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sorry I didn't know you also own the www.voicerecognition.com forums.. (about the double posting) 

ok thanks for replying.  I found this quote from

 http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/resources/documents/AdminGuideV11.pdf

 Accuracy and speed improvements

Dual-pass recognition

Dragon now automatically detects computers with multiple processors and at least 2 GB of RAM and improves accuracy by using dual-pass recognition.

Higher audio rates improve recognition

Dragon now uses a 22 kHz sampling rate to improve audio quality and recognition accuracy. Dragon sup- ports both 11 kHz and 22 kHz sound cards.

See "Store corrections in archive" in the Dragon Help for details.

kocoman1,

Lunis is just a member of the voicerecognition.com forum like the rest of us. He does not own or control the domain. Therefore, your post was not a double post.

On the other hand, I concur with Lunis. It is very likely that your microphone simply doesn't pass muster (i.e., isn't well suited for DNS 11). Because of the changes in DNS 11 a number of the consumer grade microphones will not work or work properly with DNS 11.

In addition, since you haven't specified your hardware configuration, including your computer specs (CPU make, model, speed, total amount of RAM, L2 or L3 cache, etc.), it's a little bit difficult to understand exactly what may or may not be going on with regard to your problem.

I would make only one additional modification to Lunis's post. That is, the quality check, regardless of whether it's DNS 11 or any previous version, is simply a test of the audio quality. It does not make any changes or modifications to your microphone adjustment. The only adjustment that is made during the Check Microphone (Audio Setup Wizard) is made during the microphone volume adjustment phase. During that phase the position of the blue bar determines the optimal audio quality. After you complete the microphone volume adjustment, the blue bar should fall somewhere between the 50% mark and the 10% mark from the bottom in order to provide ideal audio quality. If the blue bar doesn't move at all (i.e., stays all the way at the top), then either DNS is not hearing your output at all or your microphone gain is insufficient. This is what generally produces the audio quality check failure. On the other hand, if the blue bar moves all the way to the bottom so that the volume adjustment bar is all black, then your microphone by them is too loud (i.e., the microphone gain is too high) and this can tend to cause an audio quality check failure as well. Even though in this case it is less likely to produce an SNR failure (audio quality check failure), excessive volume tends to reduce the overall audio quality and significantly degrades accuracy.

Lastly, the soundcard is more than adequate for DNS. However, my suspicion is that you need to get a new microphone.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

I have switched to a super-cardioid microphone [as written in the manual] and it passed the tests. The brand is CAH [made in USA, as written on the unit]. model PM-2000, but I don't like it being wireless because when the battery is low, Dragon might become confused.

thanks

kocoman1,

Do you have a link for the source of this microphone because it is definitely not one listed as recommended for speech recognition.  No amount of searching that I've done finds it anywhere.

As regards wireless and batteries, unless you using a wired microphone, you have to put up with batteries.  Yes, when the batteries get low or need to be replaced in any battery operated microphone, DNS is going to begin to act flaky.  It does no harm to DNS, it just simply means it's time to change the batteries.  I run into this with the Samson Airline 77 wireless microphone all the time even though the batteries in the Samson Airline 77 wireless microphone last upwards of 8 to 12 hours of continuous use.  Can't have your cake and eat it too, unfortunately.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

Be careful what you ask for. What you get might not be what you expect, or want. - Aesop (620 BC - 700 BC)

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Hope this is the way to do this. Don't use forums ofyen

Installed DNS 11 on my laptop running Vista and went through the setup OK. On my new desktop, Acer all-in-one I cannot get past the sound quality check. I am using the microphone sent with the program. The sound card is buit in and the only name I can find is RealTech High Definition audio.

 Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks for your help.

Gordon1155

Dragon Naturally Speaking Pro 11

Windows 7

6GB Ram Intel Core i3 540#3.07 GHz

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Gordon,

There is a technote in the Nuance knowledge base that specifically refers to inherent problems with the RealTech sound cards.  Basically it's a driver issue.

Although I would generally concur with Lunis, you need to make sure that you have the most current RealTech high-definition audio drivers installed.

Most of us generally recommend going with a USB SoundPod along with a good high quality, noise canceling headset like the Sennheiser ME-3.

My guess is that the problem is likely with your soundcard drivers.  I would suggest that you either go with a USB SoundPod or check for and install the latest RealTech audio drivers.  The RealTek technote is number 10 at the bottom of that first page.

RealTek audio issues

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong, it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

I am having the same problem. The weird things is that with my integrated mic I was able to pass the test.

here's my system details.

latitude e4300, win 7 64-bit, 2gb ram, core 2 duo, DNS 11 premium. I have a professional sound card, RME fireface UC with a shure sm58. I cannot past the test. I can't believe it. When I playback what I recorded it is super clean with a great S/N ratio.

then with the internal mic I passed after a couple of tries. 

can anyone help?

