In my last blog post I talked about some new innovative technology that Olympus have built into to their new range of WS series digital voice recorders which was announced in early January 2012 and on display on the Olympus stand at CES 2012 in San Francisco.

In this post we will look a little closer at the new three digital voice recorders, see how they are different from the models they will replace (WS-650S/WS-750M/WS-760M) and speculate on when we might see these in Australia. Gone finally is the trailing letter on the model of the recorders that we have seen for so many years where S used to denote Stereo and M was for music, now simply the series, WS, and the model number.

New Look

As is usual with a product range revamp we tend to see the same things improve. Firstly we have a new more modern look, the rounded edges, new look grills over the improved microphones. Olympus have done some work with the mics and are high sensitivity low noise, directional mics with a  high signal-to-noise ratio which ensures clear crisp and pure recording. We also see enlarged stop and record buttons for ease of use, not much of a big deal you may think but these recorders are really quite small so anything that helps locate the buttons you need quickly adds to the use experience.

PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) – Uncompressed WAV

Surprisingly we still don’t see PCM recording across the entire WS range, with only the WS-812 and WS-813 affording that luxury which for those of you not aware PCM recordings are equal to CD quality recordings (using the 44.1k/16bit PCM mode to uncompressed WAV). Don’t be swayed, the high quality MP3 and WMA recording modes on all three are still stunningly clear and you would need the hearing of a bat to tell the difference.

MicroSD Slot

Nice to see a microSD slot on each recorder allowing the already large in-built memory to be expanded. Remember these little devices also double as portable storage so not only can you record and keep your audio on them but any digital file – much like a memory stick.

Plug And Play – No Software Required – Mac Compatible

This is nothing new, for a fair few years now Olympus have been Mac compatible and for ease of use you require no software to access the audio, or any other files, you store on your WS series recorder. Simply walk up to any computer, Mac or PC, USB connect and the stored data is available. The USB connector is built into the recorder and slides out from the bottom when needed from just below the speaker grill. All three recorders can also double as an MP3 music player, pop in the supplied earbuds or your own headphones and listen to your music.

Only On The WS-812 and WS-813 …

The WS-811 has been by-passed with some features that will be key to a few like manual recording levels, all three recorders also have auto record levels. Voice playback feature which skips the silent parts of your recording during playback and only plays the recorded voices. Voice balancer technology boosts quieter voices and reduces loud voices to attempt a level range of spoken audio volume. A calendar search function has also been introduced to help you find audio on the a little easier (if you know the date they were recorded). Files can be moved between folders on the device.

When Will They Be Available In Australia?

Yes we are keen to get ahold of these little beauties too, I for one am looking forward to playing with the new voice playback and voice balancer features and putting them through some tests ready for a review. The rumour on the street is that the new WS series recorders will be available in Australia towards the end of March. No confirmation on price in AU (prices in Europe have been published) but I would expect them to come in around the same price as the current WS series range if not a little cheaper, just to put a bit more pressure on the competition.

January is not only the time of year where you and I make resolutions doomed to fail in the first week but more importantly the time of the year where the worlds gadget companies and technology press converge at CES to show the world their latest and greatest for the future and the upcoming year. Olympus is just another name in the crowd at CES showcasing new digital voice recorders and some interesting additions to the feature set of a digital voice recorder.

Voice Changer

I know what you are thinking, this is a fun feature that can change your voice to that of a Dalek, chipmunk or perhaps how you sound after sucking helium. Unfortunatly Olympus are far too serious a company for that feature, it is more focussed around the ability to change the pitch of a recorded voice during playback on the digital voice recorder. Tweaking the pitch of a voice can help make it clearer to hear and therefore understand.

Voice Playback

This is great little feature, on playback of your recorded audio only the voice segments are played back. Silences between conversations are skipped helping you concentrate on what was said rather than awkard or long pauses between the conversation. This will vastly speed up recapping your audio and will be especially noticeable on longer recordings of interviews, meetings or your personal digital audio notes or ramblings.

Voice Balancer

Something that has plagued transcriptionists for years is now about to get much much better. With voice balancer louder recorded voices are toned down whereas as quieter voices are toned up, hence balancing the voices to a more manageable and consistent audio level.

All of the above features were announced by Olympus in a press release at the beginning of January 2012 and will be found in two (WS-812 and WS-813, not WS-811) of the three new WS series recorders released in the US and show cased at CES 2012. More on the new WS series in a separate blog coming soon.

Olympus voice are an innovative bunch, they don’t tend to sit on their hands doing not a lot, they keep refining and evolving their range of digital voice recorders. It is not uncommon to see digital voice recorder models come and go in the space of a single year. As such we often find customers coming back after years of use to replace their digital note taker or dictaphone only to find that their old model voice recorder has been replaced by a newer model.

In an attempt to make finding the current equivalent voice recorder to replace your old trusty Olympus digital voice recorder a little easier I have compiled a list of old models and their latest equivalents. This list covers PCM music recorders, interview/meeting/focus group recorders, budget recorders, the Pro range of digital dictaphones and finally Olympus digital transcription kits.

