All I ask is for clearly speaking dictators and good sound quality and I would be a
Posted By: Very happy camper on 2006-12-13
In Reply to: Considering getting out of MT. - Typingfool
nm
Complete Discussion Below:  marks the location of current message within thread
The messages you are viewing
are archived/old.
To view latest messages and participate in discussions, select
the boards given in left menu
Other related messages found in our database
Is the dictation quality good, are the dictators good, are you
a newbie and you still have to look up lots of words .... The very first day I typed, with absolutely no education way back when, when you didn't have to have a degree/certificate or previous experience, I typed 665 lines. This was without an expander and I was not a fast typist. I can do 1000 lines in about 4 hours now on average.
Sound like a good guy who has the sense to realize he is not speaking to a machine.
Ebonic speaking dictators should be
classified as ESL dictators. Contractions, dropping letters, making up your own words make it much harder to transcribe. Since this is a verbatim account, with light editing allowed, I should leave all the verbage that is being used. 
The quality of the dictators is SM
pretty bad overall--even the Americans. I would say with most national services, the accounts are about 75% ESL (30% terrible ESL), 20% fast Americans who don't care and 5% really good gravy dictators.
This is for acute care dictation--large hospitals. Another problem is there are so many dictators in 1 facility that you hardly ever get the same ones day after day.
I think in QA you are seeing the low quality of MTs, not dictators sm
If I were you (and I admit I did QA for awhile and hated it, for so many more mistakes than the blanks they had sent to QA for) I would go back to MT. There is lots of money to be made, especially when you become familiar with dictators and accounts. I wouldn't do QA for anything. $15 an hour for QA versus $35 an our for MT. Go back to MT.
I think that depends on the quality. Do you honestly think there is good quality just throwing every
MT on any account like they are. I also think QA has been told to not waste a lot of time on blanks so I think the hospitals are getting a lot more blanks. I certainly have more when I get in a hospital I dont know and they talk 100 miles an hour.
Can you tell us who this is with the bad sound quality? nm
s
sound quality
I'm totally with you! I used a Lanier station for the first 15 years of my career and the sound quality was superb compared to the internet dictation. One thing you might try, if you have not already, is to make sure your speakers have a tone dial. Lots of these companies provide speakers that only have a volume dial or they want you to plug right in to the PC but there is no tone setting on the voice program. Turning the tone to high helps un-muffle the sound. Good luck!
Sound quality may/may not be the
the wav player but your sound card. You can get a new sound card or you can get a USB thing and bypass the sound card. I'm not sure exactly what the thing is called but the one I have is by Turtle Beach and is called Audio Advantage. I got it at Best Buy for about $30. You can Google and read about them. There are 3 different ones to choose from. I didn't think it made a huge difference, but I went on a working vacation once and didn't bring it and realized how much difference it did make. You can adjust all kinds of things on it, which will be a trial and error thing for you. If you have Win98 or less you can't access all the features though.
sound quality
I have had a couple of at-home jobs in which the dictation was received by phone line. Is it true that the sound quality is better this way? I am currently looking for a new job and wondering if dictation via internet will be a rude surprise in comparison. Appreciate any comments.
Sound quality.....MT : QA
This is an excerpt from a post from an MT some while ago and I AGREE 100% WITH IT:
'Is it me, have I totally lost it, or is the sound quality on the QASAR playback FAR better than the quality on the original job?
Last night I had job after job dictated by a gal who mumbles, speed talks, fades in and out, rattles papers, and it sounds as if she is talking through a shoe. I listened repeatedly. I had my husband listen. I even stuck the headset on the cat to no avail; none of us could understand her as she rattled off study meds.
This morning I check QASAR and while QA couldn't get everything she said either, the sound was crisp, clear, and sharp as a bell. I find this very frustating. If the sound on my end had been this good while I was transcribing I could have gotten the majority of these blanks and saved QA some work.'
I think the sound quality is not that great.
p
Laptop sound quality
I am looking at purchasing a Dell Vostro laptop but I have heard the sound quality with headphones is poor. Does anyone have any experience with the Vostro? Thanks. sz
Laptop sound quality
I am looking at purchasing a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop but I have seen reviews regarding poor sound quality when using headphones. Headphones are a must for me. Does anyone have any experience with the Vostro? Thanks! sz
I don't find less quality getting my sound - sm
through my home PC. In fact, it's digital, and my phone is analog, so I think it's better. It can be altered further with different headphones, too. Of course, I still do sometimes get some pretty bad dictation quality sometimes, but it apparently comes from the equipment at the dictating hospital.
