Superb, Affordable Olympus LS-3 Discontinued In Australia - Expected To Be Replaced By LS-12 and LS-14

The Olympus LS-3 digital linear PCM voice and music recorder was discontinued this week in Australia. In a surprise move Olympus withdrew the model taking this Olympus Pro reseller quite by surprise.

We expect the LS-3 to be replaced in early 2013 by either one or both of the two new PCM music recorders launched last month in the US called the LS-12 and LS-14. 

The Olympus LS-12 (2Gb) and Olympus LS-14 (4Gb) certainly look the part with the trend in 'outing' the mics continuing with these new models. Capable of coping with upto 130 dB of noise thrown at it and packed with musician goodies like a metronome, chromatic tuner and playback speed control that alone should make these sought after. That and there very low US pricing (US$149 for the LS-12 and US$199 for the LS-14) we hope to see that emulated here in Australia. 

Expected to arrive in Australia in early 2013.

Click here for our main blog with more details on the Olympus LS-12 and LS-14 along with an intro video to these two new linear PCM music recorders.

Olympus Audio Release Sonority 1.4.1

Olympus this week rolled out an update to their underrated Sonority audio editing software taking it to version 1.4.1.

The update applies to both the Mac and the Windows versions, free and paid, and includes bug fixes, a couple of new features and Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 and Windows 8 comparability.

More info at our main blog:

http://idictate.com.au/2012/11/mac-windows-8-olympus-sonority-free-update-upgrade-v1-4-1/

Windows 8 Compatible Olympus ODMS R6.1.0 Update To Dictation & Transcription Module

Olympus are rolling out a free update to all users of their ODMS (Olympus Dictation Management System) taking it to release R6.1.0 (from R6.0.0). The first release to ODMS since its lauch along with the new range of digital dictaphones (DS-7000,DS-3500,DS-2500) back in April 2012.

The update contains a number of bug fixes along with some new features and compatibility with the rapidly moving virtual world supporting recent versions of VMWare Viewer and the Xen products from Citrix.

Microsofties as they are affectionatly know will be super excited about ODM R6.1.0 being Windows 8 compatible. There is a caveat to this one, not all flavours of Windows 8 are yet supported so head over to our main blog post to read the full list of changes (link below).

Click here for the full list of changes in Olympus ODMS R6.1.0

ODMS software is included in the Olympus DS-7000 & DS-3500 digital dictaphones (dictation module) and Olympus AS-7000 transcription kit (transcription module).

18 Unusual Things You Can Do With Digital Voice Recorders / Dictaphones

Digital voice recorders, used worldwide daily to record interviews and meetings. Digital dictaphones, sit proudly on many a doctor or lawyers desks to record notes an letters. But digital voice recorders can be used for other not so common recording tasks.

Over at out main blog we look at 18 alternative uses for digital voice recorders. Uses such as catching out ghosts, cheating partners, recording birds and ticking off an item from your bucket list.

Click here to head to our main blog to see all eighteen.

What Digital Voice Recorder Is Compatible With Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

The recent update to Dragon Dictate 3 added the new transcription feature which allows recorded audio to be transcribed.

If you are working away from your Mac and have some thoughts, letters, notes or general dictation then now all you need do is pull out a compatible digital voice recorder or maybe the Nuance Dragon Voice Recorder app on your iPhone and record your spoken words.

Back at your Mac fire up Dragon Dictate 3, select the Transcription function and point to your audio file for transcription magic to happen in front of your eyes.

So what digital voice recorders are compatible with Dragon Dictate 3? What type of voice recorder do I need, notetaker or dictaphone? What should I look for in a voice recorder?

Well all these questions and more are answered on our main blog. Click here for the post:- Dragon Dictate 3, What Digital Voice Recorders Are Compatible With The New Transcription Feature

Key is the audio format that the recorder produces as it records. It needs to be either compatible with the audio formats that the transcription module in Dragon Dictate 3 can work with. Or a format which can be easily converted. We cover this also in the post.