As Chuck noted, the Shure SM58 is quite possibly the world's most popular vocalist unidirectional cardioid microphone with a 50 to 15,000 Hz response (which includes a 4000 Hz bump to push vocals). When used within a 1\4 inch of your mouth, this microphone will even push lower vocal bass frequencies by as much as 10 dB at 100 Hz. Although this microphone isn't what we would call ideally suited to speech recognition, it should work reasonably well and pass the Microphone Check. Chuck also nailed it when he mentioned your XLR cable. Simply put, your current XLR cable is wired for a relatively low balanced output which is designed for use with a mixing board. We frequently run into this issue when musicians try to dual-purpose their existing gear for speech recognition and music. In theory, this makes perfect sense but there are a couple of I gotchas.

If you want to use this microphone, you will either need to add a preamp on inexpensive 15 Foot XLR Cable (like the previous link) that is designed for speech recognition use. Another mistake that musicians often make is thinking that there superduper 24-bit $1200 recording studio external soundcard is going to work with speech recognition. The RME Fireface is designed for high-end audio and may not sample low enough for speech recognition. In this situation, we recommend bypassing the fancy equipment with a $40 ANC USB Pod external USB soundcard.

We additionally noted that you have a lot of yellow (about 50%) in your audio quality check. Now take a look at our Microphone Check:

                                     

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thanks Lunis. I perfectly understand. Yes I would fall under the " musician that tries to use is sound recording gear" , I figured that it would be better than my integrated sound card. I am using just a regular 15 feet XRL cable. So what is the yellow in the graph?

 so from what I understand is better to have a lower sample rate? The lowest I can go is 32K, should I go for that?

When I get better results if I bought a TRIA head set and use it with my internal sound card or my fireface?

thanks again

xxtraloud,

Despite the high quality and features of the Shure SM58 and your professional soundcard, that particular microphone is not designed for speech recognition. It's primarily a vocal mic. The cardioid microphone element suppresses a certain amount of background noise, but it is not noise canceling. I'm also not too sure about your soundcard for the same reason.

If DNS 11 says that the audio quality is insufficient, then it is.

The only way that I can tell exactly what's going on with that microphone/soundcard is if you can do the following.

First, after you run the Quality Check test, attach your audio.wav file to your response to this post. You can find the audio.wav file at the following location:

C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking11\Users\\current\voice_container\audio.wav

Second, while running the Quality Check test and before the test completes, press alt + printscreen on your keyboard so as to capture a printscreen of the Quality Check test graph. Save it as a file and attach that screen capture.

There are many things that can influence the audio quality that you may not hear when running the playback. There are also other factors, particularly the fact that what you consider clear may not be in terms of what DNS expects or wants.

This information will tell me what I need to know about why your microphone is failing to pass the audio quality test.

Assuming that you're running the Shure SM58 through your professional soundcard, how is it connected (i.e., cable)? Is it connected via an XLR cable or standard RCA jack mic-in cable? If you're using an XLR cable, the problem may be with the type of XLR cable that you're using. Also, how are you determining that you're getting a good SNR? There is no SNR measurement in DNS 11, only the graph. Regardless, your interpretation of the SNR and/or the playback quality does not necessarily tell us anything without being able to listen to such and/or see such for ourselves.

Lunis can provide you with more information about this particular microphone/soundcard combination because he hails from the music industry, which is where this type of microphone is generally used.

Chuck Runquist
Technical Project Manager
VoiceTeach LLC
Home of VoicePower® Ultimate

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't. - Pete Seeger

Chuck,

thanks again for helping me with this. Right now I'm actually dictating with Dragon from the above mentioned set up. Here I am posting the two screenshots you asked for. So far it seems to work great considering I have a little bit of an accent so I need to train it for a few days to get great results, sorry for my morning voice. I just don't see why I would fail the test and then get great results right off the bat.the only thing about this microphone is that I would have to hold it with my hand and in the long run it's a bit heady.

as far as The Test, I have tried many many settings, I tried to keep the mic pre-amp gain low and high, changed the sample rate of my sound card but never made the test. so that just makes me think what that test really does, the graph doesn't really change that much, even if you don't see anything the graph does not go flat, isn't really measuring the frequencies of the input or is it there just as visual feedback. You might know better, as I'm just guessing.

and by the way what sample rate should I choose on my sound card?

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/xxtraloud/dragonvolume.jpg

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/xxtraloud/graphdns.jpg