I have no problems with sound quality...
so I think it just depends on your equipment/platform/specific hospital, etc.
Integrated Sound quality
Hi. I'm looking into buying a new computer from Dell, which has the integrated 7.1 audio. Does anybody use this? Is the sound quality good enough or should I think about adding a Sound Blaster card?
winscribe and sound quality question (sm)
I presently work for a company that used to have the hospitals call into their own in-house Dictaphone system. Recently, we have switched to using Winscribe and I notice that the sound quality has deteriorated. Why would this be? I'm not familiar with Winscribe or how it works so I'm not sure if the work is being re-recorded from the original Dictaphone system or what. Any thoughts?
Don't know if you can, but the sound quality is sure to be atrocious. Gets worse with every
s
Think this has been discussed before, but the sound quality will probably suffer if you do it. nm
s
Sound quality is 10x better than Express Scribe...sm
The settings are not as complicated either.
There are no preloaded files. You download your own files. I transcribed actual voice files using the trial version.
99.99% of SS dictators are HORRIBLE and the sound
quality is bad on top of that. Most any company will have ESL and I currently do roughly 80% ESL. I have 20 years' experience. I have NEVER had an ESL worse than I had with SS.
Your dictators sound like some of mine
yesterday. Your post is so funny. Don't you just love those ESLs? I sat here yesterday and usually have fast forward and hate to have to rerun a sentence back and back again trying to understand just simple English. Well, simple for us. Female dictators are just as bad!
I usually tell them about the poor sound quality and if it is not rectified I quit! nm
x
Absolute worst quality sound files in my
20 year career, the worst ESL dictators (and I currently do about 95% ESL), horrible management, system not user friendly, technical support a joke, ..... I wouldn't wish this company on my worst enemy. Don't know anything about the other company, though several recent posts about them don't have anything good to say.
Excellent sound quality and just leave me alone to work! nm
s
Poor sound quality, looking up proper names, sm
switching from one account to another, not enough work, repetitive stress injuries, accounts continually changing they way they want things done, uninvited guests, slow ISPs, inability to get broadband, accounts having server problems,lack of proper reference materials at hand (meaning MT word books and dictionaries), relying on Google 100%, visiting this and other boards, chocolate cravings, food cravings, extreme boredom, extreme fatigue, delirium.
I have no problem with the sound quality using Express Scribe.
There is a new version of ES available for download and you can improve files with their special audio processes. Bytescribe wave player is expensive (compared to free with Express Scribe) and ES is more versatile, IMO, having used both. ES will play a wide variety of file types, including .dss.
Depending on sound quality, lookups, fill-ins, ESLs, that's
s
Winscribe is fine where I work. But if a mic is malfunctioning, sound quality is suboptimal.
cc
Good for you! You sound like a very nice and generous person and you deserve all your good luck! nm
x
very good quality speakers
 Hi,
Does anyone have a particular brand name, other than Bose (much TOO expensive) of speakers that you use for you job. I had good amplified speakers that you can wear a headset with, but 1 of them is no longer any good. Warranty is over with. Any suggestions? Thanks
Being a former CMT by exam, thank you for speaking my mind! Good post!
x
What is a good quality USB foot pedal?
I am using the one that came with my Olympus AS-4000 PC Transcription Kit (foot switch RS25, if that means anything to anyone). After only about two months, the play and rewind pedal are sticking. And yes, it's clean - I actually use it barefoot because it is so small it's hard to feel the fast forward and rewind pedals with shoes on.
Does anyone have a foot pedal they have used for a long time and are still satisfied with it?
TIA.
Same as See Message, with good quality output... sm
...except for those periods when I just can't get into the groove, and then I go back and review.
Good question, JJ. In general, I punctuate and review as I go and regard looking back as a sign of inefficiency and that I need to concentrate better.
Regarding use of expanders, as mentioned, my experience is that they cut down a bunch on typos used extensively.
BTW, JJ is my short form for "has had." :)
Good workload, bad dictators! nm
Good dictators only on that account . . .
I get plenty of the stinkers, just like we all do. The accounts I don't share, and sometimes dread, are often short reports filled with lots of dead air in the sound file. They are also 90% ESLs. So don't think I skim off the cream. I don't.
I'm just saying it is impossible to cherry pick an account of all good dictators.
