I am looking for a reasonably priced desktop microphone, probably something that would cost less than $100. But I suppose I would be willing to spend around $150.

I have tried both the buddy 7G desktop and that the 3-1. Both of them worked awfully for me. I tried using them with my current profile that was created with my boom O. I also tried creating a unique profile with each microphone that made no difference. For whatever reason I was only able to achieve about 70% accuracy.

I know I have a somewhat softer voice, but I didn't think it was notably softer. Possibly my softer voice is just not going to work well with a desktop microphone. Although again, I don't think it is severely softer than average.

I already have an Audio Technica headset and a boom O a headset. When it comes to a desktop microphone I'm not really concerned with noise canceling ability because the headsets I have do a fairly good job and most of the time I dictate in front of the television anyway. I'm just looking for something reasonably priced that would be a nice change of pace when compared to wearing a headset.

You might to check out the Olympus ME31 shotgun microphone which features a long throw pickup that isn't very noise canceling but is very sensitive.

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Thanks, I will take a look at it.

Wheels,

I'm not suggesting that you go back and try the 3-in-1 or Buddy Gooseneck (trying things and insanity and all that), but you might consider that, especially with desktop microphones, the ergonomics of your setup is probably as important as any part of the speech recognition setup. The 3-in-1 is no different than a headset mic in that microphone positioning is super important, but with desktop mics the positioning is just so physical. I mention this just to say that maybe you'd benefit from an extended consultation (either 1 on 1 with Lunis, or here on the forum). I don't know if you're familiar with the Andrea Beam microphones. They're not the greatest, but they're serviceable in an extra quiet environment. Well, for the life of me I just couldn't find a position to make the Andrea Beam microphones work for me, even though colleagues of similar stature to me were able to make it work. The bottom line was that they were able to more precisely position their upper bodies to find a perfect alignment. That wasn't an option for me. Maybe, though, someone who's qualified to offer the expertise could help you find a physical setup that would make the 3-in-1 work for you.

Long story short: it might not be the volume of your voice, but your ability to stay consistently, comfortably positioned so that Dragon and the microphone can do their thing. A good consultant can help find a solution. 

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Eric Wright At work: DNS 12 Pro. At home: DNS 11.5 Pro,  KnowBrainer 2011, and Utter Command by RedStart Systems; Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac

 

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Eric

fortunately, I do have the upper body mobility to position the microphone where I want it to be. A consultation may not have been a bad idea before because I really wanted to make the 3-1 work for me.

I have recently purchased the Audio Technica headset so I really trying to avoid spending a lot of money on a new microphone. Especially since I like to dictate while watching the television. I'm also trying to decide which microphone I will use when I get a job (my Boom "O" or the Audio Technica). It is true that you have to get a job first before you can decide what microphone to use because you will not know exactly what environment you will be in. As I understand though for the most part desktop microphones are only to be used in an extremely quiet environment.

So I wouldn't be completely against trying one of those microphones again if I knew for certain that they were going to work. However given their general retail cost and the amount of money it takes to send them back and forth if they do not work correctly it is a gamble I would like to avoid.

Wheels, therein lies the root cause of your problem in my view of the world. Noise is ruinous to speech recognition, and I'm pretty confident depending on the positioning of your microphone, if you were to utilise your SpeechWare 3-in-1 in a quiet environment, you would have very different results. Personally, I utilise my SpeechWare microphone with the radio occasionally playing in the background, with no obvious denigration in recognition accuracy. However, I would not dream to utilise the SpeechWare microphone with the television blaring in the background. Nonetheless, I can say the new Audio-Technica Pro 8HEmW microphone with the pigtail Andrea sound card with music blaring in the background dictating from written text achieves phenomenal accuracy.



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DNS 12.0 Professional, Windows 7, Intel Core i7 2630QM, 16GB of RAM. Second-Generation SpeechWare 6-in-1.

Brainy,
and

I should have been more specific. I do like dictating in front of the television but I know that the 3-1 or most desktop microphones were not designed to be used in such an environment. I know for sure that when I tested out my 3-1 I tested it with both the TV on loud, soft and off. It really made no difference.

 

 It is good to know that the Audio Technica paired with the pure audio soundcard will do well for dictating in front of the television

Can you tell me this particular soundcard and microphone will work with a very soft voice? I know that the ANC soundcard will actually work very well with a soft voice, but that is only half duplex and I decided to go with the full duplex pure audio model. I'm hoping it will work very well with a soft voice. So this way I can be able to dictate privately.