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

Olympus Imaging yesterday revised the price on a number of their hugely popular digital notetakers (used mainly for voice notes, interviews, meetings, conferences, lectures etc.) in a downward direction. Last year we had a flood of downward price movements after the middle man, Nationwide Dictating, was removed and Olympus Imaging took over Australian distribution of the voice products. This downward trend seems to be continuing with Olympus in Australia making their voice recorders even more competitive and surely sending dread through most of their competitors who continue to struggle to get close to Olympus.

With Olympus though it is not just price reductions for the sake of it. They are busy, we continually see new models churn out of their factories so innovation continues while at the same time making the recorders much more affordable. Students in particular will be happy with this round as some of the budget recorders have been reduced. Here are the new Australian RRPs for the models affected (all prices stated include GST):

• Olympus DP-20 down to $59 from $69
• Olympus VN-8500PC down to $79 from $99
• Olympus VN-8600PC down to $99 from $129
• Olympus WS-650S down to $139 from $169
• Olympus WS-750M down to $169 from $229
• Olympus WS-760M down to $199 from $269
• Olympus DM-5 down to $499 from $599

Left out of the price cuts are the popular DM-450 and DM-550 meeting/interview recorders and the LS-10 and LS-11 PCM music recorders.

So why the price cuts? One can only speculate and speculate we shall !! I would say Olympus want to continue to put pressure on the other players in the digital voice market. These include Philips who sit at number 2 in Australia and to a smaller extent Sony who seem to merely play at the voice recorder game and trade off their brand name rather than their cutting edge technology and local Australian support. We may see a revamp of the WS series models later this year and we may also get to see the DM-3 put in an appearance down under.

All RRP price changes effective from 8th February and always buy from an official Olympus Australia partner.

On a budget, short of cash, funds a bit low, boss won’t spend big on technology? Then do Philips and Olympus Voice have a cheap digital voice recorder for you.

The range of digital voice recorders on offer from the two big boys, Olympus & Philips, can be a little bewildering to the average person. With Olympus alone having a range of around fifteen digital voice recording devices starting at the AU$99 (VN-8500PC) and going all the way up to AU$945 (DM-5000iD) the consumer can be forgiven for being a little overwhelmed by the choice.

At the bottom of the pile, in a nice way, are the cheap budget digital voice recorders (note takers) which range from AU$99 to AU$129. These are the most basic of voice recorders but will get you by if you are pinching pennies or do not require all the features and functions that some of the more mainstream recorders provide. Your typical lower end digital voice recorder still however picks up and records pretty good audio. They would not be recommended for important board meetings, focus groups and even sound bites if you are a journalist. But if you are looking to record informal chats, your strumming on a guitar, family oral history recordings and at a push lectures and the like, then these digital recorders will be of interest to you.

What You Get:

• Simple, easy to use recording
• Mac & Windows compatible recorders
• .MP3 or .WMA (Windows Media Audio) Recording
• Digital note taking

What You Don’t Get:

• A digital dictaphone
• High quality, high bit rate stereo recording
• Background noise filtering
• Mic Level adjustment
• PCM Recording
• Mic adjustment – Wide/Narrow/Zoom
• Software for editing, adding notes, sending etc
• Large amounts of memory for storage
• This list would go on and on

So lets take a look at what Olympus and Philips have to offer in their budget range, both have two recorders…

Philips Digital Voice Tracer LFH0612 & LFH0632

From Philips there is the Digital Voice Tracer, DVT for short, models LFH0612 and LFH0632. You would be hard pushed to spot the difference between these two recorders other than the obvious colour. Both have 1Gb of memory, 3 recording modes (HQ, SP, SLP) and both record .mp3 audio files. The only difference we can find is that the LFH0632 has a voice volume indicator whereas the LFH0612 does not. Both units last around 15-20 hours of recording off the 2x AAA batteries.

Olympus VN-8500PC & VN-8600PC

From Olympus we have the VN-8500PC and the VN-8600PC. These little beauties you can tell the difference between on the spec sheet, although interestingly not to look at (unless you look closely and you will see that the VN-8500PC has a narrower speaker grill than the VN-8600PC). The key differences between these two are; VN-8500PC only records in .WMA (can be painful on a Mac) whereas the VN-8600PC records in your choice of .WMA or .MP3. VN-8500PC only has 1Gb of memory whereas the VN-8600PC doubles up with 2Gb of memory giving you longer maximum recording times. Olympus claim to get 51 hours of usage out of the 2x AAA batteries.