I work my butt off to make it. I'm not sitting here taking only the "good stuff" and leaving the crud for other MTs.
Being a high-producer is a good thing, but so is quality,
and by doing more and more high-quality work for less and less per line, we are cheating ourselves. The work is the same. Just because we can do more of it (regardless of software, etc.) doesn't mean that each line is worth less. The big companies are cheating us.
I wonder if the cherry pickers will be out of work when all the good speaking American doctors are
Gee, I will still be working because I'm grasping these ESLs pretty dang good, right along with ops and cardiology reports.
Ever come to like a specialty you used to hate, just because the dictators are so good?
In my case, it's cardiology. Used to CRINGE when I saw a cardiology report come up. But on my account, almost ALL the cardiology docs are great to transcribe. Now I actually enjoy these reports and have learned a lot about a specialty I used to hate!
Now, physical therapy will always and forever be my most detested specialty. I get really bored with all the stupid exercises and the patient saying his/her back hurts. Whose back DOESN'T hurt? The fact that PT on this account has some of the worst dictators certainly doesn't help any.
I find myself willing to research more for good dictators...SM
if I get a lazy, mushmouth speedtalker, I don't bother much. I mean, I definitely strive for accuracy with what I *can* hear, but if there are unintelligible parts, I leave a blank rather than playing it over and over and over and trying to get it. If they obviously don't give a rip, why should I?
Maybe a bad attitude, but why should I gyp myself out of $$ because some a$$ can't be bothered to E-NUN-CI-ATE!!
Have all the good dictators left the building?
I am so ticked. I work on VR and everything is nothing but a bunch of words that fit nothing, dictators cannot speak properly and VR throws in whatever. I am sick, I tell you, of dictators who don’t care. I am on my soapbox because I am so angry with having to listen to all this ______ (put in your own words here).
Nope. Being an anal retentive perfectionist is a good quality in an MT.
Even with multiple GOOD dictators, I still find it hard - sm
to do '8 hours' worth of transcription in less than 11-12 hours, mainly due to the lack of ability to make templates, as each doc does his H&P entirely differently. Also they want extraordinary accuracy, grammar clean-up, and proofreading done on each report. So a longish H&P can sometimes take an hour.
I agree. It's an impossibility for me even with years of experience AND good dictators. nm
m
The way I see it. Competing with national rates. If stable acct, good dictators. Bid low, get job
dd
For this account, I charge 0.12 cpl. It is very easy clinic stuff with good dictators, but ...
I also do tapes which are horrible so I'm considering upping my line rate especially if all this aggravation keeps up. When I first took the work, I thought I was being fair because the work was so easy, but then they asked me to do tapes and then work specific hours, print and deliver work three times a week. I wish I would have addressed more than TAT and line rate in the original contract. I do charge them a $5 per delivery fee because of gas prices, but still I think I'm getting the shaft.
Oh well, live and learn. I am negotiating for a local doctor's office here in my hometown, small one doctor office, and I'm here to tell you I will be negotiated every little detail right down to paper and toner charges!
Hahah!a! Funny typo: not quality 'scAre', quality 'scOre'. LMAO!...nm
nm
Wow. Does not sound good to me!
//
I thought quality was a given. Speed and quality are not mutually exclusive. sm
I maintain 99% accuracy above on my reports. However, the original question was regarding personal preference, and I have stated mine, and I respect your opinion as well. :-) I do think if I was working in an office or hospital setting, the setup you mentioned might be more profitable in the long run. There are too many interruptions and such when you have other people running in and out, phones ringing, etc.
I doubt that anyone but me really cares about the lines per hour it takes for me to do a report. They just want an accurate report in a timely manner. I take pride in my work, and would never just slop something out for the sake of the almighty buck. And, as an added incentive, I work for 2 companies, and one of them has my name on each report. I don't have a problem with it, but I did think it was a bit unusual at first.
Oh well ... I must confess that what I'd TRULY like is to be paid lots of money to just sit and play Battle Phlinx on Pogo all day long, but as of yet, no such luck. 
GET A GOOD SOUND CARD.
I was having problems understanding certain doctors. I changed the sound card in my computer and what a difference that made. It spend around 70.00 to do this but my production line count went up and my errors went down. Also, invest in a good pair of head phones. I spent 50.00 on a pair of Sony earbud earphones (noise reduction type) at Best Buy. They are the best of the best. Good luck to you.
|