Olympus WS Series Digital Note Takers

• Olympus WS-100 replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-110S replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-200S replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-210S replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-300M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-310M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-311M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-320M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-321M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-331M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-450S replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-550M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M
• Olympus WS-560M replaced by Olympus WS-650S, WS-750M or WS-760M

Olympus VN Series Basic Digital Notetakers

• Olympus VN-2100PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-3100PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-3500PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-5500PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC
• Olympus VN-6800PC discontinued, equivalent Olympus VN-8500PC or VN-8600PC

Olympus DM Series Digital Meeting Recorders

• Olympus DM-450 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DM-550 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-5

Olympus DS Series Digital Meeting Recorders

• Olympus DS-30 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-40 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-50 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-55 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3
• Olympus DS-65 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DM-3

Olympus DS Series Digital Dictaphones

• Olympus DS-2200 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-2400
• Olympus DS-2300 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-2400
• Olympus DS-3300 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-3400
• Olympus DS-4000 discontinued, equivalent Olympus DS-5000 or DS-5000iD

Olympus LS Series Digital PCM Music Recorders

• Olympus LS-10 discontinued, equivalent Olympus LS-3
• Olympus LS-11 discontinued, equivalent Olympus LS-3

Olympus Digital Transcription Kits

• Olympus AS-2300 discontinued, equivalent AS-2400
• Olympus AS-4000 discontinued, equivalent AS-5000

If your older model Olympus digital voice recorder is not on the list please leave a comment with the model number and I will add it.

The Dragon voice recognition products from Nuance – NaturallySpeaking for Windows & Dragon Dictate for Mac – are not just a useful aid for teachers and educators but are also fast becoming essential tools for learning in our schools and universities for students too. Allowing children to speak their thoughts and not be held back by the speed of their typing which lets creativity flow. Helping children with their spoken diction and instantly showing the correct spelling of words as they are spoken are a huge benefit. That coupled with the fact that students are comfortable using computers it makes sense for schools and universities to be looking at this speech recognition technology. In summary benefits of speech recognition technology for students and educators include:

• Improves core reading and writing skills for students of all abilities
• Helps students with language-based learning disabilities more easily express themselves in writing
• Provides accessibility for teachers and students with physical disabilities that hamper typing
• Bridges English Language Learners’ oral and  written communication skills
• Prepares students to use emerging interfaces in the 21st century workforce
• Enables teachers to prepare more detailed assessments of student work through dictation

This is where we, Dictate Australia, can help as certified Gold Nuance Australia resellers. We can supply site education licences for learning facilities across Australia. This not only opens you up to larger discounts on Nuance pricing but also makes your software asset management more manageable compared to buying odd licences ad hoc. The licensing of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows computers) and Dragon Dictate (for Macs) is slightly different for educational purposes than it is for commercial or government bulk licensing the differences being:

Commercial / Government – Dragon Site Licensing

• Dragon is licensed per VOICE profile, which allows a licensed user to install it on multiple machines, ie their work machine, a laptop, as well as their home machine. The EULA (End User LIcence Agreement) also allows a third party (ie secretary or personal assistant) to have it installed on their machine PURELY for use in transcription (relevant only for Premium & Pro Dragon NaturallySpeaking).

Educational – Dragon Site Licensing

• For Education users the site licence model is simpler, Dragon is licensed per machine. Each machine is free to have multiple users on that computer. If a teacher or educator requires Dragon for work and home use, they would therefore require TWO licenses.

For the purposes of this post we are focusing on the Nuance education site volume licence. Essentially there are five price points for each software licence depending on the number or licences you own, obviously the more licences purchases the cheaper the product becomes. An educational VLA (volume licence agreement) can be started with as little as five licences. The five price point levels kick in based on these number of licences:

• Level A 5-49
• Level B 50-199
• Level C 200-499
• Level D 500-1999
• Level E 2000+

Buying Dragon under a Volume Licence Agreement will give you a single Valsonic Analogue Headset/Mic with each licence purchased. These headsets are fine for basic use, we can work with you to provide higher quality Plantronics USB noise cancelling headsets/mics for Mac or Windows if required.

As an optional but highly recommended extra is a Maintenance & Support agreement. There is a one to one relationship, one licence requires one maintenance agreement, and will give you Nuance technical support and all updates, upgrades and service packs released during the term of the active one year maintenance agreement. Maintenance and support can be renewed yearly and costs 15% of the original licence cost and is the only ongoing costs associated with Nuance Dragon site licenses.

If you are considering voice recognition technology for your school, university or TAFE please give me a call to discuss (Dave Holmes 0403 968 672) or send me an email (dave@dictate.com.au). I can run through the associated costs and look at an initial pilot for you to evaluate the software.

More details on Dragon for Education including some sample applications using Dragon, testimonials and white papers on the Nuance Australia website – click here.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a little soirée this week at an intimate bar at Sydney’s trendy, soon to be engulfed by Barangaroo, King Street Wharf. The event was hosted by the happening team from BigHand Australia who are doing things in the legal and dictation world, not just here in Australia but around the world from their UK, US, Canada and Australia offices.

BigHand have developed a system to revolutionise dictation and transcription. With roots firmly planted in the medical and legal niche there really is no stopping BigHand from growing into other sectors. Essentially any business of any size which relies on dictation and transcription can utilise the BigHand software. Viewing some of the testimonials on their Australia website it is clear many are taking the leap as they transition from the technology of 20th century, analogue tapes, to the digital era of the 21st century. But the BigHand system is equally at home with those who have already embraced digital dictation as the dictation and transcription workflow system is just as comfy working with your firms existing fleet of Olympus or Philips pro dictation recorders and transcription kits.

Not content with revolutionising firms with tapes or empowering firms already digital the BigHand solution also encompasses the smart phone brigade with a dictation app for iPhone { }, Blackberry, Android and even Windows mobile. Leaving no excuse for anyone who dictates and is not in the office, just grab your phone launch the BigHand app and dictate until you can dictate no more. What raises BigHand’s head above the rest the ease of use and simplicity of their solution. I am still in the early stages of discovering just what it can do but from my trial in the Dictate Australia offices it has already sparked my interest. You now have simple options for your dictation, you can send it to your preferred typist, to your firms typing pool and the best bit, to Dragon for voice recognition; perfect for out of hours transcription of urgent notes or as a way to free up some WP resources. With Dragon you have the option to transcribe only or you can have Dragon transcribe and pass the completed document to your Word Processing team to simply proofread Dragon’s work, already a big time saver over tradition transcription. Your WP team can further improve the accuracy of your voice profile by applying selected proofed text back to your voice profile which increases the accuracy and essentially trains your profile for you. The more you train your profile the more accurate your documents the less proofing needs to be done the faster you get your transcript, magical.