Most who buy these recorders would be hard pressed to find much difference between them, alot would be swayed by brand loyalty. Are you a Philips person or an Olympus person?

Want a good quality digital voice recorder for a budget price? Check out our new Dictate Australia eBay Store where we will be listing our ex-demo, surplus stock and discontinued voice recorders and accessories. Here in the office we have quite a few recorders that have only been used for evaluation and testing purposes and are as good as new, we will be listing these in the coming weeks. Digital voice recorders that have been discontinued which we still have in stock, will be listed at bargain prices.

To kick things off though we have listed a brand new Philips Digital Pocket Memo (DPM) 9600 digital dictaphone at a bargain starting price of just $590 incl. GST well below the RRP of $995 incl. GST. This unit comes with the standard Philips Australia 1 year warranty which can be upgraded for free to a Philips 2 year warranty by registering the purchase through the Philips Voice Australia website.

Philips Dictation in Australia have just updated their website to allow online registering of certain Philips recorders giving the end user an extra year of warranty for free.  All Philips voice equipment comes with a 1 year warranty as standard, by registering your purchase that will be extended by Philips to two years, so well worth doing for an extra five minutes of your time.

The warranty upgrade only applies to the Digital Pocket Memo recorders, the 955 Conference Kit, SpeechMikes and all other dictation equipment except the Digital Voice Tracers. The warranty upgrade doesn’t just start from now, if you have bought any of the above covered products in 2010 it can be registered for the free warranty upgrade.

Click here to register your Philips dictation product for two years warranty.

In a recent press release from Philips Dictation Australia yet another innovative product has been added to their product line. This one though is a little different to the norm, this really is something different and something that I am sure will be very popular is the LFH2370 Philips Media Player Typing Set.

The innovation with this product is the clever thumb controller that sits under your keyboard which allows the control of audio playback through Windows Media Player 11, iTunes and WinAmp on Windows machines and iTunes and QuickTime on a Mac. Previously people typing notes from audio played back through media player type software had to constantly switch from their word processor to stop/start/rewind audio adding a huge amount of time to the transcription process. With this little device it will make typing notes from audio a much easier, less time consuming experience.

Using the two buttons on the USB thumb control the audio can be controlled in the following ways:

• Playback : To start continuous playback, press and release the right key. The status LED glows green during playback.
• Pause : Press the right key again to pause audio playback.
• Fast Forward : Press and hold the right key during playback. When “forwarding” reaches the desired position release the key.
• Fast Rewind : Press and hold the left key while playback is paused. When rewinding reaches the desired position release the key.
• Backspace : Double click the left key to backspace the audio by three seconds.

The media player typing set LFH2370 comes with the USB thumb control, stereo headset and Philips Media Player control software and is RRP $200.00 incl. GST.

The media payer typing set is also available as part of the Philips Writers Set, known as LFH087 which comprises the media player typing set and Philips Digital Voice Tracer 682 digital voice recorder.

So, this year has been a big one for Olympus voice with a revamp of all their digital recorder range. Not content with being left behind Philips had a go back in April when they rolled out, finally, Mac compatible note takers with the DVT (Digital Voice Tracer) range comprising of the 660/860/880 models. This week Philips have done a rejig in this range and discontinued the young 660/860/880 recorders and replaced them with new model numbers although essentially they are the previous recorders upgraded. Philips have also added some innovative voice recorder packages, like a set aimed at reporters and a set aimed at writers who might want to attempt their own transcription.

So what has been discontinued and what are their replacement models:

• Philips DVT LFH0660 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0662 (2GB – RRP AU$189)
• Philips DVT LFH0860 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0862 (4GB – RRP AU$249)
• Philips DVT LFH0880 discontinued, replaced by DVT LFH0882 (4GB – RRP AU$279)
• Philips DVR DragonNaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition LFH-660/10 discontinued, replaced by LFH0667 (RRP AU$259)

A common change across the range is an increase in memory, that makes sense with solid state memory continuing to grow in size and drop in price. Also added to all recorders are a visual record level indicator and the USB connection, as well as powering the unit, will now also charge a rechargeable battery.

Other notable changes include uncompressed PCM recording now available on the LFH0662. High Sensitivity mic added to the LFH0862 and LFH0882 with the new “Zoom” function.

