If you’re planning on getting into the profession of trancription, you’re going to need the tools of the trade.

I’ll give you a quick run down of some of the gear you should plan to have.

I know that many transcriptionists work from home, so you may also want to check out my tips for setting up a home office.

Transcribers

You’re going to need something that can play back your recordings and, no, audio playback programs already (like iTunes or Windows Media Player) on your computer aren’t going to cut the mustard.

If you’re going to be dealing strictly with digital files, software like Gear Player or Quikscribe should suit your needs nicely.

If you’re going to be working with cassettes, then you’re going to need to get a separate machine to playback the various formats – standard cassette, micro cassette, mini cassette.

Philips, Dictaphone, and Sony all make excellent transcribers – and don’t be afraid to pick up used equipment on eBay – often times it has years of life left on it and can be purchased for up to 80% of what you’d spend getting brand new equipment.

Foot Pedal

Every transcriptionist finds that the foot pedal is often her best friend.  It allows you to keep your hands free to do the typing and to easily go back on a recording without your fingers ever leaving the keyboard.

Most cassette transcribers come with the foot pedal.  For digital transcription, make sure you get a USB foot pedal.

Headset

The key here is to get something that is going to be comfortable to wear a long time.  I’ve purchased headphones for as little as 99 cents in the past for listening to music and threw them away after a few minutes.

The headset I have now can be worn comfortably all day.

Other Transcription Equipment To Consider

• Line Counting Software
• File Moving / Encryption Software
• Spell Checkers (For legal, medical, and pharmaceutical transcription)
• Text Expanders

Dragon Naturally Speaking offers a transcription aid program that will do a lot of the transcription for you… automatically.  It can’t do all the transcribing for you, but you’ll be amazed how good voice recognition software is getting.

Mac Compatible Transcription Software

Many software suites are compatible with the Mac, just make sure you check first.  One that I know off the top of my head this will work on a mac is the Olympus AS-5000 Transcription Kit.

In the world of dictation and transcription, there is one name that is almost universally recognized… Dictaphone.

While there are plenty of other makers of dictation and transcription equipment like, Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, and Philips; Dictaphones are often considered the best you can get.

Currently the company is owned by Nuance Communications, which also makes the top speech reconition software suite on the market, Dragon Naturally Speaking.

If you’re looking for one of their transcribers, I’ll give you my recommendations for each category.

Best Digital Transcriber

Dictaphone 0421 C-phone Connexions Station

Features

• 21 Programmable Keys / Macros
• LCD Display
• External Speaker
• Complete Thumb Control
• Also A Full Featured Phone

Best Standard Cassette Transcriber

Dictaphone 2752

Features

• Adjustable Automatic Backspace
• Built-in Speaker
• Tape Counter
• Speed Control
• Tone and Volume Controls

Best Micro Cassette Transcriber

Dictaphone 3752K

Features

• Last Word Locator
• Display Window

Best Mini Cassette Transcriber

Dictaphone 1742

Features

• Tape Counter
• Last Word Locator
• Alert / Warning Tones
• Fast Play
• Speed Controls
• Auto Backspace

The real trick is finding the companies that can do a job that’s up to snuff without breaking the bank.

Keeping Transcription Costs Down

Before I get into my recommended companies, let’s cover a few things you can do on your end to keep your transcription costs down.

The better quality your recording is, the easier it will be to transcribe.  Your goal should be to provide clean, crisp recordings with minimal background noise.

One way to do that is to use high quality recording equipment.  For example, if you use a portable voice recorder, then make sure it’s a good one (the Olympus DS-4000 is a favorite among heavy users – it’s just recently been replaced by the DS-5000, though).

If your recordings are going to be made via the phone, you’ll find you get better audio quality using a landline phone than a cell phone.

Also, rates will go up if you have multiple speakers on the recording.  For example, if you’re recording a meeting with 5 participants that all need to be tracked, you’re going to pay a lot more than you would per minute for a phone interview.

Also, if you’re in no particular hurry, you can get far better rates.  One popular services, Casting Words, will do your transcription at rates as low as $.75/minute as long as you’re willing to wait a couple weeks to get your recording.

Best Affordable Transcription Companies

• Casting Words
• Verbal Ink (Formerly Escriptionist)
• GMR Transcription
• AffordableTranscription.net
• InteleANTS

Outsourcing

If you’d rather outsource and know who will be doing your work, you can try out one of these services:

• oDesk
• Rentacoder
• Elance
• Guru

Virtually anything can be transcribed these days including (but not limited to):

• Seminars
• Teleseminars
• Webinars
• Speeches
• Lectures
• Meetings
• Interviews
• Dictations
• Conferences
• Teleconferences
• Podcasts
• Videos
• Focus Groups
• CDs
• DVDs
• Tapes
• LPs

I remember when I was in high school (many moons ago… in the 90s) one of my friends let me borrow a new program that allowed you to “type” on the computer by “speaking.”

Up until that point, the only time I experienced voice commands was when watching Star Trek or some other sci fi show.

The software is actually still around today – Dragon Naturally Speaking – but back then it was a shell of it’s current self.

