After years of waiting and for the numerous customers I have spoken to who I had promised that “one day soon” Dragon Dictate for Mac would support transcription from recorded audio, the cat is finally out of the bag with the announcement of Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac.
In a press release yesterday out of the Nuance head office in Burlington, Mass. version 3 of the best voice recognition software for Mac, Dragon Dictate was announced.
As usual with every Dragon update, Windows or Mac, the software is now faster and more accurate. Those of you with version 11+ on Windows and 2.5+ on Mac will already know just how amazingly accurate Dragon is, well now its more accurate and faster.
But key for me and many of my customers is transcription from recorded audio. A luxury afforded only to the Windows clan for many years in NaturallySpeaking it is finally here for Dragon Dictate on the Mac with support for .wav, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4, .aif, and .aiff audio formats as well as audio recorded on Nuance’s own Dragon Recorder app for iPhone/iPad/iPod . Please remember voice recognition technology, speaking directly to your computer or transcribing from a recording will only work with one person dictating – it will not transcribe meetings and interviews – see this earlier post Can Dragon Transcribe Meetings or Interviews?
Missing from the list of supported audio formats is the very common DSS (Digital Speech Standard) generated by the most popular Pro digital dictaphones from Olympus, Philips and Grundig. If you own a Pro dictaphone from Olympus which came with DSS Player Plus v7 software (models DS-7000,DS-3500,DS-5000,DS-3400) then you can easily convert your .ds2 audio to .aif format on your Mac, so you are covered. Wait a minute !! Update to that previous sentence, we have found an issue with DSS Player Plus v7 for Mac – when converting .ds2 audio to .aif it does not convert at a high enough sampling rate for Dragon Dictate 3 to use with its Transcription option. Click here to see the blog on this topic.
Click here for an overview of what is new in Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac
Expected to be released in Australia in October 2012, there will be a paid upgrade option for those of you with Dragon Dictate 2.5 – more details to follow on dates and pricing.
Below are the juicy bits from the Nuance Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 press release for your reference or if you would rather have the press release read to you click the Soundcloud link below …
Nuance Unveils Dragon Dictate for Mac 3
Nuance’s powerful Dragon Voice Recognition for Mac Delivers Increased Accuracy and More Features than Ever Before; Create Content, Dictate Text and Command and Control Favourite Features and Apps just by Speaking.
BURLINGTON, Mass., – September 5, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced Dragon® Dictate for Mac 3, the most powerful, accurate and personalized voice recognition software for the Mac available on the market today. With increased accuracy and significant feature updates, Dragon Dictate lets people quickly and easily create and edit content, and command and control their favorite Mac applications by voice – anytime, anywhere.
Dragon Dictate harnesses the power of the renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition technology to let Mac users simply speak to see their words instantly captured in real time on their screen. Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is the most robust version of Dictate yet, with a 15 percent increase in accuracy, new Smart Format Rules and new correction capabilities for a personalized experience, wideband Bluetooth support, the ability to transcribe recorded audio files from a single speaker, and much more.
“Dragon Dictate delivers an incredibly powerful voice experience for the Mac community, with the ability to not only speak text for documents, emails and more, but also command and control the Mac applications and features people use the most,” said Peter Mahoney, Chief Marketing Officer for Nuance and Senior Vice President, General Manager, Dragon. “We’ve been incredibly focused on bringing new features and increased accuracy to this latest version of Dragon Dictate so Mac users can experience the accuracy, speed and productivity that results from speaking instead of typing.”
Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 is Now:
Faster, More Accurate and Easier Right from the Start
Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 delivers a 15 percent improvement to out-of-the-box accuracy when compared to Version 2.5, making it faster and easier for people to freely speak their words and let ideas flow right onto the screen. Simply put, Mac users can get more done in less time, letting creativity and productivity take charge.
More Personal than Ever – Dragon Dictate Gets You
Dragon Dictate now further adapts to the way people speak with Smart Format Rules, which customize and personalize every user’s Dragon Dictate experience. Dragon Dictate now detects formatting changes such as abbreviations, numbers and more, so dictated text appears the way you prefer – every time. With its revamped correction process, Dragon Dictate now allows you to use speech to correct individual words or phrases through a single, easy to understand window that lets you select alternate word choices, or spell and train new words. Additionally, Dragon Dictate includes a richer list of alternative word choices, so when making a correction, it’s more likely that the word or phrase intended will be presented as an option. When a correction is made, Dragon remembers and learns your preferences, making it more accurate each time. And with the Vocabulary Editor, you have the ability to set alternative written forms of words or phrases (e.g. grey vs. gray).
Control in More Applications
Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 gives you control in more applications, so that you can use your voice to get more done. First, Dragon Dictate delivers an Express Editor so that you can dictate into a text field for which it does not have Full Text Control. After you finish dictating, you can transfer the text from the Express Editor to the desired application quickly and easily by voice. In addition to general support for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 offers built-in commands for the new Notes and Reminders applications in this latest OS release.
The Perfect Dictation Assistant, Transcribing Recorded Audio Files in a Snap
Dragon Dictate lets you transcribe recorded audio files so you can capture your thoughts while they’re still fresh in your mind using a digital voice recorder, or your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Simply establish a user profile for a digital voice recorder, and Dragon Dictate quickly and easily transcribes the recorded audio files. Dragon Dictate for Mac supports .wav, .m4a, .m4v, .mp4, .aif, and .aiff audio file formats, as well as any recorded notes using the free Dragon Recorder app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (4th gen).
Hands-Free and Wire-Free with Enhances Wideband Bluetooth Support
Dragon Dictate now features support for 16kHz wideband Bluetooth wireless headset microphones, allowing for even further increased accuracy for Bluetooth headset users through a higher-quality audio signal. When Dragon detects that a certified microphone is paired with the Mac, Dragon offers “Enhanced Bluetooth” as an audio source type. The improved audio quality eliminates the requirement for Bluetooth users to do initial voice training, allowing them to get started faster than ever before.
Available Anytime, Anywhere
Dragon Dictate gives you power to dictate text at any length whenever and wherever you like to get more done faster, and without a network connection.
Hi,
thanks for the review. However, there is one point where I think you do not describe facts correctly, and that is when describing the transcription facilities of Dragon Dictate 3 (DD3).
In particular, according to my experience, it is NOT possible to convert DS2 files (e.g. to wav, aiff or other formats) so that they will be accepted by DD3 – attempts result in an error message. The reason is that DD3 requires a sampling frequency of 22 kHz while DS2 (even in high quality setting) only produces 16 kHz.
This is a great pity for it means that DD3 is presently useless for users of professional digital recorders such as Olympus DS 5000. This is all the more puzzling as DD3’s sister application Dragon NaturallySpeaking (Windows) can natively deal with DS2 files, and DD3 allegedly uses the DNS speech engine. Also, the DD3 Bluetooth support uses a sampling frequency of 16 kHz which I conclude means that DD3 can deal with input at that frequency.
If others have managed to actually get DSS or DS2 files (or converted versions of those) to be accepted as input by DD3, I’d be very interested to hear from them!
Best wishes,
Andreas
Thank you Andreas for dropping by and for your comment.
We have only just received our copy of Dragon Dictate 3 into the office yesterday, you have indeed stumbled on a slight issue with the DSS Player Plus software for Mac. We have written a new post highlighting what you initially found and a work around to resolve the issue for now to let DS2 audio recorded on Pro dictaphones be transcribed by Dragon Dictate 3 – click here for that post.
Thanks
Dave
Dictate Australia