As mentioned another innovative thing Philips have done is create some Digital Voice Tracer combination packs, new packs are:

• LFH0868 (RRP AU$279) – 862 Digital Voice Tracer with docking station.
• LFH0888 (RRP AU$339) – 882 Digital Voice Tracer with docking station.
• LFH0867 (RRP AU$369) – Writers Set. 862 Digital Voice Tracer with the media player USB hand control (LFH2370/00)  which allows audio control with yours thumbs.
• LFH0885 (RRP AU$369) – Reporters Set. 882 Digital Voice Tracer with stereo lapel mic.
• LFH0895 (RRP AU$749) – Compact Meeting Recorder. I like this one, 882 Digital Voice Tracer with two of the best looking and good quality boundary mics available.

Expect to see these new models appearing around Australia from October.

## UPDATE 2011 ## This review was initially for the LFH0660/10 – this has been replaced in Australia in 2010 by the new model LFH0617/00. The software is the same, the recorder included in the pack is different. The Dragon NaturallySpeaking DVR (Digital Voice Recorder) Edition now contains the LFH0612 Philips digital voice tracer. The below review is still relevant, the software is setup and trained the same way with the new pack.

Released mid 2009 in Australia in a joint venture between Philips Dictation and Nuance was the Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition (LFH0660/10) at an incredibly cheap price of RRP AU$259.00 incl. GST. At that price it certainly makes you sit up and pay attention, after all the package contains Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 and a very competent Philips Digital VoiceTracer 660.

Not much to say about the Philips DVT 660, a great little recorder, perfect for single speaker audio. The 660 records in MP3 format and like all recorders has multiple recording modes (tip: always use the highest quality recording mode, SHQ on the DVT 660). This is a note taker not a dictaphone so you are not able to rewind/review your audio just simply record and stop, although you can pause during recordings. The recorder has 1Gb of in-built flash memory, can be powered by two AAA batteries or by USB and can record on the highest quality audio setting for 17.5 hours.Included in the box is version 10 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows only) which uses the latest Dragon speech recognition engine, this is a drastically cut down version of the software so does not include features that you would see in the Standard or Preferred edition, hence the cut down price. The recognition engine though is the same so no skimping on the quality of the speech recognition.

The aim of the  Digital Voice Recorder Edition is to allow people to dictate into their digital voice recorder for later transcription by the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. The user does not need be in the office and in front of their computer while dictating, therefore gives them the freedom to record dictation whenever and wherever they want, which of course is very convenient. Because the software is a cut down version you can not directly talk to the software using a headset and mic as you can with the Standard or Preferred versions, the software will only transcribe audio from a digital recording. Now this does not have to be a recording made on the 660, any recording in the audio format .mp3, .wav or .dss can be used. The software can be configured for multiple user profiles (or speakers) so if you have a number of people in the office all with a digital voice recorder that records in a compatible audio format they could all use one installed copy of the software, once they have trained their profile to their voice.

Installation of the software is quick and easy and you are guided through each step of the install with clear and precise instructions, normal with any Dragon NaturallySpeaking install. When installation is complete you are presented with a selection of eight transcripts, any one of which you are required to read for your initial voice training. To do this read your preferred transcript and record your voice using the Philips VoiceTracer 660. This must be recorded into one single digital audio file and not split over multiple files. You have the option to display the transcripts on the screen or print them.

The selection of eight voice training transcripts to read are:

• 3001 – The Final Odyssey (Harder Reading – Science Fiction)
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Reading for Teens – Fantasy)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Reading for Teens – Adventure)
• Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (Reading for Teens – Adventure)
• Dave Barry in Cyberspace (Medium Reading – Humour)
• Dogberts Top Secret Management Handbook (Harder Reading – Humour)
• Success is a Journey (Medium Reading – Business Philosophy)
• The Captain of Battery Park (Reading for Teens – Adventure)

I suggest you print one then take yourself away somewhere comfortable to sit and read the transcript while recording your voice with the digital voice recorder.

Tips when recording your first voice training transcript:

• Speak in your normal voice but make sure your speak clearly.
• Speak at your normal speech rate, do not rush or speak too slowly.
• Make sure the digital voice recorder is set to SHQ recording mode.
• Take some time to understand how the voice recorder works before you begin. You can pause during the recording of reading the transcript, work out how to do this before your start.
• Record the audio somewhere quiet, not at a cafe or in a busy office with phones ringing and people talking around you.
• Have a glass of water handy and take some sips if and when your pause recording, helps keep your audio clear.
• Do not dictate punctuation.