Back then, you had to spend a good two hours reading text to the software so it could learn your voice and even then it wasn’t all that accurate.

As it turns out, voices are pretty complex things and it requires a lot of processing power to understand them.

Current limits are still obvious when you use something like Visual Voicemail.  I use it with my Google Voice account, and the only ones it can get 90%+ accuracy with are the voicemails done by a computer.  I can usually get the gist of the message left by regular people, but there are plenty of times where it’s complete gibberish.

Even in 2010, voice recognition still works best in a closed enviromnent.  For example, if you call customer service for just about any major company now, you’ll be greated by an automated system.

In their system there are a limited number of commands available to you at any given time… frequently yes, no, help, operator, and sometimes numbers 1-10 and letters A-Z.  It’s a whole lot easier for a computer to figure out what you’re saying when you’ve got 50 or so choices vs the entire English language.

Another example is my new smartphone.  I have an Android powered phone and Google being all about “search” has a pretty good “voice search” program running on the phone.  There are still plenty of times where it has no idea what I’m saying, but if you’re careful to speak slowly, clearly, and in an enviromnent with as little background noise as possible, it’s pretty accurate.

Speech To Text – Transcription Software

Speech to text software has been making pretty big strides recently.  Right now software like Dragon Naturally Speaking can do an excellent job with software based transcription if it only has once person’s voice to deal with.

It’s still not up to the task of handling multiple voices so meetings, phone calls, or anything with a lot of background noise is still out.

However, if it has to be 100% accurate you’re still going to need a human to do the transcribing.  There are plenty of online solutions like Casting Words that can do general transcription economically.

Voice Recognition Software Manufacturers:

• Nuance Sofware – Dragon Naturally Speaking
• 3M Voicescript
• Windows Speech Recognition
• MacSpeech Dictate
• e-Speaking
• Eloquently Stated
• Wizzard Software – Interactive Voice Assistant
• ViaVoice

Companies like Google have also been spending millions on voice recognition research.  If you purchase an Android phone, you can see some of their early results by using the voice commands and voice search on the phone.

Right now, most consider Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred and Professional to be the best pieces of software in the voice recognition market.

If most of your dictating will be done from your desk, then a standard cassette transcriber may be sufficient for you needs.

In the old days before micro and mini cassette recorders were popular (or now digital), they did make portable dictation devices that used standard sized cassettes, however I haven’t seen one of those in years.   I had an old Dictaphone in my office for a while, but it was so big and bulky that it wasn’t going to go in my pocket.

If you’re going to be doing professional transcription, then you’ll probably want to keep a transcriber that will take standard cassettes even though most of your work will probably be done using micro cassettes and digital.

A good one for light duty work is the Panasonic RR-830.  It’s reasonably priced, but if you’re to be working with cassettes on a regular basis, something like a Sony BM-77T or a Dictaphone 2752 will serve you much better.

Dictaphone is going to be the most expensive of the bunch, but it’s also hands down the best.

One thing I really recommend avoiding is trying to transcribe from a tape player.  If it’s an emergency and that’s all you’ve got, ok, but otherwise get something with a foot pedal and a comfortable headset.

The foot pedal will allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard so you can type and the headset will allow you to hear words more accurately.

Dictators vs Transcribers

Deciding which device to get really depends on which end of the recording you’re going to be one.  If you’re the one making the recordings and doing the dictating, then you’ll want a dictator or voice recorder as their feature set is best suited for capturing audio.

If you’re going to be doing the transcribing, then get a transcriber.

Digital Transcription Software

Some programs like Dragon Naturally Speaking can to a servicable job of transcribing a recording without any human intervention provided there is only once voice on the recording.

However, anything that uses technical terms, names, jargon, meetings, or phone conversations will require the expertise of a human transcriptionist.

Manufacturers

While I almost exclusively recommend going with Dictaphones, here are some of the best manufacturers of transcribers and dictators:

• Dictaphone
• Sony
• Philips
• Panasonic
• Olympus

Recommended Transcribers:

• Dictaphone 2752
• Panasonic RR-930
• Sony M 2000

Budget Transcription Equipement

If you’re on a tight budget, get used gear.  You can get up to an 80% discount by buying older models of the high end equipment.

You’re far better off getting high quality used equipment than going for the cheapest item you can find that’s brand new.  eBay is a good place to start, but Amazon has a pretty good selection of used equipment as well.

The one exception I’d make is to make sure you get a new headset – maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather not use anything that’s spent a large portion of time in someone else’s ears.

Just as with every other form of electronic communication, the world of dictation and transcription is going digital.

It has several advantages over the old method of using tapes for dictation.

One that your transcriptionists are sure to appreciate is how much easier it to clean up noise.  In just a minute or two, a noisy and hard to transcribe recording can be cleaned up and be relatively easy transcribe.  If you’re using tapes, the process is unwieldy and cumbersome.

Another consideration is backup and archival.  If you need to go back and get the original recording off a tape, it can take some time to locate it and find it.

On the other hand, a 1TB hard drive (costs about $100) can store nearly 25,000 hours of audio.

Computer Software

There are a few software suites on the market so you can do all your dictation on the computer and then immediately send it to your transcriptionist whether she be down the hall or across the country (and recordings can be encrypted).

