A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry


Any ideas?? - Tig


Posted: Feb 12, 2012

Help! I am transcribing from some tapes, yes tapes, and the sound quality is extremely poor.  Wondering if anyone knows if conference mode versus dictation mode makes any difference in sound quality.  Need to do something.  Digital would be best if I can convince them to change.  Thanks for any suggestions.

Sounds like an Olympus or similar? - Briana

[ In Reply To ..]
In my experience, the short answer is "no", conference mode would not be better.

The only things that I have observed to markedly improve the sound quality are:

1. Obtaining a decent-quality external mic for these units because the built-in mics are usually not very good.

2. Using tapes that are in decent condition. There's a lot of wear and tear on tapes and they don't last nearly as long as some penny-pinching doctors would like to think they do!

Thanks, just frustrated!! - Tig

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks! It's just really frustrating when it takes four times as long as it should to type a note because of poor sound quality.

I understand completely, believe me. - Briana

[ In Reply To ..]
When I were a whippersnapper back in the day (transcribing by the light of my lava lamps), I cut my teeth on tapes. Docs would buy, like, two tapes. One he's using, one you're transcribing, and you trade off. Back and forth, back and forth...

At the time, these tapes cost about $2 each, and if you asked him to get some new ones he acted like you'd asked him to run through the woods dressed up like a turkey the day before Thanksgiving. In redneck country.


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