Choosing The Right Transcription Equipment And Where To Buy

For aspiring transcribers across the globe, one of the challenges he or she may face is choosing and buying the right equipment.

We recommend taking your time to decide the transcription gear available to you. There are a lot of machinery out there to chose from.  



Do your home and consider these factors:

• Compatible software
• Quality
• Price

Upon selection, discern whether or not your transcription software will work with your foot pedal. For example, I have a universal foot pedal that work fine with the FTW software, but not so with the free verson of Express Scribe. You'd have to upgrade to Express Scribe's premium version in order to use the pedal. So do your homework!

Quality and price kind of go hand in hand meaning you may not get a great piece of equipment under $50.00. If so, I'd be leary on whether it will work or not and it so, for how long. We've provided price ranges for several types of equipment we feel may meet your budget. We'll be discussing the different types of foot pedal, headsets and software to be used in transcribing so that you will have plenty of options to suit your preferences.

Foot Pedal

Professional Three Pedal Foot Controller. The Professional Three Pedal Foot Controller are high quality 3 pedal controllers that is especially made for professional transcriptionists. This provides a convenient way for professionals who must have their hands free for other tasks. Stop, Record, Rewind, and Play are all controlled using the foot control.

Here are our recommendations for this kind of foot pedal:

• AltoEdge USB Transcription Foot Pedal - This is a high quality foot pedal that you can connect to your Windows PC or Mac OS X. It costs $79.95 and can be shipped worldwide.
• Olympus RS-27 USB Foot Pedal - This foot pedal also connects with your Windows PC or MAC OS X and controls recording or playback functions of a recorder connected with it. This costs $69.95. However, shipping is only available to USA and Canada.

Game Controller Pedal. These pedals are actually made for games. However, you can also use this in transcribing files. It's very common and available at most computer stores. So this is a great option if you really need a foot control as soon as possible. The one that we recommend is the Infinity USB Gaming Foot Pedal. This is a high quality, rugged USB foot controller that allows you to take control of your applications with your feet as well as your hands. This costs $69.95.

Wire your own or modify an old-style pedal. If the two options above are out of the question, then you can always have your own old-style pedal that you can modify to suit your preference. This is the cheapest option wherein you can make your own cable/plug. You can buy an ordinary pedal that costs as low as $12.00 and buy a special cable to connect it.

Headset

Now that you have chosen a foot pedal that you can use for your work, now is the time to choose a headset that best suits you. This means the comfort, the best fit, and sound for transcription.

Here are the different types of headsets and their costs:

Ear-Buds - Ear-Buds are known as behind-the-head earphones. This style is purely a matter of personal comfort. You can opt for the VEC LHT-RA Transcription Earbuds at $19.00 or the Sony MDR-E424 Headset at $29.00.

On-Ear - On-Ear headphones are the ones that sit on the outside of your ear. Comfort varies considerably with this type of headphone so it may take a lot of trial and error in finding the right on-ear headphone for you. You can have something as fancy and portable as the Ultrasone iCans or something inexpensive as the Koss PortaPro Headphones. Both are available at Amazon.

Ear-Cup - The Ear-Cup headphones may be old-fashioned but it's the most comfortable especially for extended wear. This type of headset can help eliminate background noise more efficiently than noise-cancelling ear-buds. Our best bets are Sennheiser HD280 Pro and Bose TriPort Around-Ear Headphones which are both available at Amazon.

Under-Chin - And last but not the least, we have the Under-Chin earphones. They are the rarest of all types and the price can range from $15.00 to over $200.00.

So having the right equipment and investing in them can make all the different in your work. To sum it all up, you can set aside as low as $70.00 or as much as $900.00 depending on your budget, and your needs. 

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services