From the testimonials I have read most firms are seeing a good to significant return on investment by switching to BigHand simply by smarter use of their WP resources, be they in one office, located around the country or across the globe. I plan to write more about BigHand, it’s movements in the Australian marketplace and the interesting stuff; the evolution, use and examples of the software and how it meshes with digital voice technology over the coming months. But for now, if you are in a law firm or involved with medical dictation you should be having a look at what BigHand have to offer. In Australian legal circles they already have an impressive stable of law partners boasting that 4 out of 5 of the top Australian law firms are using the BigHand system. Some of the law firms already in are:

• Arnold Bloch Leibler
• Blake Dawson
• Clayton Utz
• Crown Law QLD
• Deacons Hong Kong
• Dibbs Barker
• Duncan Basheer Hannon
• Finlaysons
• Freehills
• Gilbert + Tobin
• Hall & Wilcox
• HWL Ebsworth
• Mallesons Stephen Jaques
• MacDonnells Law
• Maurice Blackburn Cashman
• McCullough Robertson
• Meredith Connell
• Mills Oakley
• Minter Ellison
• Norman Waterhouse
• Russell Kennedy
• Simpson Grierson
• Sparke Helmore
• Swaab Legal
• WHK Western Victoria

You can follow BigHand on Twitter @TheBighandTweet

One of the social media tweaks added to Dragon Dictate, voice recognition for Mac, in its recent upgrade from version 2.0 to 2.5 was the ability to post status messages directly to Facebook and Twitter simply using a voice command. With so many of us using twitter these days it was an obvious add-in to make by Nuance. So just how easy is it to tweet using your voice?

Piece of cake, I just did my first voice tweet and like a new born baby I filmed it for the memories. It’s quick and easy. The steps are:

1. Say “Post to twitter“
2. A pop-up dialogue box appears, just talk your tweet.
3. When you are done say “Press tweet“

That is it. For those of you who can’t quite visualise it, here is the video.

Before you actually launch into tweeting you will need to configure your twitter account in the Dragon Dictate preferences. {Dictate -> Preferences => Sharing}

This feature is also available to Windows users who own Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 11.5 and up.

One of the most common searches that end up with visitors landing on my blog is people looking for a trial version of Dragon Dictate for the Mac. Good idea, it is quite a hefty purchase price for some software that most know little about and therefore the cost vs risk factor is high. A trial version would be a good lead into the software and would allow people to have a play, see how accurate it is and become more comfortable before committing to a purchase. Great idea but alas a free trial version is not available.

As a compromise Nuance have just released to the Mac App Store Dragon Express for a cut down, yet still significant price of $US49.99 (AU$51.99). This app is an excellent introduction into voice recognition on the Mac and is essentially a cut down version of Dragon Dictate 2.5 – Nuance’s flagship speech recognition product for the Mac.

So how does it work?

Similar to Dragon Dictate you will need to train your voice in Dragon Express, this creates your personal profile and allows the Dragon speech recognition engine to understand the way you speak. This task takes only two minutes and involves reading some pre-defined text so the app can listen to how you speak. (Note: if you decide to upgrade to Dragon Dictate your trained Dragon Express voice profile will not be compatible with Dragon Dictate, you will have to train a new voice profile, but hey only takes 5 minutes in Dragon Dictate). Nuance claim that the in-built mic in your Mac can be used but from years of experience a good quality noise cancelling USB headset and mic will give you better results, no support for the Dragon Microphone iPhone app . Already reading some of the App Store reviews there are alot of negative comments, most based around accuracy, I would be willing to bet a couple of dollars that is because of using the in built mic. Good quality speech recognition relies on good quality audio input with minimal or no background noise.

Dragon Express also differs from the fully fledged Dragon Dictate version in that you can only dictate into the Dragon Express window, here you will see your words transcribed into text. From the Dragon Express window you can then post or route the transcribed text to any active app – so for example into TextEdit, twitter, Facebook, Google+, email or a Word or Pages document.

If you are interested in giving speech recognition a try then this is an excellent and cost effective way to see what it is all about. Not quite a free trial but a good general overview of the Dragon speech recognition technology and the great work Nuance are doing in the Apple space. I would like to see a discount off Dragon Dictate 2.5 if you have Dragon Express installed but until Dragon Dictate appears in the Mac App Store this is a tricky one to manage and therefore isn’t yet available. If you have more questions on Dragon Express which I have not covered head over to the Nuance – Dragon Express FAQ.

Be warned, it’s a hefty download at 1.21Gb (Lion only – OS X 10.7) – virtually all of that download will be the dictionary that Dragon uses that holds words and context.

Have you tried Dragon Express? Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment.

Below is a video demo of Dragon Express for Mac in action from the “Ask The Dictator” series of YouTube video from Nuance. This gives you a good basic overview of Dragon Express in action, interesting on the post to twitter that the you can not dictate to click the OK button but still need to mouse click, which clearly shows the cut down nature of this software. I still think it is an excellent buy if you want to see how voice recognition works. At the time of posting this blog post there were only five comments on the YouTube video, most of them highly critical – I state again, using the in-built MacBook or iMac mic will not give highly accurate results, do yourself a favour and buy yourself a USB noise cancelling headset and mic before you try this software.

This makes me smile. I’m a Mac person so anyone who supports this platform automatically gets a big tick from me. This is one of the key reasons I am an Olympus reseller, Olympus have been Mac compatible for years and any company that has the foresight to be Mac compatible should give themselves a pat on the back. Just have a look around next time you are at the airport, at a conference or in a university lecture hall, all you see is a mass of glowing Apple logo. Step up NCH Software (I still go to call them NCH Swift Sound from the old days) who have featured regularly in my blog of late. Following on from their recent release of Express Scribe Pro for Windows comes Express Scribe Pro for Mac.

