Digital Dictaphone or Digital Notetaker - What Is The Difference?

In the world of digital voice recorders, typically the recorders can be grouped into two seperate types. We have the digital dictaphones and the digital notetakers.

Most people on the look our for a digital voice recorder are often confused by or unsure of what this really means and which type of digital voice recorder they need.

In simple terms, the general functionality of each is listed here:

Digital Notetaker

• Used to record multiple speaker audio: lectures, interviews, meetings etc.
• Audio is recorded in one session with minimal or no interruptions.

Digital Dictaphone

• Used to record one or single speaker audio: letters, notes etc.
• Audio can be recorded in multiple sessions, because of interuptions or stopping and starting dictation.

The digital dictaphones generally try to emulate the older analogue tape dictaphones and usually have a slider switch or rocker switch to initiate what we call the rewind/review functionality. Audio the has been recorded can be rewind for a few seconds and the last few dictated words can be heard. Dictation then continues on from that point untli the user presses a button to indicate the end of the dictation, causing an audio file to be created.

Digital notetakers are very simple and basic to use, press one button to start recording, press another to stop. It is that simple. Most notetakers can pause recording and then resume but it is not possible to rewind and hear what was just said and continue recording in the same audio file. It is possible to listen from the beginning of the file and fast forward through though.