I interview a lot of entertainers and having an audio recorder has been very helpful, from college years of using mini-cassettes to having to use my smartphone or digital camera. But I needed an actually audio recorder.
I looked at the Philips Voicetracer which has Dragon Speech Recognition Software.
First, let’s discuss the Voicetracer, it’s very easy to setup and recording is a breeze. It does take sometime getting used to.
For one, I was getting freaked out because the actual audio coming out of the Voicetracer can hardly be heard and wasn’t sure if I was recording things right, until I listened to it the MP3 recordings and realized that is where I would have to listen to things not on the recorder itself. Granted, you could plug in headphones or wired earbuds but I feel it’s best to just listen to it on your computer.
Second, it takes some time to separate recordings. Each time I recorded, it kept appending to the end of an audio file, making one huge audio file which I didn’t want. So, you kind of have to figure that one out. There is also no pause or rewind. So, just record and listen to the MP3 via transferring it to your phone or computer to listen.
A great thing about the files is that the files are small, the device has 8GB build-in memory and has a memory card slot. If you don’t want to record in MP3, you can record in PCM. Note: I used the free VLC Player (which you can download online) to listen to the MP3’s.
I also like the fact the device has 2 high-fidelity microphones.
Now, I get to the part which many people may wonder about…Dragon Speech Recognition Software.
I have a love/hate relationship with Dragon Speech software. For one, I believe it’s great, especially for those who have injuries and need a dictation software that works. The software works well, that it remembers your speech patterns overtime. But Dragon to its present incarnation to the past, is known for being a memory hog that you’ll need to restart your PC/laptop several times a day. I was hoping the VoiceTracer Dragon software isn’t as memory intensive as Dragon Professional 15.
But I installed it and hoping that it will save me hours of work from transcribing, as I tend to have to get the interviews setup on MS Word or Adobe InDesign.
First step is going to the Philips website for the device and enter the serial number (Sticker is on back of the recorder) and downloading the software which is 3.9GB.
Installing the software (make sure Microsoft apps are shut down), the serial number information is found on the instructions (front page of booklet).
For the most part, the Dragon Dictation works but expect to edit a lot (especially for punctuation). But the software was useful.
If anything, it’s a good audio recorder but far from perfect. It’s not going to be easy for some people, but those who have a little tech savvy within them to figure things out will like this audio recorder.