Following the same format as its Windows brother there will be both a free version (with limited audio formats supported) and a Pro version supporting just about every popular audio and video formats.

Express Scribe FREE for Mac supports:

• .AIFF
• .DCT
• .MP3
• .WAV
• .WMA

Express Scribe PRO for Mac supports audio formats:

• .AAC
• .AIFC (Compressed .AIFF)
• .AU
• .CAF
• .DS2
• .FLAC
• .OGG
• .M4A
• .MPC
• .QPC
• + all the audio formats supported in the FREE version

Express Scribe PRO for Mac also supports the following video formats:

• .3G2
• .3GP
• .ASV
• .AVI
• .DivX
• .DV
• .FLV
• .M4V
• .MKV
• .MOV
• .MP4
• .MPEG
• .VOB
• .WMV

Yes the Mac version does support .ds2 audio files from Olympus, Grundig and Philips BUT unlike the Windows version does not support the older .dss format and Sony’s .dvf audio files. Express Scribe for Mac works on OS X 10.3 all the way up to OS X 10.7 (Lion).

Click Here to go to the NCH Express Scribe for Mac website to download the free or buy the Pro version. Looking for NCH Software on twitter? @NCHSoftware

The official change from firmware version 1.20 to 1.30 details:

• Start DAISY file playback from previously stopped position. (DM-5 only)
• Improved DAISY bookmark function: The bookmark is at the exact position where it is set by the user. (DM-5 only)

For details on how to update the firmware on your DM-3/DM-5 please refer to our earlier blog post:

Mac & Windows – Olympus DM-3 / DM-5 Firmware Update – How To

A couple of customers recently have had some minor issues using their Olympus DS-5000/DS-5000iD/DS-3400 digital dictaphone on their Mac running Lion (OS X 10.7). The problem experienced was that the device was not automatically recognised by the software when the digital voice recorder was docked or the USB cable attached.

The problem seemed to stem from release 7.2.6 of the Olympus DSS Player Plus software which was built and shipped pre the Lion release. Olympus have now released a patch to version 7.2.8 which makes DSS Player Pro for Mac now fully Lion compatible.

The patch can be downloaded from Olympus directly – click here to download the latest Olympus Voice software updates and patches

Express Scribe from NCH has undergone some major changes over the last few weeks. Not cosmetic changes but under the hood changes which will likely affect you if you have been a long time Express Scribe user, especially if you have gone from an older version to version 5.40.

Gone now in the free version of Express Scribe is support for the following very common file formats:

• .dss from Olympus, Grundig & Philips
• .dvf from Sony
• All video file formats

A large number of other less common audio file formats have been removed from the free version leaving only playback of .MP3, .WAV, .WMA .AIF/.AIFF & .DCT on both Windows and Mac in the free version of Scribe. A full list of audio and video files that will play in the Express Scribe Free & Express Scribe Pro can be found here: NCH Express Scribe Free & Pro File Format Compatibility Chart

I close look at the Express Scribe version history also shows that in version 5.40 free edition “Non-AltoEdge foot pedals should not be available in free version” meaning if you are one of the many people who have purchased a Philips 2310 or 2320 USB foot control  it will no longer work with the free edition at this release level. We actually dropped selling the Philips USB foot pedals for use with Express Scribe a long time ago and have been directing all customers to buy their pedals from the online shop linked to the Express Scribe web site.

There are quite a few changes that I can see will affect a very large number of transcription typists around the world with the update to version 5.40 so my advice would be, buy the software. Express Scribe is an essential tool for any transcription typist, the cost of the software is small (around AU$36, US$35, GBP23) and hey we have all been using it for free for years so it’s the least we can do right.

Click here to buy Express Scribe Plus or click the add to in the right column.

Now that we have Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 for Windows and Dragon Dictate 2.5 for Mac fully social in the sense that using them they can both post to Twitter or Facebook using voice only we thought it might be useful to track down some of the Nuance and Dragon related twitter id’s for you to interact with.

Official Nuance Twitter Accounts

@OzDragonTweets - official twitter id of Nuance for voice recognition for both Mac and Windows. Australian based account.

@DragonTweets – official twitter id of Nuance for voice recognition for both Mac and Windows. US based account.

@NuanceMobile – Nuance Mobile – the offical Nuance twitter account for mobile related voice recognition. This doesn’t just cover smartphones and apps but also encompasses SatNav’s (or PNDs Person Nav Devices are they are being commonly called), cars and anything else mobile voice related. US based account.

@NuanceUK – Covers all things Nuance (not just voice recognition) from as you would expect a UK perspective.

Tweeters Worth Following For Voice Related Info

@dictates – that’s us !! Obviously we need to have a mention of ourselves. We don’t just tweet about digital voice but also tech news that grabs our attention.

@DragonDictator – Nuance management, Peter Mahoney is Senior Vice President of Dragon for Nuance in in Massachusetts.

@VoicePower – UK based, covering all things digital voice not just speech recognition but digital dictation and transcription also.

@CSTI_matt (AKA KnowBrainer) – KnowBrainer are a top resource not just for news but also all things digital voice support out of the US. Tapping into their blog RSS feed is a must if you crave digital voice news.

Just take a look on the iTunes app store, search for voice recorder and see just how many voice recording apps are out there, hundreds. So which ones are worth a look at? We will split the category of best digital voice recorder app in two; best free and best paid app. We have tried quite a few digital voice recording apps and here are our pick of the ones we like and why we like them. If you have a favourite please comment and tell us all about it.