Thinking of Voice Recognition on the Mac? Have a look at the Demo videos from Nuance

With the recent release of Dragon Dictate version 3 for Mac from the people at Nuance many are keen to try this technology. Typically held back by the "i'm not sure I would use it" little voice in your head or by a bad experience of two with Siri, voice recognition on your Mac is a whole different ball game. Why?

Well first of all it's running on your Mac. You super powerful (compared to your iOS device) computer, with plenty of ram for all that complex voice to text conversion. Powerful enough to process your spoken words on your machine instead of recording and sending your audio off to a remote server for processing which is how Siri works.

Not only that but by keeping your spoken dictation local you build on your personal voice profile, Dragon will learn from what you actually say. The more you use it the more accurate it becomes for your style of dictation and the words you commonly use.

But me telling you all this is great but you really need to see Dragon Dictate 3 in action. The lovely crowd over at Nuance have created a few "how to" and demo videos of Dragon Dictate 3 in action. I have accumulated all of them into one blog post and I describe what you are viewing in layman's terms so that you can understand exactly what you can achieve with speech recognition software on the Mac.

Click here to head to our main blog with the post showing all the Dragon Dictate 3 demo videos

Use Streaming Audio To Make Your Blog More Interesting and Accessible To Vision Impaired People

Recently I started to add streaming audio of my blog posts being read aloud on my main blog - idictate.com.au. The original intention was for vision impaired people however the side-effect was that lazy/time poor people could also benefit from having blog posts read aloud to them.

The idea originated after Olympus started to design digital voice recorders with the vision impaired people in mind. This started with using tactile keys and progressed to having a feature called "voice guidance" built into most of the digital voice recorders. Voice guidance prompt the user at every press of a button so that they are aware of what they are selecting, particularly useful to the vision impaired as the screens on digital voice recorders can be quite small and difficult to read. Olympus have gone one step further with the DM-5 digital voice recorder which also supports Daisy Consortium books and can read aloud text from a file.

To facilitate the streaming audio in my WordPress blog I use a service called Sound Cloud.

Please click here to hit to my main blog where you can see streaming audio of my posts in action.

This blog post was written using Dragon Dictate 3 from Nuance, voice recognition software for the Mac.

Olympus Pro Dictaphone Users Unable To Load Their Audio Into Dragon Dictate 3 Transcription Module

A slight issue has been found when using the Olympus professional digital Dictaphone's (DS-7000,DS-5000,DS-3500,DS-3400) with Nuance's new voice recognition software for the Mac, Dragon Dictate 3.

The problem seems to be around the conversion of the native audio format recorded on the pro dictaphones - .DS2 - when converted to a format required by the transcription module in Dragon Dictate 3.

The error when loading the file for transcription is:

The file "filename", cannot be transcribed
Dictate cannot use files with sampling rates below 22.050 kilohertz.

Olympus' own software for the Mac, DSS Player Plus version 7, only converts .DS2 audio files to 16 kHz audio files, Dragon Dictate 3 requires 22 kHz audio.

We have contacted our people at Olympus in Sydney and have advised them of what we have found. I understand the Olympus audio development team are now also aware of this issue and will be looking at a possible upgrade to the DSS player plus version 7 software in the near future.

There is a way to convert the .DS2 to audio files to 22 kHz audio and that is using the Sonority software which is supplied with the higher end digital voice and meeting recorders from Olympus (like the DS-3/DS-5/LS-3/LS-10 etc). However, this software is not easily found as an online download and we are working with the Olympus to see if this can be made freely available.

For more information please visit our main blog post on this issue - click here.

This blog post was dictated using DragonDictate three by

This blog post was dictated using the Dragon microphone For iPhone and Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac.

[Mac] Olympus DSS Player Update to v7.3.2 - Mountain Lion Compatible

Olympus in Australia have just released an update to the DSS Player Software for Mac taking it to version 7.3.2.

This is a free update with only two key components, Mountain Lion compatibility and higher security encryption of your digital dictation files by encrypting at 256bit.

DSS Player Plus dictation software for Mac is supplied with the Pro line of Olympus digital dictaphones, the DS-7000 and DS-3500.