I was interrupted a couple of times in my office while recording my voice training transcript hence the tip for learning how to pause the recording. Training the software to recognise your voice and more importantly the way you speak is key to the success of this software and ultimatly your user experience with it. Be warned the selection of transcripts can take some time. For my voice training I selected “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” which took just over twenty minutes to record (with a couple of interruptions).

Once you have completed the recording of your voice training audio connect the digital voice recorder to your PC via USB. Then select the location of the audio file which by default is in Folder A on the voice recorder unless your specifically selected another folder prior to recording. By default the software looks for a file called in.wav, simply browse to the voice recorder and select the recording you just made:

Dragon NaturallySpeaking will transfer a copy of the audio from the recorder to a temporary folder on your PC where it will verify the audio. Verification checks the audio quality and clarity of your recording as well as the signal to noise ratio. If all is good Dragon NaturallySpeaking will identify which one of the eight transcripts you chose to read, as you can see from the image below “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was identified, click next and the real work begins. Dragon will process your audio against the transcript and work out how you speak and how you sound.

Verification of the audio can take up to an hour, for me it only took around 20 minutes until the process was complete. Nearly finished, hang in there…. Finally you have the option of having Dragon NaturallySpeaking analyse your writing style, the software can look at your email (Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express or Lotus Notes) and your documents (Microsoft Word, Text and Rich Text files) and adapt to your writing style. This helps Dragon NaturallySpeaking produce documents in your style of writing, this part can be skipped.

That completes the voice training and initial setup for Dragon NaturallySpeaking Digital Voice Recorder Edition. It is recommended that when you have time in the future you work your way through the other seven voice training transcripts, that helps Dragon fully analyse the way you speak and enunciate your words.

You are now free to record dictation to your Philips DVT 660 and request Dragon to transcribe the audio for you. You will need to include punctuation as you dictate, “new paragraph”, “new line”, “full stop” and so on otherwise your transcript will be one long sentence in one long paragraph. I found this out when I decided to get Dragon to transcribe my voice training transcript, below is a screen shot of Dragon NaturallySpeaking in action transcribing my training dictation:

You will still need to proof your transcribed audio however the whole exercise will still be alot quicker than typing the audio yourself.

Remember, this software only works for one person dictation. You can not record an interview or meeting and have Dragon transcribe it for you. You should not even attempt this as other voices will change your voice profile and affect the accuracy of transcription. For multi speaker audio you need your own on-site transcriptionist or outsource your digital audio to Australia’s leading online transcription service – The Transcription People.

So to sum up, I was actually very impressed by the ease of use of the software and the transcription accuracy. I am very used to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred using a headset and mic so just recording into a voice recorder put me a little out of my comfort zone but for people who are used to talking into a voice recorder they will be very comfortable with the whole process. There is minimal effort to proof your completed transcription and the speed of transcription will easily beat the fastest typist.

Pros:

• Cost effective, very cheap for excellent software and a quality voice recorder.
• Easy to use software and digital voice recorder.
• Fast, accurate transcription for single speaker dictation.
• Software can have multiple user profiles so anyone with a voice recorder can have their dictation transcribed.

Cons:

• Document has to be proofed post transcription and not in real time as with Standard or Preferred Editions.
• Voice training audio can take up to twenty minutes to record.

Primarily because of key reason 1 above this makes it very popular with the army of Virtual Assistants (VAs) around the world who like to include transcription in their portfolio of services offered. Sure on its own Scribe works really well and for some, especially those with no transcription experience, having no footpedal is not a big deal. But for the serious transcriptionist or for people converting from analogue transcription kits (ahh those trusty Pearlcorders), a good reliable foot pedal is a must.

If you are an Express Scribe user on Apple Mac then i’m afraid the following information is not for you. The Philips USB foot controls are only compatible with the Windows version of Express Scribe.

This is where the Philips USB transcription foot controls come in. Having recently gone through a make over they have been transformed from the older ugly square brick look of foot pedal (like the LFH6212 to the left) into a more ergonomic, sleek modern look with a couple of layout options in the Philips 2310 (LFH2310/00) and Philips 2320 (LFH2320/00) models. 

Both the Philips 2310 and 2320 come with three foot pedals. The middle pedal is long, thin and along the top on the 2310 model whereas the 2320′s middle pedal takes up a larger middle area. The pedals are supplied with a Philips driver disk however this is not required, they are pure plug and play pedals and can be setup in around one minute. 