Before we start just a word of caution. We all love our iPhone and iPads and it does tend to feel that they can do anything, kind of like the superheroes of the gadget world. What we have found is that iPhones and iPads can record one person dictation and small groups (one-on-one interviews and small meetings) really well. Larger meetings, conferences and lectures then it does tend to struggle (unless the audio is very loud and clear in the room). So for these scenarios a digital voice recorder would be a handy addition to your laptop bag.

Best FREE iPhone Digital Voice Recorder App – PocketDictate from NCH

NCH, originally an Australian company, are famous world wide for their plethora of anything audio related software titles for Windows and Mac, well now you can include the iPhone to their list of achievements. With PocketDictate they could have just followed the crowd and created a digital voice recorder app with basic functionality. Basic being the ability to just do the minimum; record, pause, stop and play. But no in order to stand out from the crowd NCH knew they would need to emulate a digital dictaphone. The key difference in functionality with a dictaphone recorder is the ability to go back in an audio file and either insert audio chunks within the recording or alternatively overwrite audio from anywhere in the audio recording. PocketDictate does that and for free. Not wanting to rest there NCH also threw in a few other nice to have features like:

• Records in a choice of compressed wave .WAV or .DCT audio formats
• Sound a tone when recording starts (configurable)
• Sound a tone when recording ends (configurable)
• Manually adjustable recording level
• Voice activation with variable activation level – records only when you speak
• Auto deletion of files by age (configurable)
• Send files via FTP, email or to iTunes
• And the pièce de résistance - encryption of audio files making the app HIPAA compliant

This app is excellent and has been well thought out, looks great and is easy to use with virtually no learning curve to get it recording. If you need a digital voice recorder app which also doubles as a dictaphone for your iPhone then PocketDictate is the one to go for.

Many people familiar with digital dictation and transcription will know that NCH wrote one of the most commonly used transcription software programs worldwide, Express Scribe. Both the .wav and .dct audio formats created by PocketDictate are compatible with Express Scribe so if you use a transcriptionist or transcription service to process your digital dictation you can send them either file format. We recommend the .dct audio format if you plan to email your audio as that format tends to produce smaller sized audio files.

Best Paid Universal iOS Voice Recording App – AudioNote from Luminant Software

To beat PocketDictate in the paid voice recording app category you are going to have to do a bit more than just record audio. This is where AudioNote steps in as my favourite paid audio recording app, why? Because the developer has really thought about what else you normally do while recording interviews and meetings and that is take notes or if the meeting is really boring, doodle. What is really clever about the notes you write or the pictures you draw is that your jottings are linked with the recorded audio. When you play back your audio you can simply touch on your notes and the audio plays back from the exact time you wrote the note (or drew the doodle). It is the app equivalent of the LiveScribe SmartPen but at a fraction of the cost. For that reason deserves to be crowned our best paid iOS voice recording app which isuniversal app. Works best on the iPad only because of the larger screen real estate to take notes using either the keyboard or with a stylus.

Unlike PocketDictate, AudioNote’s recording functionality is basic. It doesn’t emulate a digital dictaphone but then again it doesn’t need to. The insert/overwrite features would not typically be used during the recording of a meeting, conference, lecture, interview or even focus group. AudioNote’s key features include:

• Handwritten notes linked with audio
• Audio easily shared via wifi
• Audio can be saved into folder
• Notes can be converted to PDF, simple text and even HTML with your drawings included via web gui across wifi
• Audio can be downloaded via wifi web gui or emailed from the app (.caf format)
• Also a Mac app and Android app
• Lite version available so you can try before you buy

So there you have, two excellent digital voice recording apps that stand out from the crowd.

No, is the short answer. Voice or speech recognition software will only successfully work with one spoken voice and that spoken voice, for best results, needs to have trained the software to understand their voice and style of speaking known as creating a voice profile. Most people who use voice recognition software typically pop on a headset and mic and chat away to their Windows PC or Mac and watch as their voice is magically (or using the Dragon voice recognition engine if you don’t believe in magic) converted to text.

Voice recognition is currently going through a spike in popularity, especially since the release of the iPhone 4S running iOS5 with Siri, which has raised awareness of just how good voice recognition technology has evolved over the last couple of years, Nuance being the company leading the way in this technology on Mac, Windows and now inside iOS5 working closely with Apple.

Because of this everyone now has an iPhone which is capable of recording audio and most who need to capture important meetings or interviews also have a high quality digital voice recorder. Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium and Professional edition on Windows and MacSpeech Scribe on the Mac can take recorded audio and transcribe it, that is only for that single trained person who is speaking. So it is understandable that the leap is often made that if it can transcribe one voice it can transcribe many, not so. The technology is not there yet and in my opinion won’t be for quite some time.

Nuance on their website cleverly have a couple of pages dedicated to Transcribing Interviews or Transcribing Lectures using a technique called voice writing or parroting. The idea is simple, you record your interview, meeting, lecture or whatever it is that has multiple voices or a single voice that you can not get trained in Dragon (possibly the voice of someone making a speech or presenting at a conference). Then when you are sitting in front of your Windows PC or Mac (in this case running Dragon Dictate, not MacSpeech Scribe) you listen to your recorded audio and you speak what you hear. Therefore it is your trained voice that Dragon hears as you are repeatings other peoples words from your recording. Sounds simple doesn’t it – it isn’t, I have tried it a few times and have become extremely frustrated. You may find that the voice you are listening to is too fast for you to remember and repeat back which means you are constantly stopping and rewinding the audio, which on an iPhone app or basic digital voice recorder is not always that easy. You will likely often have to stop the audio to correct mistakes made by Dragon, maybe when unfamiliar names or terms are used which have not been trained into your user profile. It will work but it does take a lot of concentration and a large amount of practice, you can give it a try just search YouTube for a boardroom meeting and see if you can repeat what you hear while wearing a headset and mic.