Click here to head to our main blog for the download link for DSS Player Plus update to v7.3.2

Voice Recognition Software for Mac - Dragon Dictate 3 - Now Transcribes From Recorded Audio Files

After years of waiting, this key feature, voice recognition from your recorded audio, will now be available on the Mac with the release of Dragon Dictate 3 from Nuance.

This feature has been available for a very long time in the Windows world with the Premium and Professional versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking being able to transcribe from an audio recording of your speech made on a digital voice recorder or dictaphone. Indeed many doctors and lawyers make use of Dragon for fast turnaround of transcription rather than burden a secretary.

Announced as one of the key improvements in Dragon Dictate for the Mac along with faster and more accurate transcription in a recent press release from the Nuance US headquarters.

Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac will be Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) compatible and will be able to transcribe .MP3, .WAV, .M4A, .M4V, .MP4, .AIF and .AIFF audio recorder on a digital voice recorder or digital dictaphone. Dragon Dictate 3 will also transcribe audio recorded on Nuance's own Dragon Voice Recorder app.

For more details on this new release and for information on how to get Dragon Dictate 3 to transcribe your .dss or .ds2 digital audio files head to our main blog by clicking here.

Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac - Nuance Announce Faster, More Accurate Voice Recognition

Finally, the day I and many of my customers have waited a couple of years for - the announcement of the release of Dragon Dictate for Mac version 3 (currently at version 2.5). Why have we waited so long for this particular release of Dragon?

TRANSCRIPTION FROM RECORDED AUDIO !!

That's why there are squeals of excitement coming from the Dictate Australia office. If I had a dollar for every person I have spoken to over the last couple of years about transcription from recorded audio for Dragon on Mac I would have a couple of hundred dollars at least. So for all of you who have called, emailed and followed my blog waiting for it - here its is.

Audio recorded on digital voice recorders and of course the Dragon Recorder app can be transcribed by Dragon Dictate 3 along with directly spoken voice.

Head to our main blog for details on the supported audio formats, the full Nuance Press release and a whats new in Dragon Dictate 3 video for your visual viewing pleasure.

Not to overshadow all the over great bits that Nuance have crammed into Dictate 3 for Mac, like every Dragon release it is faster and more accurate than previous versions.

Olympus ODMS Dictation & Transcription Module Free Trial Download

The latest dictation and transcription module software from Olympus now called ODMS (Olympus Dictation Management System) comes in the box with the Pro digital dictaphones (DS-7000 and DS-3500) and with the Pro transcription kit (AS-7000).

But if you want to get your hands on the software and have a look at what it does and how to use it then you can thanks to the trial mode offered during the install of the software. Trial mode will let you install either dictation module, transcription module or both standalone on your Windows PC.

The trial install is fully featured, you can use everything that the dictation module and transcription module has to offer. Need to convert a .ds2 file to .dss? dictation module will do that. Need to try out the new transcription software but only have a RS-28 foot pedal? transcription module works with that.

The trial lasts 60 days after which you can either uninstall or if you like it grab a licence key from an authorised Olympus Professional Voice reseller. In Australia that would be us, Dictate Australia.

Click here for full details on the ODMS free trial download. Including the download link, install step by step guide and Olympus part numbers for acquiring a valid licence ley.

Voice Recognition Coming To Apple's OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Announced this week at the Apple WWDC 2012 conference in San Francisco, California - Dictation to be built into the next iteration of OS X - Mountain Lion 10.8.

To start with the Dictation feature will be limited to speech recognition only in places that you can type.  Talk your tweets, chat your Facebook status and read aloud your emails.

I am willing to bet at least a $1 that we will see Apple build on this and introduce more voice controlled functionality to the Mac, like app launching, email sending and web browsing. Competition to Naunce's Dragon Dictate or a joining of forces?

Siri introduced the world to the concept of using voice to talk to our devices and have them understand us. Dictation will take that one step further. You can be sure the people at Nuance have got themselves are rather large corner office at One Infinite Loop, Cupertino !

For more thoughts on Dictation in Mountain Lion head to our main blog ..