Once your USB foot pedal has been connected and recognised by your computer fire up Express Scribe and find your way to the Control tab inside Playback Settings. Tick the ‘Use foot pedal playback control‘ and leave the default Port and Number of pedals settings as ‘GamePort 1 or USBGame 1‘ and ‘3-Pedals‘.

With Express Scribe you can configure any pedal combination. Lets say you like the left pedal to be ‘play’, the right pedal to be ‘rewind’ and the middle pedal to be ‘forward’, easy. Simply click on the ‘Foot Pedal Control Setup Wizard‘ and you are asked which pedal you prefer for each audio function, rewind/play/forward. Finally the tick box ‘Quick tap on play pedal locks play on‘ lets you decide if you want to just tap the play pedal to start audio playback or if you prefer to hold the pedal down for audio playback. Using the combination of Express Scribe and the Philips USB Foot Controls you have full, easy configuration of your foot pedal set up.

Sure, the price of the Philips pedals (RRP AU$179) are quite a bit more than the pedals sold by NCH via the AltoEdge website like the VEC, but in my opinion you do get what you pay for. Coming from Philips who is a big player in the digital dictation and transcription world, their USB foot pedal is solid and responsive. As they come from Philips Dictation Australia they are also covered by an Australian warranty.

Our sister company, The Transcription People use and recommend the Philips 2310 and 2320 USB foot controls for transcription with Express Scribe.

For more information about the Philips USB transcription foot controls please visit the Dictate Australia website.

The price rise has been attributed to a slide in the Aussie dollar against the Euro, Philips Dictation’s head office is in Vienna, Austria.

Philips Digital Voice Tracer Range

So what are the new Australian dollar RRP’s including GST for the DVTs:

Philips DVT 600 (LFH0600/00) – $110 was $88 up 25%

Philips DVT 620 (LFH0620/00) – $149 was $119 up 25.2%

Philips DVT 660 (LFH0660/00) – $189 was $149 up 26.8%

Philips DVT 660 (**LFH0660/10) – $259 was $209 up 23.9%

Philips DVT 860 (LFH0860/00) – $239 was $189 up 26.4%

Philips DVT 880 (LFH0880/00) – $279 was $220 up 26.8%

Back in February 2009 Olympus Australia increased all their pricing across the board which had quite an impact. For February and March our Olympus sales took a slide. It didn’t help that Philips were ramping up with their new DVT models which have been selling very well this year, thanks really to their keen pricing, great features and (I may have mentioned this before several times) Mac compatibility. I wait to see how the price changes effect the Philips DVT sales.

** The DVT 660 (LFH0660/10) is the Philips DVT 660 and Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 Voice Recorder Edition bundle.

Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 DVR Edition - LFH0660/10

It is fantastic to see some more innovation from Philips, taking the initiative to work globally with Nuance, the Dragon NaturallySpeaking people to provide an affordable package for people looking to get into the voice recognition. We have seen huge growth in the voice recognition software, both Mac and Windows over the past year as professionals, students, authors etc give up on the need to type for hours. Most people talk around the 120 words per minute mark, way faster than most can type so why not let your computer do it for you.

The first thing that hit me about this package is its amazingly low price, RRP of $209 incl. GST. Hang on, I thought, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred Edition which is the first of the Dragon product line which takes audio from a digital voice recorder is waaaaay more expensive than that (currently RRP $349 incl GST) without a digital voice recorder so how do they do it for the price?  The catch, it is a considerably cut down version of NaturallySpeaking, especially when compared to the Preferred version.

Here is the product comparison matrix, apologies for the quality it came from the dealer handout I will create a nicer easier to read version shortly:

That said, it is enough to get you into the product and lets you sniff around at what this incredible software can do. If you regularly dictate single speaker reports or documents or even painstakingly type them yourself this bundle might be worth a punt. For the price you are not really going to lose, even if you don’t get on with the software you still end up with a pretty descent digital notetaker in the Philips digital voice tracer 660.

From what I can see in the specs you will not be able to dictate real time into Dragon NaturallySpeaking using a microphone, you will only be able to do deferred transcription using the audio recorded on the DVT 660.

We can expect to see these appearing in Australia from the end April, so now. Dictate Australia will be stocking the bundle from the second week in May.

Update – May 2009 – Philips Dragon NaturallySpeaking Voice Recorder Edition Available NOW from Dictate Australia – click here.

