Digital Voice Recorder Dictation Buying Guide
With analogue or tape based dictation systems becoming obsolete, many of the people who are looking at replacing their dictaphones from our range of Digital Voice Recorders available in the UKET shop are finding that digital voice recording dictation is more affordable and available to all. They are no longer the sole use of the Director or Human Resource manager, but just as likely to be used by students in lectures to medical professionals. There are not many online stores that tell you why you should go digital, so with this I hope this short guide will give you a brief introduction to the benefits of using digital dictation as to the more traditional tape method..

In brief Some of the benefits you can gain from using digital equipment:

    *        High quality voice recording.
    *        Digital devices are modern looking small, handy and lightweight
    *        Virtually unlimited recording capacity via memory cards or built in USB memory
    *        High compression rate and optimum playback through globally recognised formats ACT/WAV/MP3
    *        Easy editing, organising & archiving
    *        Store files on your PC / Laptop with fast USB 2 Data transfer.
    *        Ability to e-mail dictations from anywhere to everywhere! using remote office secretarial services.
    *        Record both sides of telephone conversations.
    *        Excellent sound quality.
    *        Digital date stamping of files.
    *        No need to purchase additional tapes, keep all files safe & secure.
    *        Latest Digital technology allows built in FM radios, variable speed playback and MP3 players.

      How to use your portable Digital Voice Recorder

When you dictate into a digital voice recorder, much the same way you would dictate into any handheld voice recorder you can simply uploads the files from their digital voice recorder to their computer. Uploading is simple, simply upload the files from the recorder, the recorder is connected to the computer with a USB cable (similar to those found with all digital cameras), this should be included with the digital voice recorder at time of purchase, or you could use a docking station.

At this point, the software either included with the digital voice recorder or other software (XP & Vista automatically detect the USB port and identifies what to do with the files), recognizes there has been a connection made and a window will pop up asking the user where the files should be saved. The recorded files can then be saved to the directory of choice.

Once the files are uploaded to the computer, the process is finished and the USB cable connection can be removed. For sending via email the author then opens their e-mail program and prepares a message to send to his/her transcriptionist/secretary and, using the "attach a file" feature available in most e-mail programs, attaches the digital files that were just uploaded and saved from their handheld recorder to a directory on their computer. The e-mail is then sent, encrypted, to the transcriptionist with the file attached.

E-mailing Digitally recorded files to recipients/remote secretary

      It is very important to note that each and every e-mail, especially those containing a digital file whose contents are personal and confidential information on individuals, should only ever be sent by encrypted e-mail. When the recipient receives the file, it can be opened and then brought into the PC/MAC audio player. Using the supplied software or other audio editing software the recipient can then manipulate the digital voice file with the software controls. A-B marking is a commonly used to repeat sections and mark important sections with flags to mark specific playback points.

 After finishing transcribing the files, the secretary simply e-mails the finished reports, as an attachment (digitally signed and encrypted, of course), back to the author's office for filing or printing there.

Things to think about when buying a Digital Voice Recorder

      Something else worth considering is the transfer of the data on the digital dictaphone. All digital dictating machines should have USB cables that you can attach in order to connect to the PC for transfer so you might want to think about docking stations to speed up the transfer process..

      Docking stations have 2 advantages, firstly for the ease of transfer of the data and secondly many of the professional dictating machines can have their rechargeable batteries charged up whilst in the docking station or connected with the USB Cable to the laptop/PC.

Some commonly found lingo & features found on Digital Voice Recorders..

SP LP - Short play / Long play the short play gives a higher audio quality whilst the long play enables longer recording at a reduced quality.
Backlight - Quite useful if you want to record and operate in the dark (venues/lectures etcs)
Recording bit ratio - generally the higher the number the better the quality and is measured in bits per second.
Memory - Could be built in or use compact flash / SD / mini SD memory cards, all are measured in MB. 256 MB recorders should record approximately 70 hours of recording with 512MB recording upto 140 hrs and so on...
Microphone - many have built in microphones and some also come supplied with clip on mics to use in interview situations.
Earphone/speaker - listen back on the go..If your recorder supports MP3 files then why not use it as an MP3 player and workhorse..Playback supports previously recorded ACT, WAV, MP3,MP2,MP1, WMA, WAV & ASF files.
Operating systems supported - check that your operating system is supported, generally if your OS is compliant with USB devices and has a sound card then you should not have a problem playing back the files.

If you are not sure, then please get in touch with me or have a browse of thethe UKET shop

many thanks
David Grant
UKET