Flying Saucer Spotted In Offices Turns Out To Be New Olympus ME-33 Microphone

Reports are surfacing of a strange, beautiful object appearing in board and meeting rooms world wide. The object is flat, round and shiny and has the inscription Olympus ME-33 Boundary Microphone on it.

This is a first, Olympus have taken inspiration from Philips (usually it is the other way around) with their new boundary mic the ME-33. Looking strikingly similar to the Philips LFH9172, the ME-33 sits unobtrusively on the desk and upto six can be chained together to cover a large area and therefore picking up audio from some very large meetings.

The ME-33 can be plugged into any Olympus digital voice recorder or dictaphone, for best results we recommend use with the DM-3 or the DS-3500. The ME-33 retails in AU for RRP AU$159.

New Olympus LS-12 and LS-14 Hit Australia - Musicians Can't Contain Their Excitement

Finally the long awaited replacements for the superb LS-3, which was discontinued down under later last year (2012), have arrived. Well nearly, the Olympus LS-14 is available in Australia now (April 2013), the cheaper LS-12 is expected next month.

Oh yeah and that bit in the title "Musicians Can't Contain Their Excitement", I made that up, I am assuming that they are as excited as I am. Why am I excited? The price, the LS-12 will retail for AU$199 and the LS-14 for AU$249. That is seriously cheap for studio quality digital PCM music recorders.

The LS-3 was good, the LS-12 and LS-14 are a step up again. Their features include:

• Mac & Windows compatible, always a given for Olympus
• Pre-record - it records before you hit the record button so never miss a cue
• Uncompress PCM WAV recording, and of course MP3 recording if you need it
• Digital metroname
• LS-12 has 2Gb built-in, the LS-14 has 4Gb - both expandable via SD card
• Over dubbing (LS-14 only)
• Tresmic Mics (LS-14 only)
• Chromatic Tuner
• Can be attached to a music stand

That is a long list of top quality music recording goodness, belt out your tunes and the LS-12 and LS-14 won't miss a beat, no clipping with these mics.

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.

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 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.

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.

Speak To Tweet - Dragon Voice Recognition Updates Twitter

In the latest round of software updates for Nuance's collection of voice recognition software for Windows (Dragon NaturallySpeaking) and Mac (Dragon Dictate) voice commands were added for status updates to Twitter (and Facebook) using just a voice command.

"Post to Twitter" is all you need to say to bring up a dialogue box ready for your speech recognised tweet.

Head to our main blog, click the title above, to see a quick how to video of my very first voice tweet.

Buying A Pro Olympus Digital Dictation Recorder - Look For The Pro Dealer

In Australia resellers of the Olympus Pro range of digital dictation voice recorders (DS-5000/DS-3400/DS-2400) and transcription kits (AS-5000/AS-2400) are selected by Olympus themselves. There are strict guidelines as to who can become an Olympus Pro Dictation reseller and currently there are just over thirty in Australia.

However, a number of websites are springing up selling the Pro range of Olympus recorders from companies who are not Pro resellers are are sourcing their stock from overseas, likely the US where the strong Australian dollar makes US purchases more favourable. So why should you buy from an official Olympus Australia Pro reseller? In our latest blog post we look at this question and list the Pro resellers in Australia. Click the blog title above to go direct to the article.

New Olympus DirectRec Series II In Australia

Out with the old and in with the new.

Old being the Directrec series I USB hand held dictation mics (DR-1000 and DR-2000) and the new being the Directrec Series II USB hand held dictation mics (DR-2100, DR-2200, DR-2300).

This isn't your standard replace for the sake of replacing either. The Series II are worth taking some time to have a look at. They have been ergonomically re-designed so fits in your hand alot more comfy which is a big deal when you consider the mileage these USB connected mics get.

Often used as an alternative to the traditional tape or digital dictation recorders, the Directrec in conjunction with the Olympus DSS Player Pro R5 dictation module software gives you a powerful dictating tool in your hand which records directly to your PC. All the new DR series come with a slide switch for easy dictation functions such as rewind/review and insert/over write. Plus the DR-2200 and DR-2300 also have a trackball for control of your computers mouse from the hand held mic saving you time swapping between mouse and mic.