Voice Detect Feature In The Olympus WS-812 / WS-813

When Olympus released their new range of WS series digital voice recorders early in 2012, perfect for interviews and meetings, they added three new features to the WS-812 and WS-813 digital voice/meeting/interview recorders (not on the WS-811). Those three new features are:

• Voice Detect
• Voice Balancer
• Voice Changer

In our latest post on our main blog we have a closer look at the Voice Detect feature. A feature with alot of promise although in its current evolution may not be as useful as it potentially could be.

Voice Detect when applied to a recorded audio file, like and interview, will remove white space or areas of recorded audio with no voice, thus condensing the audio so that on playback the spoken word will flow. This is a handy feature if you listen back to your audio on the recorder and take notes from your interview or meeting.

Why I say not as potentially useful as it could be is that audio processed with Voice Detect can not be exported in that state from the recorder. When you pull a voice detected audio file from the Olympus WS-812 or WS-813 across to your Mac or PC the audio reverts back to its original state - white space remains. If Olympus can find a way in future releases or in future firmware to allow export of Voice Detected audio we would see alot of very happy audio transcription  typists.

For now though, this feature will still be handy for some. To listen to a sample of audio with and without voice detect recorded on an Olympus WS-812 head over to our main blog - click here.

Olympus DSS Player Pro R5 for Windows - Update Available to R5.0.13

Olympus have released an update to their widely used DSS Player Pro R5 software, both the dictation and transcription module. The release takes R5 to version R5.0.13 and includes updates to make R5 compatible with the new Pro digital dictaphones the Olympus DS-7000 and DS-3500.

The update ensures that these devices are recognised and can sync with R5 dictation module although changes to the recorder settings (DS-7000/DS-3500) are not possible using DSS Player Pro R5.

Also updated is the ability in R5 dictation and transcription module to encrypt/decrypt audio files in 256bit. Prior to this release only 128bit encryption/decryption was possible.

Click here for the complete release notes for DSS Player Pro R5.0.13 on our main blog

[Mac] Olympus DSS Player Plus Upgrade To v7.3.0 Available

Ready for download is a small update to the Mac version of DSS Player from Olympus. In this release, taking DSS Player Plus from v7.2.8 to v7.3.0, Olympus have included compatibility with the new range of professional dictation dictation voice recorders - Olympus DS-7000/DS-3500/DS-2500.

Also, after a very long wait is compatibility with the DirectRec II range of hand held USB dictation microphones which allow direct record dictation to your Mac.

For the full detail of the release and for the download link click here for our main blog site

Compare Olympus DS-7000 vs DS-5000

It has been a few weeks now since Olympus announced the release of their new flagship digital dictaphone the Olympus DS-7000. This week officially marked the end of the Olympus DS-5000 in Australia as resellers and Olympus themselves run out of DS-5000 stock.

So what are the key differences between the Olympus DS-7000 and the Olympus DS-5000? Well surprisingly not that many - which is a good thing by the way.

Small tweaks have been made here and there along with improvements in the microphone, interface with Dragon NaturallySpeaking and better rechargeable batteries. That along with a swanky more modern look  and an update to the Dictation Module software from DSS Player Pro R5 to ODMS R6.

Head over to our blog to see in detail the exact differences between the Olympus DS-7000 and DS-5000 digital dictaphones.

Olympus Australia Leads The Worldwide Announcement - New DS-7000 Pro Digital Dictaphone

On a grey, wet Sydney day a small group of Olympus Australia's Pro audio dealers gathered in a harbourside restaurant to listen to an announcement from the Olympus Imaging MD. The secrecy surrounding the launch can only be compared to an Apple announcement, no matter how much probing of the Olympus Sydney team none would spill the beans, even a few minutes before the event.

I personally had done some Googling a few days before to try and get a hint of what was coming. I thought the DS-5000 may be replaced so had been looking, logically, for any DS-6000 rumours - none. Olympus threw me off the scent by going DS-7000.

So announced today is the new flagship pro digital dictaphone the DS-7000 alongside two other new recorders in the Pro dictation range the DS-3500 and DS-2500. All three will replace the current product line which consists of the DS-5000/DS-3400/DS-2400.