So what are your practical options for transcribing audio or video of meetings and interviews or in fact any audio that you need turned from voice to text?

Option 1 – Type The Audio Yourself

You could transcribe the audio yourself using some specialised transcription software to help you, transcription is the process of typing what you hear. When I say help it won’t actually do the work of typing it for you but it will assist greatly with the audio playback. For example if you are a slow typist you could slow the speed of audio playback down to match your typing speed or conversly also speed up the audio if your fingers are a blur when you type. Using transcription software you can also easily rewind the audio, again set up to match your typing ability so you could either rewind back half a second or if you are a poor typist like me rewind the audio back up to 5 seconds. The biggest benefit of using transcription software is that audio can be controlled from inside the word processor that you are typing in. By that I mean using a USB connected foot pedal or pre-defined keys on your keyboard you can stop/play/rewind the audio without leaving the document that you are typing. This is a huge time saver, often people try to transcribe using Windows Media Player or Quicktime for their audio playback and they have to constantly switch between they document to the audio player to stop/rewind/play and then back to the document which adds a considerable amount of time to the whole transcribing process.

Pros Of Doing It Yourself

• Cost, from the point of view that you are not paying someone else to do the work.
• Cost, from the point of view that transcription software is free or relatively cheap depending on what you buy.

Cons Of Doing It Yourself

• It is hard work and not as easy as it sounds.
• Transcription typing does take a long time even if you are experienced.

Just as an indication of how long transcription takes, a good quality one hour audio file of an interview between two people would take an experienced transcription typist around 2-3 hours to transcribe. If you are not experienced expect that to rise to 4-5 hours and without the help of transcription software even longer.

Transcription Software

• Express Scribe from NCH Software – $FREE
• Express Scribe Pro from NCH Software – approx. AU$40 – Click Here To Buy Express Scribe PRO – Plays .dss .ds2 .dct .dvf .avi .mov .wmv audio and video files.
• Olympus AS-2400 Digital Transcription Kit – Includes software, headset and USB foot pedal – RRP AU$425 but usually it sells online for less. Windows & Mac compatible.

Option 2 – Outsource To A Professional Transcription Service

If you need your audio transcribed quickly and accurately then this option is for you. Just Google transcription service and see how many businesses are listed both organically and in the paid Google ads. Transcription has become a boom business over the last few years and that makes total sense. With the availability and high quality of digital voice recorders and iPhone apps just about everyone is recording their meetings, interviews, podcasts, vodcasts, focus groups, lectures, letters, assessments the list goes on. It is great to have a record of your meeting and the like stored digitally which can be easily shared within your business on your intranet or with the world on the internet but more often than not a written transcript is also required for offline reading, compliance or for public record. There are all kinds of reasons audio and video is transcribed into text these days.

This is where a professional transcription service can come in to help you. Simply send them your digital audio or video via the internet and they can set to work using their team of experienced transcription typists to convert your voice to text. Here is a security tip, always make sure that the transcription service you use has their own secure file server and that the data you send them is encrypted either using FTPS (not FTP) or HTTPS (not HTTP) – this is important for two reasons. 1. your audio/video is encrypted as it travels across the internet from you to their servers. 2. by ensuring they run their own secure server they will have full control and access over what happens on that server. Many transcription services use third party providers like SendThisFile.com and they nor you have any control over your data on that third parties servers. Ask any transcription service that you approach about their security and file transfer mechanisms. Many still use FTP and not FTPS, transferring files across FTP alone does not encrypt the file contents, be it audio, video or worse still your transcribed documents.

Any good professional transcription service will turn your audio around quickly and the final transcript will very accurate. Typically there are two phases to the transcription process; phase 1 is the transcription typist who listens and types your audio/video to text. Phase 2 is a quality assurance phase, a proofreader will listen to your audio and proof against what has been transcribed. This double verifies the typists work and the document can be formatted to your specific requirements. Obviously we recommend The Transcription People, not just because this is our sister company but because they are leaders in the transcription industry in Australia who service clients not only from Australia but also the US and Europe

As audio and video for transcription is mainly digital you can utilise the services of a transcription company anywhere in the world, you may want to do this for cost benefit reasons but more often than not to take advantage of time zones. Many UK and US businesses will use the services of Australian based transcription companies for just this reason as Australia tends to work their business day as Europe and the US sleep.

Pros

• Speed, this is a transcription services core business. Reputable companies will turn around audio and video very quickly.
• Accuracy, again as a core business this is how transcription services are rated from a customers point of view. A good transcription firm will always produce high quality accurate transcriptions because of the two phase approach.
• Ability to adapt, regardless of how much audio or video you send you should always expect the same fast, accurate turn around of transcripts.
• You don’t have to do it so you can focus your time on more productive work.

Cons

• Cost is the only con, you are paying for a service so compared to you doing it yourself there will be a cost involved. Obviously the larger more reputable transcription companies will have different rates from the work from home type of micro transcription service.

So there you have it ! Reasons why Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows or MacSpeech Scribe for Apple Mac are not good for transcribing meetings or interviews and the options you have open to you to convert recorded audio or video into text.

Dragon Recorder just released by Nuance is a new app designed specifically to record your spoken voice for playback into either Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows – Premium & Professional edition only) or MacSpeech Scribe (Mac), known as deferred transcription. Perfect for those who need to record their thoughts, notes and letters when they are not sitting in front of their computer.

Obviously digital voice recorders currently play a big role in the spoken voice market and also a quick look on the iTunes app store you will find hundreds of voice recording apps. Makes total sense that Nuance want to move in to this space and control it on iOS devices. Their new app called Dragon Recorder is similar to just about every other voice recording app out there, it is fairly basic and very easy to use. One key feature that is missing in this and most other voice recording apps is an insert/overwrite feature. Insert and overwrite lets you, when reviewing your audio, insert more dictation within the audio file or remove chunks of dictation from within the audio file like sentences or paragraphs.