But the big news with these new hand helds is their mics. Vastly improved over the older DR series the high quality mics in the DR-2100/DR-2200/DR-2300 have been certified as highly accurate with Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

The link with DNS is what is going to make these little units very popular in legal and medical practices all over the world.

Dictate Australia - Now Suppliers Of LiveScribe Echo SmartPens

Yes we are back selling the LiveScribe range of Echo SmartPens - these handy little gadgets can record your meeting, lecture or conference while you hand write notes. Not only that, they will link the audio to what you write. Simply tap any location of your text in your hand written notes and the audio plays back from the moment it was written, yes that is technology magic at its best.

We sold the original LiveScribe Pulse SmartPens when they first arrived in Australia, now we are back selling the full range of their latest digital voice recorder pen, the Echo.

Available now on our new evolving website with free delivery across Australia. Click here to have a peek at the 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb pen packages.

LS-3 - Latest PCM Music Recorder From Olympus Australia

With the discontinue of the LS-10 and LS-11 digital PCM music recorders earlier in 2011 there was an obvious gap in the Olympus Australia digital recorder range for music lovers.

That gap has now been fully filled by the awesome new Olympus LS-3 digital PCM music recorder. Just released into Australia the LS-3 comes with a couple of very cool new features.

First of which is the Tresmic microphone system. Secreted below the mic grills of the LS-3 are three seperate mics. The center mic is omnidirectional which enhances lower frequencies. Then two mics sits either side of the center mic which are high-performance directional mics. The center mic can be turned on or off, adjusting the frequency response.

The second very neat feature is a pre-record function. This is very clever, how many times have you gone to record something and not quite hit the record button in time? With pre-record on the LS-3 keeps a two second buffer of audio, as soon as you hit record the previous two seconds are then added to the recording making sure you never miss that moment again.

Complete with 4Gb of on board memory and a microSD expansion slot the LS-3 is available from Dictate Australia and has an RRP of $299 incl. GST

Express Scribe Now .ds2 Compatible

As of version 5.30 Express Scribe (Windows) can now load and play DSS Pro audio files, better known as .ds2 files, from both Olympus and Philips recorders.

A point of great angst for nearly two years now with the fleet of transcriptionists worldwide who dedicate their lives to audio typing using Express Scribe, the handy free software from NCH that will play just about every audio format known to man has finally overcome its greatest hurdle, the .ds2 file.

Prior to this update typists who received a .ds2 audio file had a few options:

• Ask the sender to convert to .dss or other compatible format
• Upgrade their own transcription software to a paid Olympus kit
• Buy software to convert the audio for them

So what are you waiting for, head over to http://www.nch.com.au/scribe and get the latest version and become .ds2 compatible. (Not yet Mac, just the Windows people).

Olypmus LS-20M Coming To Australia Any Day Now

One device we have had our eye on for some months now is the Olympus LS-20M which has been hugely popular over in the US. Why are we getting excited about this unit? Well it marks the start of a cross over between Olympus Imaging and their impressive camera knowledge and Olympus Voice with their just as impressive voice recording skills.

Squish the two together and you come up with the LS-20M, HD 1080p video mixed with PCM audio and you are onto a winner.
Olympus Imaging quietly snuck this into the latest Australian Olympus reseller price list released this morning (18th August 2011) maybe thinking nobody would notice. Perfect timing too with Father Day coming, Christmas on the horizon and on a personal note my birthday next week !
The Olympus LS-20M has an RRP of $449 incl. GST in Australia.

Its Here Australia - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Free Upgrade to 11.5

Finally, today I received a popup on my desktop to let me know that my free upgrade from Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 to 11.5 is now available for download, you can imagine the excitement (if you can't picture an old bloke, standing, punching the air going "whoop whoop").