The firmware update is very simple. Basically you USB connect your DVT to your PC or Mac and download the .bin firmware file to the recorders root directory. Once it is there select the firmware upgrade through the recorders menu system and Bob’s your uncle, DVT updated with the latest firmware.

Full instructions and the latest firmware release notes are on the Software Downloads page for each DVT on the Philips Dictation Australia website.

Philips DVT Digital Voice Tracers are Windows, Mac & Linux Compatible

In the box I am impressed by the number of goodies. Along with the recorder and the mandatory instruction manual in 752 languages comes a neck strap (handy), batteries so you are ready to go (essential), USB connecting cable (long so no messing around the back of your PC or notebook), stereo headset (nice touch) and a very nice stereo lapel mic, usually an optional extra for most voice recorder manufacturers.

Philips Digital Voice Tracer - DVT - 880 - LFH0880

The recorder itself is lightweight with the batteries in and about the size of a Nokia chocolate bar mobile phone. There is a sticker right over the built in speaker on the front of the unit which is stuck with that special glue, you know the kind that leaves half the sticker attached as you peel it off. Tad annoying.

Powering up the recorder the display is backlight blue so looks good but the display is big and clear. Flicking through the menus isn’t as intuitive as it could be and some initial manual referencing is required to work out things like changing the recording mode and mic sensitivity.

USB plug and play is a breeze on Winows, Mac and also Linux, the device is simply a USB drive so audio is easily accessed via the voice folders where they are stored.

This is recorder has a PCM mode for better than CD quality recording. In our office testing we did find the audio pickup at close range to be excellent like all recorders however it did seem to struggle a little with voices at the end of a large boardroom table. We did the same distance test with an Olympus WS-210S and the picked up clearer audio from a distance that the 880.

Some will like the ability to play music (mp3 and wma) on the recorder and to listen to the radio. I still find this a bit of a gimic in a voice recorder so we didn’t test these functions although I am sure it playes back music as well as any other USB music player. The ability to record FM radio will also appeal to some.

Summing up, the 880 is a good, cheap voice recorder for close range meetings (max 4 or 5 people) and for single speakers. It is very easy to get the audio off of the recorder no matter what platform you use.

Pros:

• Well priced entry level PCM recorder.
• Easy to use.
• Fast easy transfer of files on all platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux.
• Can be USB powered conserving battery life.
• Firmware is user upgradeable giving the end user access to bug fixes and improvements as they are released from Philips.

Cons:

• Poor audio pickup around larger number of speakers, i.e. large boardroom table.
• Navigating the menus could be simpler.

Some things we instantly like about this new range:

• No more software to install, plug and play USB only which is the way it should be.
• Finally, Mac compatible
• PCM recording introduced in the 880 model at a bargain price
• Value for money, these are cheap recorders for the quality you get

Click for the Digital Voice Tracers on the Philips Dictation Australia website.

The digital voice recorder world in Australia has long been dominated by Olympus Voice and closely shadowed by Philips Dictation with the likes of Sony and Panasonic tagging along for the ride. Currently there is a resurgence in sales of digital voice recorders and dictaphones as die hard analogue users find they can no longer replace their antiquated tape recorders with something that whirs and clicks and the younger generation are finding out that they no longer need to stay awake during lectures, they can just record it for later reference.

We are also seeing digital voice recorders appearing in the non traditional work place environments. We recently sent a trial recorder over to the rescue crew at Perth airport where they plan to have recorders around the neck of rescuers during an emergency so they can analyse what happens during a rescue situation. Financial advisers use them to record client adviser meetings to cover themselves for compliance and for a record of what was actually recommended to clients in case a review needs to be made some years down the track. Lecturers place them on the lecturn and make the audio available via websites and podcasts to people who missed or couldn’t make their lecture. There is a wide and varied reason for using a digital voice recorder or dictaphone in your life or business.

Voice recognition has also advanced in recent years. Now we have speech recognition software for Windows (Dragon NaturallySpeaking) and also for Mac (MacSpeech Dictate). They both share the same highly successful Dragon voice recognition engine from Nuance whose accuracy is astounding. Again appealing to a wide and varied audience from the home student talking their essays, professionals dictating letters, notes and emails and also the physically disabled who can now control their entire PC using the power of voice.

In this blog we plan to bring you the latest news from the digital voice world, reviews and demos of products and handy hints and tips to help you get the most out of whatever digital voice product you use.