With Dragon Recorder you will need to gather your thoughts before you start recording, if you get lost or need to think some more just pause and have a think and then continue recording. This style of dictation is starting to become more common, the younger generation will adapt to this style easily but if you are old school and are use to micro or mini cassette dictaphones or even digital dictation recorders then this will be a bit of a shift for you. But hey, its free so give it a go.

Recordings can be given a filename prefix, which is handy if a few of you plan to send your audio to a central admin person to run through Dragon NaturallySpeaking under your profile, common for Professional users. WiFi sharing is via a web gui that lets you play the audio via your browser and have a listen or you can download. Audio files are recorded in .WAV audio format.

Once you have your digital audio recording on your PC or Mac simply run it into Dragon and away you go.

Just a word on MacSpeech Scribe for the Mac users. Scribe has been around for a couple of years and is a legacy product that Nuance picked up when they took over the Mac voice recognition technology from MacSpeech. The Mac side of things currently differs from Windows in that there are two separate voice recognition products – Dragon Dictate for directly spoken voice and MacSpeech Scribe for recorded voice, whereas both NaturallySpeaking Pro & Premium on Windows combines those two functions in the same software program. I still hold onto the hope that Nuance will combine this in the next major release of Dragon Dictate – makes total sense. So if you are desperate for recorded voice into your Mac for transcription then buy MacSpeech Dictate, is you are not desperate hold off as I am sure it is coming soon in Dragon Dictate.

Annalisa Holmes from The Transcription People, one of Australia’s dynamic leading outsource transcription service providers, recently wrote a guest post on the NCH blog detailing how her transcription business has grown over the years and how Express Scribe has been a constant throughout that growth. Now with a plethora of big name Australian blue chips using their services, The Transcription People’s large team of transcription typists and proof readers all use Express Scribe in their daily work.

With the release of Express Scribe 5.40 NCH have introduced a paid option, don’t worry a free version is still available, aimed at the Pro transcription provider and adds compatability with the DSS Pro (.ds2) audio format from Olympus, Philips and Grundig digital dictation recorders as well as video.

Click here to read Annalisa’s guest blog post on the NCH blog.

The Transcription People Pty Ltd is the sister company of Dictate Australia Pty Ltd.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking from Nuance, currently at version 11.5, can use a digital recording of your spoken voice and transcribe that into text (Premium and Professional versions only), this is commonly referred to as deferred transcription. With so many people now owning either a digital voice recorder and/or an iPhone or iPad with a voice recording app the question is often asked “is the recording quality good enough for use with Dragon NaturallySpeaking?“.

Luckily the nice people at Nuance have a quick and easy way for you to check, via the Nuance Hardware Compatibility website. This site shows compatibility for all Nuance software but you can specifically drill down on Dragon NaturallySpeaking and then look through the Recorders (current) or Recorders (legacy) for older digital voice recorders.

The Nuance Hardware Compatibility website is also worth a visit if you are planning to buy a new microphone or mic and headset combo for use with Dragon Naturally Speaking as these too are listed and given a Dragon accuracy score out of six, the more dragons the better the accuracy. We like the Plantronics DSP-400 and have been promoting that for a few years now. The DSP-400 achieved a six dragon accuracy score and is an excellent all round headset/mic combo which is both Mac and Windows compatible, works with Skype also.

Currently the only universal (iPhone and iPad) voice recording app which is listed as compatible is the awesome Andrea Pure Audio Live Recorder app (found in the Recorders (current) dropdown which achieves five out of six dragons. I have this app on my iPhone 4 running iOS5 and it works beautifully, the app also works on the 3GS iPhone.

We are just talking about Pro Olympus digital dictation products here, these are the DS series digital dictation recorders (DS-5000/DS-3400/DS-2400) and their corresponding Olympus transcription kits (AS-5000/AS-2400). The Pro recorders can only be sold by selected Olympus Imaging resellers in Australia. These Pro resellers should be displaying the Olympus Pro Dictation logo (eyes left) to let you know they are authorised resellers, but being the internet those logos can easily be copied (more on copying images later in this post, you will want to read on, it’s a great story).

The Olympus Voice Pro Dictation resellers are not randomly picked, we all have to meet strict criteria to become a Pro reseller. We have all been involved with Olympus for a number of years and we all have been through training with Olympus. Not only that, we all have our own dedicated Olympus rep who we can and do call on regularly. They are there to help us and you with any questions, advice, news, special pricing on large or special orders and with any warranty claims. Olympus Voice are part of Olympus Imaging and have a dedicated voice team out of their office in Ryde, Sydney.

So lets talk about pricing. As Pro resellers we only buy from Olympus Imaging Australia who set the RRP (recommended retail price) of the Pro series recorders and the price at which we buy them from Olympus. It is then upto the reseller to determine the price at which they want to sell which is obviously somewhere in between. This is why you will see pricing from the Pro resellers all around a similar  price point. To make it easier for you I have listed the official Olympus Voice Pro Resellers in Australia at the bottom of this post.

When you see an Olympus DS-5000 top of the range digital dictaphone selling on some Australian websites for $100+ less than most other reseller sites you may be thinking wow what a bargain but those of you who are online savvy will also be thinking why? Well if the company is not a Pro reseller then they will not be buying their recorders from Australia, only Olympus Imaging have the rights to sell them in Australia. So they will be imported, usually from the US where the strong Australian dollar makes US purchases more attractive. Being overseas models they will not be covered by the Australian warranty, so any issues you may have with your recorder can not go back to Olympus in Australia. This is where many issues can arise, a recorder with no warranty will be expensive for the person selling to replace and you may not get the service or replacement you expect.