Here's a tip, if you have more than one Dragon NaturallySpeaking to upgrade choose the download option, its a near 500mb file so will save you time and bandwidth.

If you are a Premium or Professional user, while you are waiting for the upgrade to download head over to your local iTunes store and grab the Nuance Dragon Remote Mic app for your iPhone, I think we are all going to love using our iPhone's to dictate wirelessly.

Latest Firmware v1.20 for Olympus DM-3 & DM-5

The latest firmware for the Olympus DM3 and Olympus DM5 digital voice recorders is available now for download and install. The update (from version 1.10) adds some new functionality to the DM-3 and DM-5 recorders, the list of updates from the previous release are:

1. Support the functions of USB microphone or Speaker.
2. Supports the function to register the voice keywords for the schedule.
3. Supports the function to register the voice memos for the schedule.
4. Supports the playback for audio files from the schedule list display.
5. Improve the volume setting when the text file is spoken out.
6. Supports to directly connect the device to CD drive and import DAISY contents from CD (Only for DM-5)

Not sure which firmware version you have on your Olympus DM3 or DM5? Head over to our main blog where we explain how to find your current firmware version: click here

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11.5 - An iPhone app, Twitter & Facebook Updates

Nuance last month announced a bump to Dragon NaturallySpeaking from version 11 to version 11.5. Whats new? Well just the usual: it's faster, it's more accurate, it's more user friendly and oh yeah, there is an iPhone app.

What the? Yep, rumours of Nuance and Apple cosying up together have been rife over the last few months and with an iPhone app Nuance are tipping a nod to the Cupertino resident as well of course to acknowledging the huge percentage of Windows users who love their iPhones.

The Dragon Remote Mic app (available now on an iTunes store near you) will use your iPhone (or iPad) across wi-fi to provide a wireless mic into Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

Surging ahead also in this release is easy voice integration to post Facebook and Twitter updates without lifting a finger or in my case lifting my legs from off my desk as I recline back in a relaxed dictating posture.

The excitement of the Dragon Mic app being available now soon subsides when you jump into NaturallySpeaking to check for updates - there are none, yet. Should be out mid to end July 2011 so check for updates regularly.

The Dragon Remote mic app is only for Premium, Pro and Legal users. All registered version 11 usres (yes including you people using Home) will get the free upgrade to version 11.5 via download when it comes out.

Read more and see some Nuance videos on how to post to twitter and facebook and also how to configure the remote mic app with NaturallySpeaking 11.5 over on our main blog.

Dear Santa - Olympus LS-20M Please !

About to launch in the US is the new Olympus LS-20M HD video camera and digital PCM recorder combo.

A new venture for Olympus taking their extensive imaging knowledge and combining it with their world class digital recording technology to come up with the beast known as the LS-20M.

Set to debut for a mere US$299 in June 2011 across America there are no plans as yet to see this device in Australia, but I have my fingers, toes and arms crossed hoping it will be here for Christmas. This will be the present from me, to me !!

Olympus Voice Announce DM-3 For Australia

Olympus this week advised its Gold Aussie resellers to expect a new recorder in their notetaker range, the DM-3.

Expected in June/July 2011 the DM-3 will join the already available DM-5 in the top tier of digital notetakers for recording meetings, interviews, conferences and focus groups.

To make room for the large colour screen DM-3 we will see the end of the hugely popular DM-450 and DM-550 recorders, some of the best recorders ever to come out of Olympus in my opinion. The DM-3 along with the DM-5 raise the bar just that little bit more, great work Olympus.

Free Olympus Camera When You Buy A DS-5000 / AS-5000 Bundle

In a first by Olympus Australia and I would guess the first of many we see a voice product linked with an imaging product. Testing the waters Olympus have started their first combined promo by offering a free Olympus FE-4030 digital camera if you buy a bundle of one Olympus DS-5000 (or DS-5000iD) Pro digital dictaphone and one Olympus AS-5000 Pro digital transcription kit.

This promo is only available from official Olympus Australia Pro dealers and only while stocks last so make sure you call ahead to check that camera stock is available.