For those considering a life as a transcriptionist, there are some tools of the trade you need to invest in.

In this article, I'll give you the lowdown on the most important tool needed to become a transcriptionist.

Cassette Transcribers

You cannott transcribe if you can't playback recordings and audio playback programs on your computer. Programs such as Itunes, windows media player, and realtek simply aren't going to make the cut here.

There are programs designed to do the task and they do it well for dealing with digital files. Dragon Naturally Speaking offers an add-on to their program specifically for transcription. It's fairly expensive, but most say well worth the investment.

Of course, not everyone has made it to the digital world of the 21st century and some people just like to use cassettes. That means getting a separate machine to deal with that kind of media. While you're likely to get most micro-cassettes, you may also want to keep a standard cassette and mini cassette player handy.

My favorite place to go for transcribers is eBay. I'd shell out the money for up to date computer software for dealing with digital files since that's what you'll probably be doing the most, but for analog machines, used equipment works just as good as the new stuff and you can save 75% or more off the price of getting a new one. However, if you cant afford a new pc, i highly recommend investing in a cassette/mini-cassette transcriber. My favourites are the sanyo-standard-cassette-trc-8030 and the sony-bm87dst-standard-cassette-transcriber.

Cassette Transcribers

What are cassette transcribers?

Cassette Transcribers are machines that can record and play audio cassettes. Historically speaking, the most common type of audio cassettes used in cassette transcribers are the ’standard’ audio cassettes, rectangular in shape, they are able to fit neatly in the palm of your hand. In this day and age, they aren’t as popular as they use to be in the eighties and nineties – however many companies still use them for their many useful transcription purposes. The most common of these purposes are commercial audio recordings. These audio cassettes continue to be sold worldwide, in places such as supermarkets, some corner stores, music stores, and department stores. Although the CD and DVD era have arrived, cassette transcribers are still being used in some hospitals and clinics due to their ease of use.

What are the best Cassette Transcribers on the market?

Although most cassette transcriber models are discontinued, there are still many retailers out there that sell the product. You can purchase a cassette transcriber from 50$ onwards, but the real gems are in the 150-200 dollar category. Personally, my favorite cassette transcriber is the Panasonic RR-830 model. The RR-830 has long been the market leader of cassette transcribers, and it comes with the following features.

• Function Play/Record
• Playback Variable Speed Control
• Quick Erase
• Tape Counter
• Auto Backspacing
• Tone and Volume Controls
• Variable Backspacing
• Foot Control 2-function (not included)
• Headset

The RR-830 in my opinion is worth every penny, and the above features justify that. Many cassette transcribers don't come with headsets, but the RR-830 comes with its own special headset. If your looking for a standard cassette transcriber folks, then i highly recommend this model. Conclusively, just know that there aren't many of these models in the market anymore - so take a few minutes to browse the internet because there are some sites that sell them. Alternatively, if you're interested in a mini-cassette transcriber - flip over to the next page and have a read of the information that has been prepared for you.