One none Pro reseller here in Australia was bought to my attention recently, they were selling the DS-5000 very cheaply which rang some alarm bells. A close look showed that they had copied word for word my description of various Pro range recorders. Not only that but they had thought it appropriate to also use my images on their website. Sure, copying of images happens all the time on the internet, just because I created the image doesn’t mean I have exclusive rights to it when it is public on the internet. But in this case, as they had copied my website code, they were pulling the images from my own server – that is really taking liberties. So, a quick tweek to the image and that website is now proudly displaying my phone number on their website

We all like a bargain but when you are spending big on state of the art digital dictation solutions I personally think it is worth spending that little bit extra to get in country support from the company who actually makes the products and their nominated Pro dealers. Get to know your Olympus Pro reseller, we all have our own niches and specialities – Dictate Australia are well known for knowing Mac as well as Windows; we provide digital dictation and voice recorders, transcription solutions and voice recognition for both platforms. We have customers all over the country and can support any installation remotely but more importantly we are always at the end of the phone for a chat and for advice.

As of October 2011 there are 32 Pro resellers in Australia of which of course we, Dictate Australia, are one of them. The list of Pro resellers rarely changes but if you are not sure please call Olympus on 1300 659 678 and confirm. The Pro resellers are currently:

• Dictate Australia Pty Ltd
• Stuart & Dunn Office Choice
• Lanier Voice
• Pc Dictation
• Dictation World
• Business Machinery Rentals
• Abc Dictation / J.d.wilmot
• Prime Office National
• Global Transcription Services
• Sharp  Electronics
• Voice Recognition
• Biztech
• Voice X Communications
• Raltone International
• Lanier Voice
• Diversified Dictation Syst.
• Dictation Solutions
• Nts Transcriptions
• Biztech It
• Norac
• Lanier Voice
• Dictating City Centre
• Business Machinery Rentals
• Pdt Digital
• Ds Office
• Copia Business Machines
• Dictafix
• Talk Solutions
• Contact Office Technology
• Abacus
• Phil Hughes Office Solutions
• Bistec

Olympus recently revamped their range of direct record or Directrec handheld digital dictation microphones. The Series II Directrec as they are known are comprised of three models in Australia: DR-2100, DR-2200 and the DR-2300 and now replace the Dircterec Series I models: Dr-1000 and DR-2000.The DirectRec are handheld mics which connect via USB to your computer. Used in conduction with the Olympus DSS Player Pro R5 dictation module software can be used as a tethered mic to your computer in place of the more traditional handheld digital dictation recorders like the DS series (DS-2400/DS-3400/DS-5000). For those who only dictate at their desk these are a great option and allow you to dictate and record directly to your computer via the Olympus software. Using the DR series mics you have full digital dictation functionality such as rewind/review insert/over write of your dictation.

This style of dictation had been going out of fashion for want of a better phrase and with the Directrec series I handheld mics they looked like something out of the last century. The new mics however bring a revamp with new ergonomic styling and design but the icing on the cake are the high quality mics. Olympus have been working closely with Nuance and as a result the Directrec Series II mics are certified compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking with a very high accuracy rating. So now you not only have a digital dictation mic in your hand for recording you also have a top quality, high accuracy mic for your voice recognition software.

Durability has not been compromised in the new design. Those used to the original Directrec (DR-1000/DR-2000) will know just how strong they were to cope with daily use over the years, the new series are as tough as their predecessors. Continuing their support for various platforms the Directrec Series II are Windows compatible (including 64bit Windows 7) as well as being Mac compatible (Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and Lion (OS x 10.7)). For the larger organisations they will also function via Citrix and across Windows terminal services. I am still amazed at the lack of Apple support from some of the other large digital dictation manufacturers whose top of the range digital dictaphones and Directrec style recording devices still will not function with Apple’s OS X. Olympus has truly led the way in the Apple space and recognised early on that OS X was an operating system for future digital dictation users.

All three Directrec models DR-2100/DR-2200/DR-2300 come with a slide control for effortless dictation control. Ease of use is key with these devices and the learning curve is almost flat as they have been designed to be easy to use from the outset. On the DR-2200 & DR-2300 a trackball is also included to allow mouse control from the Directrec itself so no need to continuously swap between mic and mouse.

All three Directrec Series II models are now available in Australia and can be purchased from your favourite Olympus Pro Dictation reseller – Dictate Australia Pty Ltd

• Olympus DR-2100 – RRP $349 incl. GST
• Olympus DR-2200 – RRP $449 incl. GST
• Olympus DR-2300 – RRP $449 incl. GST

We have the Directrec Series II on sale on our new evolving website bundled with your choice of DSS Player Pro R5 or Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5

Yes we are now back stocking the amazing LiveScribe Echo SmartPen range at Dictate Australia. Some of you, who have been around our site for a while, will recall we were into the LiveScribe SmartPens when they were first released in Australia a few years ago. Distributor problems and tiny margins saw us leave this product behind but a recent move by one of our distributors means we again have full access to the LiveScribe Echo range of SmartPens.What we loved about the original LiveScribe SmartPen, called the Pulse, apart from being Mac and Windows friendly was the great audio recording quality and the ability to link that audio to your written notes. This is a boon for the odd student who either takes huge amounts of notes or for the student who nods off in lectures. Also a favourite with business types who attend meetings and conferences, the LiveScribe Echo SmartPens are a handy gadget to have in your tech arsenal.

The LiveScribe Echo SmartPen comes in 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb sizes – the 8Gb pen comes in a choice or standard pack or Pro pack. In the Pro pack you get a swanky case plus the 3D ear buds.

Head over to our new evolving store [ click here for a sneak peek ] to have a look at our LiveScribe range and pickup free postage on all LiveScribe Echo SmartPens across Australia.