iDictate – Digital Voice Blog

NCH Software recently outed a new release of the worlds most popular free transcription software for Windows, Express Scribe, which is finally compatible with DSS Pro audio file formats, better known as .ds2 files. Not only that but NCH claims that Express Scribe is compatible with both Phillips DSS Pro and Olympus DSS Pro audio files (yes there is a difference even though DSS Pro is supposed to be a standard).

From Olympus the DSS Pro (.ds2) audio files are created on their Pro range of digital dictaphones (DS-5000, DS-3400 and DS-2400) and has caused some issues for many small outsource transcription businesses who were aggrieved to actually spend money and buy the appropriate software to either play or convert these audio files to load into pre version 5.30 Express Scribe. How to convert .ds2 audio files to play in Express Scribe has been covered in an earlier blog post of ours (one of our most popular posts) – click here

Great move by NCH although it did take some time to get there, the rejoicing from the transcription world will be huge. Easily one of the best if not the best transcription software out there, Express Scribe continues to dominate the transcription world and rightly so. Come on NCH, let us pay for this software

As yet .ds2 can only be played by Express Scribe on Windows. The Mac version (as of version 5.32) remains without .ds2 support.

Click here to keep an eye on Express Scribe versions – both Mac and Windows

Click here to download a sample Olympus .ds2 audio file to test your Express Scribe

If you check in on our blog often you would have noticed us drooling of the amazing Olympus LS-20M a few months back, in case you missed it here is the link – please note the massive close up picture of the LS-20M just to ram home how cool this little device is.

Well in the latest pricing released to all Olympus Australia resellers today you could almost hear the shouts of “yippee” across the country as we rubbed our eyes in disbelief, the LS-20M is now available in Australia (or will be in the next week or two).

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We get alot of hits on our blog from all over the world. Many hits are people searching for answers to specific questions. So we thought we would start a post and update as we go with questions we see pop up from day to day. This post will get longer over time so make good use of your browsers search function (here’s a tip, click Ctrl-f):

Do you have a question you would like answered? Leave a comment and we may include it in the list.

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The DM series recorders in Australia are now manned by the Olympus DM-3 and the Olympus DM-5 digital voice recorders since the launch of the DM3 in early July 2011. To look at them you would be hard pressed to tell the difference other than the Olympus DM3 is silver and the Olympus DM5 is black.

So what is the difference between the two? Here is a summary:

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A new firmware update is available for the Olympus DM-3 and DM-5 digital voice/meeting/interview recorders, version 1.20

New in this firmware release is:

1. Support the functions of USB microphone or Speaker.
2. Supports the function to register the voice keywords for the schedule.
3. Supports the function to register the voice memos for the schedule.
4. Supports the playback for audio files from the schedule list display.
5. Improve the volume setting when the text file is spoken out.
6. Supports to directly connect the device to CD drive and import DAISY contents from CD (Only for DM-5)

Both the Olympus DM-3 and DM-5 can be updated on either a Windows or a Mac, to find out how please review our earlier blog post by clicking the link below:

How to firmware update your Olympus DM-3 / DM-5 on Windows or Mac

The latest Olympus digital voice recorders come with the ability to update their firmware as and when Olympus release new updates. The firmware is essentially the operating system that runs your digital voice recorder so it is a good idea to always stay up-to-date with any new firmware releases, much as you do with your Mac when new OS X operating system releases are made and on Windows with security patches and fixes. Firmware updates will improve the usability of your recorder, fix any minor bugs and often add more features or improve usability.

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This Friday (24th June, 2011) we will see the sad demise of the superb Olympus DM-450 and DM-550 digital voice recorders in Australia, that’s the bad news (ahhhhhhh). But the good news, they will be replaced by the Olympus DM-3 (hooray !!) – cheer along with me if it makes you feel better.

This will be a day of mixed emotions for me, as I have stated before in my ramblings the DM-450 was easily my favourite recorders ever. Ease of use, audio quality, speed of startup, feature packed and of course a great looking recorder made this an awesome recorder, sadly replaced along with the DM-550 (its bigger, beefier, PCM brother) by the DM-3. The DM-3 will join the already available DM-5 as the sole representatives of the DM range in Australia.

We hope to get our first DM-3 early next week and will follow that up with some testing and a full blog review and some up close pictures for your viewing and reading pleasure.

So long DM-450, my friend !

We can’t wait for this little beauty to make it to Australia, it’s the Olympus LS-20M and as a first for Olympus combines a HD video camera with PCM audio recording.

That’s a huge picture to make a huge statement, which is exactly what this lovely device is set to do …

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