
Dictate Australia
Hi, I have the DNS Home 11 version of DNS, (recently updated to 11.5), and I was wanting to get the least expensive upgrade version of DNS that will work with a digital recorder. That in itself is confusing when I go to their site and maybe you can tell me what version that would be.
But what I’d really like to know is if the following product I found on Amazon will permit any version of DNS to work with a recorder:
Sony Expandable 2GB Digital Voice Recorder with MP3 Capabilities and Dragon Naturally Speaking Software
If you copied and pasted that into the Amazon search box you’ll find that the seller is not very clear as to what that software actually is used for. I know that it is NOT a version of DNS but software FOR a version of DNS.
Perhaps you’re familiar with this item. Any idea wether or not it can make my version of DNS accept text from a recorder?
Thanks, Rich
Hello Rich
Thanks for dropping by and for your comment. To use Dragon on Windows with a digital voice recorder you will need the Premium version, there are no upgrades from v11+ Home to Premium.
The version you are seeing on Amazon is the Voice Recorder Edition. I am surprised to see that labelled as v11 as I thought there was only a v10 version. The recorder edition is essentially a cut down version of Dragon for Windows which will only take audio from a recorder – you will not be able to speak to your PC and dictate.
If I was you I would bite the bullet and just grab the Premium edition of Dragon for Windows – this will give you the versatility to both speak to your PC and have it transcribe your spoken words AND can take a recording from a compatible digital voice recorder.
Hope that helps.
Dave
Dictate Australia
Hi Dave,
Trying to find a teacher/consultant to help us learn Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 in our office here in the Northern Rivers, NSW. Searching by Google and found you. Where can I find such a person?
Our needs are pretty straight forward dictation not medical or legal.
I also wish to know if the digital recorder that comes with the software, is it any good?
Is it worth while upgrading the microphone?
Sorry these question seem so basic but one must start somewhere, so perhaps the teacher/consultant is a good start.
Best Regards,
LeeAnne
Hey LeeAnne
Don’t you love the wonders of Google, it’s the only way to find anything !!
I don’t know of such a service and I am not sure such a service is required? The inbuilt training is excellent in DD3 as are the many videos on the Nuance website and scattered across YouTube.
Personally I am not a fan of the recorded that ships with DD3, but it does the job and is quite a cheap one hence why they bundle it. I would get to grips with dictation directly to your Mac first and get comfy with that, this is how most people use Dragon. The transcription from audio is good but you will spend some time proofing and fixing up some minor issues. If you can, try to talk direct to Dragon as much as you can.
As for the mic question, the mic that ships with the basic DD3 bundle is good. Again, give it a try and see how comfy you are with it. Don’t forget that you can also use your iPhone as a remote mic using the free Dragon Remote Mic, I tend to use that the most these days rather than the mic/headset. Mics can always be upgraded at a later time.
Please if you have questions send them through anytime, either post here or email me.
Hope that helps.
Dave
Dictate Australia
Hi,
I am looking for a Dictaphone/Digital Voice Recorder, that I can record minutes of meetings of 8 to 12 people , it must be able to record for approx two hours. What do you recommend?
Thanks,
Mark.
Hello Mark
Thanks for stopping by. For recording minutes of meetings you will need a digital voice recorder and not a dictaphone. The best recorder for the job is the Olympus DM-3 or if the budget is tight the WS-812 would also do a good job. The DM-3 has a better mic but both will pick up your audio for you and both can record for hours on end.
Hope that helps.
Dave
Dictate
Hi Dave
I have a Mac OS-X v. 10.7.3 and I also have an Olympus Digital Voice recorder VN- 5500PC.
Can I use Dragon Dictate for Mac with this combination?
My apologies if the answer is in your blog but I am not very computer literate and got a bit lost in the discussion there.
Thanks
Garry
Hello Garry
Thank you for your comment. Yes you could use the VN-5500PC with Dragon Dictate 3, it is not so much the recorder you use (although high quality audio does help) it is more the audio format that can be taken by Dragon.
From memory the VN series record in WMA and MP3. Neither of these are compatible with Dragon but MP3 can easily be converted to .AIF which is Dragon compatible. You can use iTunes to do the conversion or any one of many software converters out there.
The key to great quality voice to text from a recording is good quality audio, clean and clear with no background noise.
Also please bear in mind, Dragon will only transcribe your trained voice. You can not record an interview or lecture on your recorder and expect Dragon to convert that to voice to text. Only single speaker trained audio.
I hope that helps.
Dave
Dictate Australia
Thanks Dave. Much appreciated. Garry