Olympus Imaging Australia Drop The Price On Popular Digital Notetakers

Olympus Imaging in Sydney, Australia announced yesterday that the RRP on a large number of their digital voice recorders mainly from the budget and low end had been revised and for the consumer its in the right direction - down.

The VN series (VN-8500PC,VB-8600PC), WS series (WS-650S, WS-750M, WS-760M), super cheap DP-20 and the super expensive DM-5 all got slashed.

The biggest saving came from the super slick DM-5, Olympus' first full colour screen digital voice recorder where a massive $100 was wiped from the RRP bring it down from $599 incl. GST to $499 incl. GST.

For all the prices changes please visit our main blog - idictate.com.au

Using Dropbox with the Olympus DS-5000 On A Mac To Auto Send Files

It is very rare to hear a Mac user complain but it does sometimes happen. One example of a whinging Mac user can be found when someone with an Olympus DS-5000 digital dictaphone who has switched from Windows to Mac realises that the Olympus software for the Mac is lacking an auto email function to get audio from their recorder to their typist or transcription service.

On a Mac the Olympus DSS Player Version 7 Plus software will convert your audio, will let you play your audio and you can even edit your audio but auto email it - no. So what can a Mac user do to save some time and automatically get their dictation across to their typist when their DS-5000 is docked - Dropbox.

Dropbox is an awesome free service which has been around for a while and automatically syncronises files in a special Dropbox folder on your Mac (or PC) with the cloud and with other computers linked to your Dropbox account and even your iPhone and iPad.

By using Dropbox in conjunction with the DSS Player Version 7 Plus software for Mac and by sharing a folder with your typist or transcription service you can easily share files with your transcription provider. Not only that, once they have completed transcription all they need do is drop the completed document in their Dropbox folder and it is instantly delivered back to you, securely.

For a closer look at using Dropbox with your Olympus DS-5000 as a transcription workflow solution on Mac head over to our main blog. To grab a copy of Dropbox for yourself - click here.

Olympus Microphones for Digital Voice Recorders

All of the current Olympus digital voice recorder range come with excellent high quality microphones built in, so why would you need to buy an optional mic from the range that Olympus voice offer?

The answer to that can be found in our latest post on our main blog - idictate.com.au

Essentially these are specialist situation microphones. E.g. if you need to record a phone call then the Olympus TP-7, if you record audio out and about and suffer from background wind noise then one of the noise canceling mics, if you are a presenter and need to record your speech, lecture or presentation then the Olympus ME-15 tie pin mic.

We look at these Olympus microphones in more detail, compare them and have some close up pictures to show you exactly what they look like.

Olympus DM-5 - Morphing from Digital Voice Recorder to Multi Function Device

The latest digital voice recorder from Olympus, the DM-5, has broken free of its voice recorder only genre and moved into a fully functional digital media device. Sure, like all Olympus recorders you get the best audio recording from the built in high quality stereo mics but with its monster 8Gb of internal memory it opens up the DM-5 to alot more uses.

Music player, file storage, image viewer, audio book player, text files proofreader and DAISY consortium file player the Olympus DM-5 breaks the voice recorder mould. With an emphasis on helping the vision impaired Olympus continue to make their devices as user friendly as possible with features like voice menu prompts.

The zoom mic is also a feature of this digital voice recorder, head over to our main blog for an extreme audio demo of the zoom mic in action recording passengers on a speeding train that could not be physically heard.

Compare Olympus DM-450 vs DM-550

If you can have a favourite digital voice recorder then the Olympus DM-450 or DM-550 would have to be it. Packed full of features, looks good, easy to use, superb audio pickup and recording and Mac and Windows compatible you really can't ask for much more.

Easily one of our best selling units the DM-450 and DM-550 can do it all; record meetings, lectures, conferences and for the journalists if you don't have one of these units you are not serious about your sound bites. For the nature lovers, those who like to record bird song or frog call the DM-550 with its linear PCM recording will appeal to you and the creative musicians amongst us the DM-550 will capture every chord in glorious high quality PCM and with adjustable record levels.

So what are the subtle differences between the Olympus DM-450 and DM-550 other than the colour of the shell? Head over to our latest blog post where we review the recorders and showcase their features.

Going Digital - Compare The Olympus Dictaphones

Olympus, the leaders in digital voice in Australia and most other parts of the world, have three digital dictaphones in their Pro and advanced range of digital voice recorders. Typically used by single speakers (people who dictate on their own) to record letters, notes etc these are popular in the medical and legal sectors.

Digital dictaphones differ from digital notetakers in that they can stop and start audio, emulating the old style tape recorders - whereas notetakers are designed to record with a defined start and stop, e.g. when recording interviews, meetings, lectures and focus groups.

In the Olympus range are three digital dictaphones - DS-2400, DS-3400 and DS-5000. In our latest blog post we compare these three in detail and explain the differences between each. We also offer some advice for people looking to upgrade from analogue tape dictaphones to digital.

In Australia these digital dictaphones are only available from authorised Olympus Pro dealers, look for this logo when shopping in Australia. Dictate Australia ( www.dictate.com.au ) is an Olympus Gold Pro Dealer.

Changing from analogue tape dictaphones to digital - some things you should know

If you have been using a tape dictaphone recorder for a few years, maybe a micro cassette or even a mini cassette the thought of changing and going digital my worry you. After all, the trusty cassette has been around for years why would you ever need to go digital?

Well in our latest blog we look at the top three digital dictaphones from Olympus and some compelling reasons as to why digital is not just better but is way ahead of your trusty tape dictaphone. The fact that analogue tape is being phased out, not just by Olympus but also the other players in the voice market should be reason enough to go digital. Rather than wait until forced to do so when your analogue dictaphone and its moving parts finally give up and can not be replaced.

We look at the full range of professional digital dictaphones from the DS-2400 to the DS-3400 and up to the top of the range DS-5000 and its more secure partner the DS-5000iD. We look at the differences between the three, most people are interested to read that the recording quality is exactly the same with all three recorders, its the features that beef up the recorders as you move up the chain.