Also announced today a new professional digital transcription kit known as the AS-7000. Here we seen an all new kit: new transcription software going from DSS Player Pro R5 to release 6 now called ODMS (Olympus Dictation Management System); new four pedal transcription foot switch called the RS31; new under-the-chin transcription headset called the E62.

With a slightly redesigned shell, improved microphone and big colour TFT display (borrowed from the LS series) Olympus continue to stride forward as the leaders in digital dictation both on the Windows and the Mac platform.

To download todays Olympus Australia press releases and the new Olympus Dictation Product Brochure head to our main blog site (click the title above).

Olympus DSS Player R5 Pro - Free Download

The DSS Player R5 Pro software from Olympus is the key component software that accompanies the professional digital dictaphones (DS-3400 & DS-5000) in the form of the dictation module and comes with the professional transcription kits (AS-5000) known as the transcription module.

Often people require an additional copy of this software for another PC, maybe during a PC upgrade when they find that they have lost their licence key. Additionally people who are looking to try the Olympus digital dictation and transcription software would like to evaluate the software prior to making a decision on their purchase.

Also popular with digital transcription businesses looking for a way to convert DSS Pro .ds2 audio files to older style .dss audio files to save them upgrading their transcription software - this is possible in the Dictation Module.

Olympus are now offering a free 60 trial of this powerful software. Head over to our main blog for more details - click the heading above.

Dragon In Action - See It In Use To Dump Voice To Text

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me "I tried Dragon once ages ago and it was rubbish" I would have exactly $422 as of today!! We all know people who tried Dragon or know someone who knew someone who tried Dragon just a few years ago and was not impressed.

So the point of this blog is to show you exactly how good it is with a real time video of yours truly chatting to Dragon. You will be able to see exactly how accurate it is and how fast it is. Just head over to our main blog (click the title above) have a look at the short video I made.

Has it improved since just a few years ago? YES (sorry to shout) but YES. Why? Two simple factors:

1. The software continues to improve and develop
2. The huge amount of processing power we now harness in computers

Huge advances in computing power year on year have now made Dragon viable and useable in both the Mac and Windows worlds.

I Want To Be A Transcriptionist, What Do I Need?

Transcription, the process of listening to audio and typing it into words is a skill that has been around the office for many years as any office Personal or Executive Assistant will tell you. With the advent of the digital era not much has really changed in the transcription world other than tape recorders have been replaced by digital voice recorders and dictaphones. The analogue micro cassette tape transcriber has therefore evolved with the recorders and the noisy Pearlcorder clunking away on your desk has now been replaced by software.

Transcription typing which is not only a requirement for secretaries in the work place, especially in the legal and medical field, has also spread as a popular service offered by the many VAs (Virtual Assistants) that have cropped up as micro businesses around the world.

Whether you are a seasoned transcriptionist or a just learning the basics our latest blog post looks at what you will need to become a digital transcription typist. Click here or this posts heading to switch to our main blog.

Mac Users: How To Email Olympus Digital Dictation From DSS Player Plus v7

When you buy a top of the range digital dictaphone from Olympus (DS-5000 or DS-3400) and you are a Mac user you are supplied with a single install licence key for DSS Player Plus v7. This is the software that communicates with your digital dictaphone and lets you play and download your digital audio files.

The Mac software supplied by Olympus differs quite a bit from the Windows equivalent known as DSS Player Pro v5 Dictation Module - one key difference is emailing audio from the software is not included in the Mac software.

In this latest blog we look at how to email your digital dictation on a Mac. In typical Mac form it is quite intuitive, simply drag and drop.

Do You Love AudioBooks? How About You Help Make One ..

I was on a Google hunt today to find some classic stories read aloud for my children to listen to. I discovered a site called LibriVox.org which is a fantastic project to take public domain books and convert them into audio books.

Now LibriVox.org is not your slick sales machine like Audible.com but a volunteer run site that lets you access a huge catalog of free audio books and if you so desire contribute to the program by recording audio books.

In this latest blog post we look at ways you can use a digital voice recorder to record an audio book for the LibraVox project.

Journalism Tools Of The Trade - Digital Voice Recorder

We have all seen it, watching the news, someone needs to tell the world something so they call a press conference. The journalists are gathered, a mix of writers, TV and radio hanging on every word often thrusting something in the face of the person giving the press statement.