Also, you no longer have to wait for your tape to be full – just do your dictating and send it off to be transcribed as soon as your done.

There are two very good software suites worth considering – Quikscribe and Winscribe.

Best Brands

If you’d rather stick to standalone units (many still do), you’ll find the top brands in digital dictation are Dictaphone, Philips, and Sony.

Recommendations

If you need the best of the best, Dictaphone is the head of the class and the 0421 C-phone is an amazing piece of equipment.  It’s not cheap, but I’ve never head anyone complain about them.  If buying new isn’t quite in the budget, just head on over to eBay, you can pick up a used model at an excellent discount.

Two others worth considering are the Philips Desktop 9750 and the Sony M2020A.

Have anything you’d like or anything you feel I left out in the world of digital dictation equipment… let me hear it by posting in the comments below.

So you’re interested in becoming a medical transcriptionist and now you want to know what kind of gear you’ll need.

I’ve put together this quick little guide to help you make sure you well equipped as well as give you a few specific recommendations on what to keep in your office based on my 9 years of having a home based business (trust me, you learn a trick or two in that time).

Dictation Equipment

While the actual device the doctor uses doesn’t matter all that much to you, it certainly matters what kind of format they’re using because you’re going to need equipment to play it back so you can transcribe it.

Not a lot of doctors use standard cassette recorders so you probably don’t need to invest in one or you can get a cheap one off eBay in the even it comes up.

You will almost certainly run into both microcassete and mini cassete formats, however.  To the untrained eye they look similar and, honestly, a lot of people use the words interchangablely – just remember they’re not.  You can either get two separate units get one that’ll play both like the Olympus T-2020 Transcriber.

Digital dictation is starting to really take hold these days and that’s good news for you.

With digital, you can just use your computer and some transcription software to do your job.  You’ll probably want to get a USB foot pedal to plug into your computer to allow you to control the playback as easily as you can on a regular dictation unit, but otherwise digital is better.

I think you’ll really appreciate the fact that it’s easy to clean up noise with filtering software.  With analog tapes, it’s a pain to clean up noise – with digital it’s a piece of cake, heck, the transcription software you’re using probably has it built in.

Tools Of The Trade – Medical Transcription Equipment You Need

Here’s a quick list of stuff you’ll want to get along with a few specific recommendations:

• Computer
• Transcription Equipment (machines to play back tapes, headphones, and foot pedals, transcription software for digital files)
• Printer
• Comfortable Chair and Desk
• Fax Machine (optional)
• Word Processor Software (Like Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer)
• Medical Dictionary
• Medical Spellchecker Software
• Drug / Pharmaceutical Guide
• Medical Specialty Books

Computer

I’ll leave the choice of getting a desktop or laptop up to you. These days, most new laptops (but not netbooks) have more than enough power to work with digital audio files.

If you do decide to go the laptop route, in addition to the transcription specific gear, make sure you get a wireless keyboard and mouse – the keyboard especially since you’re going to be doing a lot of typing and no laptop keyboard is as good as the real mccoy.

In terms of specs, they’re not terribly important as long as you remember to stay out of the bargain bin (that means no Walmart specials).

I’m also a big fan of having multiple monitors, but do what your budget permits at first.

Transcription Equipment

I covered this above, but I’ll summarize again.  Make sure your gear can play back both mini and microcassettes.  Get comfortable headphones (emphasis on comfortable, don’t skimp on these) and foot pedal controls for playback – you’re gonna need your hands for typing.

Printer

In my office, I not only have an all in one machine, I have a all the separate machines that make up an all in one.  It’s overkill.  While my preference is always to use a laser printer if you’re going to be doing printing in quantity, the laser all in one machines are prohibitively expensive.  Do, however, go with an all-in-one inkjet for business users – it’ll have separate cartridges for each color (magenta, cyan, yellow, black).  If you can pick up a cheap HP Laserjet to go along with it, do it – it’ll save you a ton of money in the long run on black and white printing.

Fax Machine

If you get an all-in-one, you won’t need a separate fax machine.  However, I do recommend getting an online fax service.  It will give you a dedicated phone number for people to dial and all faxes will show up in your email instead of having to be printed.  And since an online fax service never runs out of paper, jams up, or runs out of ink, it’s a wise investment.

Chair and Desk

When I first started working from home, I got the cheapest chair and desk I could find… big mistake… especially the chair.

The desk should be big enough to accomodate not only your computer, but also all the reference materials you need.

The chair is absolutely critical and it needs to be comfortable to sit in for long periods.  There really is no one size fits all that’s going to be best for you.
I love Herman Miller chairs myself.  My mom, on the other hand, really likes her Steelcase chair.

It takes a little getting used to either kind of chair compared to a standard, cheap chair, but it’s all around better for your back as well as your productivity.  If you find yourself fidgeting and getting up all the time because your chair is uncomfortable, you’re simply not going to get as much done.

Conclusion

And there you have it. I hope this guides helps you get all the gear you need to start your own medical transcription business – if there’s something I missed, feel free to chime in by posting a comment below and put in your two cents.