Review: Olympus DM-450 & DM-550 Digital Voice Recorder Note Taker

Olympus DM-450 Digital Voice Recorder - Available in Australia from Dictate Australia - www.dictate.com.au

You may want to go make a cup of tea before you start reading, this is going to be a long post. Why so long? The DM-450 and DM-550 are just amazing digital recorders and are packed to the brim with features while at the same time being extremely easy to use out of the box. So, if you have your tea made then lets begin….

read moreReview: Olympus DM-450 & DM-550 Digital Voice Recorder Note Taker

The End Is Nigh For Olympus Analogue Microcassette Recorders

Olympus have today announced that end of life has been declared for the three remaining analogue microcassette recorders in their Australian product range, they are the model numbers J500, J701 and J711. This will leave Olympus with a fully digital range of voice recorders and dictaphones. Also joining the recorders in the dim and distant … read more

MacSpeech Scribe – How To Convert Audio To AIFF Using Olympus DSS Player Version 7 Plus For MacSpeech Scribe

MacSpeech Scribe just released by MacSpeech lets Mac users record their voice to a digital voice recorder and then have MacSpeech Scribe transcribe it for them. The only certified digital recording devices for MacSpeech Scribe are the iPhone, iPod Touch (2G+ plus a mic) and some of the Olympus digital voice recorders. Two of the … read more

Options For Playing Olympus .ds2 (DSS Pro) Audio Files If You Use Express Scribe Or Older Olympus Transcription Kits

How to play or convert Olympus .ds2 audio files to .dss


Download sample .dss and .ds2 audio files at the end of this blog post …

This is a hot topic in the transcription world. The DSS Pro (.ds2) audio format now in use by default on all the Olympus, Philips and Grundig digital dictaphones. It is a hot topic for a couple of reasons, often a transcriber can not play the new .ds2 audio files because:

  1. Transcriptionist has an older Olympus transcription kit (AS-2300 or AS-4000) with a RS-26 pedal
  2. Transcriptionist uses Express Scribe software free or paid version

There are a couple of ways to get around this (unless you just buy the right and latest software for transcription) and the options depend on what you have already and what operating system you use. I will try to cover all possible solutions, if I miss one please let me know and I will update this post. What I will say right from the outset is that these solutions are work arounds for typists who choose not to stay up-to-date with the latest software. By purchasing an Olympus AS-5000 transcription kit (or just the DSS Player Pro transcription module software AS-5002 if you already own an RS-28 Olympus foot pedal) all these issues will go away. The latest DSS Player Pro transcription module is fully compatible with the DSS Pro (.ds2) audio files.

So let me try and cover all options for those who do not have the latest DSS Player Pro transcription module.

read moreOptions For Playing Olympus .ds2 (DSS Pro) Audio Files If You Use Express Scribe Or Older Olympus Transcription Kits

Listening to Keynotes, What Digital Recorder? – LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen or Olympus WS-450S or iProRecorder

This week I was lucky enough to attend FlyingSoloLIVE, an expo run by the FlyingSolo team held at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. The day consisted of a number of keynote speeches by well known successful Australian business people and social media experts all aimed to educate and inspire Australian solo and small business … read more

Olympus Australia August Update – More Discontinued Recorders & Price Drops

Olympus Voice Australia have just issued another new wholesale price list to its Australian resellers confirming three more discontinued voice recorders, a huge price cut for one popular recorder and the official launch of the new WS series recorders earlier than expected. Discontinued: In the digital note taker range the very pricey but sheek WS-331M … read more

Olympus Australia Revamp Entire WS Series Range Of Digital Voice Recorders

Today I finally heard what is being planned for the WS series digital voice recorders in Australia. If you have been reading my posts over the last few months you would have seen many changes in the Olympus Australia recorder line up. We have seen the DS range or digital dictaphones fully replaced and just … read more

Review: Olympus WS-210S Digital Voice Recorder

The little Olympus WS-210S digital voice recorder has been around in Australia now since October 2007 and is easily our most popular digital voice recorder at Dictate Australia. So why is this little recorder so popular?

  • Small and lightweight
  • Very easy to use
  • Excellent audio pickup and quality
  • Great price point for a quality voice recorder
  • Compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking v10 Preferred
  • Both Windows and Intel Mac compatible
  • Fully featured with variable voice activation (VCVA) and low cut noise filtering

These are just a few of its qualities. So lets look a little closer at this recorder and what it can do.

Click image for larger view

read moreReview: Olympus WS-210S Digital Voice Recorder