Transcription Software: Compare Express Scribe vs Olympus Transcription Module

For many years Express Scribe from NCH Software has been a favourite of many small work from home micro-businesses worldwide. Starting out as free transcription software which could play just about any audio file format Express Scribe soon became the go to software for the Virtual Assistant industry.

Things changed when NSH up'd roots and moved to Denver, Colorado to grow their huge US business following. Express Scribe split in two in an attempt to monetize this software gem, a free version supporting a handful of common audio formats and a paid Pro version supporting everything. The plan was a good one until claimed support of the new .ds2 audio format left many a typist frustrated at poor .ds2 audio playback.

Olympus meanwhile kept on their focussed path of providing a stable version of their transcription module software. Starting out life called DSS Player Pro in version 4 then 5 and more recently at version 6 where it took on a name change to ODMS or Olympus Dictation Management System.

With the growth of the .ds2 (DSS or Digital Speech Standard Pro format) used predominantly by Olympus, Philips and Grundig the Olympus transcription module is becoming popular with outsource transcription providers looking for stable transcription software as well as the traditional base of medical and legal practices.

In our Dictate UK blog we delve a little further into the Express Scribe history and offer some reasoning behind NCH's struggle to play .ds2 audio files.