What are they thrusting? Microphones and digital voice recorders. For the writers in the press pack a digital voice recorder is an essential tool of the trade, able to quickly power on and grab crisp clear spoken audio for later reference when writing up and article or grabbing a quote.

In our latest blog post we look at the types of digital voice recorders used by journalists, click the heading to be taken there.

Dragon Voice Recorder Edition aka DVR - Worth Buying?

The Dragon Voice Recorder Edition commonly known as DVR is a cut down version of the powerful voice recognition software for Windows from Nuance.

DVR is bundled with a low end digital voice recorder, generally either an Olympus, Philips or Sony depending on your geographical location - in Australia we tend to see the bundle with a Philips Digital Voice Tracer (DVT).

So what exactly is the DVR edition and is it worth the money? Head over to our main blog for a closer look at the missing features of this bundle and the alternatives you might want to consider. Click the heading above to read more.

Microcone - Australian Designed Meeting Microphone Wins A MacWorld Best In Show 2012 Award

A new microphone has arrived and is set to make a challenge for dominance in the small meeting voice recording market. As a change from the norm this is not a self contained unit which is the most popular current design. Instead the Microcone uses the power of what is on most peoples desk already, their Mac to record audio from around the award winning hexagon shaped array microphone.

Already showered with awards, and not just small ones; Australian Design Award last year and to top that a Best In Show Award at the 2012 MacWorld expo in its very first showing the Microcone has already caught the eye of the ever critical tech crowd.

Microcone has been designed by Australian company Dev-Audio who are based on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Dev-Audio released their first offering on the Mac App Store to coincide with MacWorld called Microcone Recorder which facilitates the control of the mic along with numerous audio tagging features.

More over on our main blog including some sample audio recorded on the Microcone, click the title above.

New WS Series Digital Voice Recorders From Olympus

Announced in early January 2012 by Olympus Voice we will this year see a new range of WS series digital voice recorders around the globe. Australia can expect them early Q2, Europe already has them and also the US I believe.

The new range consists of the WS-811, WS-812 and the WS-813 and in Australia will replace the current range - WS-650S, WS-750M and WS-706M. Note the trailing letter off the model number has finally been dropped - S was for stereo and M was for music, no longer really relevant as these and so many other features are consistent in the Olympus digital voice recorder range.

What was a surprise to me was no huge increase in memory with the recorders keeping 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb of internal memory - all however have a microSD slot if you you need more memory it is easily added.

Of the three, the WS-812 and WS-813 are fully featured with the new voice functions included (balancer, playback and changer), PCM recording and on the WS-813 there is also an FM radio.

New Innovative Features In WS Series Olympus Recorders In 2012

Olympus were on hand at CES 2012 this year, in force with their cameras and also this year with some new digital voice recorders set to join the line up this year. What caught our attention was not so much the usual changes to the ranges (better mics, more modern design etc) but some innovative functions being built into the recorders themselves.

Its all about the voice in 2012 and Olympus have picked up on a couple of pain points from digital recordings and improved them. Built into the new WS-812 and WS-813 digital voice recorders are three new features:

• Voice Balancer
• Voice Changer 
• Voice Playback

To learn a little more about these features and what they do click on the heading of this post to head to our main blog site.

What Is The Latest Model Olympus Voice Recorder To Replace Your Discontinued Model?

Olympus voice are constantly evolving their product range. As new technology becomes available and as memory prices continue to fall Olympus refresh their product lines.

Often we have customers who use their digital voice recorders for years and then decide to upgrade or replace their older model digital notetaker or dictaphone. It can be difficult to find the latest equivalent model to replace your older voice recorder.

In our latest blog post I have listed as many old discontinued Olympus digital voice recorder models and show their current model equivalent.

For example, if you have been using your Olympus DS-4000 digital dictaphone for years and it has finally given up or you have upgraded to Windows 7 - a quick look at my blog post will show you that the Olympus DS-5000 or DS-5000iD is the current replacement model.

Click the title above to go to our main blog.