A good experience . . plus tips for v4 and NaturallySpeaking

T

tblack

Member
Fair's fair. I have to say that after a truly horrible experience installing the thing, I'm having a positive experience with v4. It is notably faster.

And Naturally Speaking 10, which is the main reason I run Windows, works extra well with v4 - not bad considering it's not supported by Dragon OR Parallels. But it needs some important tweaking.

The accepted wisdom for running Dragon NS with Parallels v2 or v3 is that you choose

(1) the dictation mike in the mac sound preferences

(2) "default" for the sound input in the Parallels configuration editor, and

(3) default audio in the Windows sound control panel.

This does not seem to work well with v4. For some reason the input volume is too low and DNS struggles to recognise what you are saying, with speed and accuracy consequences. After trial and error, the following works for me with v4:

(1) Do NOT select the dictation mike in the Mac sound preferencess; just leave it on eg internal mike.

(2) DO choose the dictation mike in "sound" in the Parallels configuration editor;

(3) if the dictation mike is USB, choose it in "USB" in the Parallels configuration editor;

(4) DO choose the dictation mike in the Windows sound control panel.

(5) Set up a new DNS user; a small inconvenience for significant gain.

Tom

Macbook Pro 10.4.11, 2.4ghz, 4 g ram, Windows XP Pro SP3, DNS preferred v10
 
not so lucky with PD4 and DNS10 ....

Installed new parallel tools with updated PD4. The sound level in Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 10 is essentially too low to be usable, even when applying your suggestions. I wonder what led to this attenuated sound input? there doesn't seem to be any way to adjust the input volume. Parallels? Changes?

David
 
David,

have you tried control panels>sound>voice [or audio]>input>volume? You should get a slider control to adjust the input volume of your chosen mike. I take it also that you are not choosing the default intel audio in the control panel, but your chsoen dictation mike?

This is for XP by the way, don't ask me about Vista.

Tom

PS Don't expect Nuance or Parallels to worry about this problem. Neither as far as I know supports speech recognition in virtualisation.
 
not so lucky

Tom:

Definitely XP. The volume slider is all the way to the top. For "Sound Recording" in the Sounds Control Panel, the only option is "Intel Integrated Audio". In parallels, I choose Devices -> Sound -> my microphone USB adapter.



David.
 
>"Sound Recording" in the Sounds Control Panel, the only option is "Intel Integrated Audio"

There's your problem - if it's set up correctly you should also have the option of choosing your microphone as well as "intel integrated audio".

Can I suggest three things:

1. Your dictation mike should NOT be selected in the mac sound preferences.

2. As well as selecting the dictation mike in the sound section of the Parallels configuration editor, have you ALSO gone into the Parallels devices menu>USB>(your microphone) -- very important to select your mike in the devices>USB menu as well as in the sound configuration editor. In fact I find I'm having to repeat this step every morning.

3. If you do that, you should get the choice of mikes in the XP control panel and it should work again. If you're only getting intel integrated audio, you can adjust the volume slider all you like and it makes no difference.

Good luck! Persevere -- I'm having very good results with DNS 10 and v4 as my new user gets more and more training.

Tom
 
Getting there, but one more question...

Tom:

OK, you have to enable USB devices, and then the microphone does appear in the Windows Sound panel. Hurray!

But now I can't get the DragonBar window to show up. I've reinstalled DNS10, but there is either a problem with Windows showing this window, or an option that somehow got switched off. I need this little bar. Dragon is running because I can open DragonPad by voice. Any ideas?

David.
 
belay my last message

I fooled around, and by getting the menu fixed to the top of the screen, it is working. I still can't get the volume very loud yet. Do you select the microphone as a USB device, or in the sound panel?

Many thanks again for all your help,

David
 
David,

Yes, activate USB but ALSO select your dictation microphone in the menu Parallels>devices>USB>[your microphone]. I have to repeat this step every time I open Parallels.

Yes, also select the dictation mike in the windows sound control panel, not Intel audio. You might also have to repeat this step each time.

You should then see a specific volume slider for your mike in the windows control panel. The volume slider in my setup says "Sennheiser USB headset".

Tom
 
Just to be clear about it, select your dictation mike in the sound box in the parallels configuration editor, AND select your mike in Devices>USB>[your mike].

Do BOTH.
 
Getting better ....

Tom:

Thanks for all your help. The volume is much better now, but the input is garbled. When I try to train in DNS 10, it can't even get the first few words understood. So, I'll have to check out what might be going wrong. It's a very good microphone (theBoom) and VXi sound pod. I'll keep working on this when I get back to work tomorrow.

Thanks again for your assistance.

David.
 
This is strange . . I am repeating myself here but you should not have the USB mike selected in the mac sound preferences . . this causes problems like you are describing. . I have "internal microphone" selected in the mac sound prefs.

I think the golden rule is that you either have the USB mike selected in the mac and then just let it default throught to the VM [this works well with PD 2 & 3], or else you DON'T select the USB mike in the mac but connect it directly to the VM [this is what I am doing now with PD 4 because of the volume problem].

Sorry I can't figure this one out . . keep trying, it's worth it, my new DNS user is more accurate and faster than with PD 3. BTW I installed the new build without any problems (but I was hjolding my breath).

Tom

Tom
 
I give up.

Version 4 is just too slow for me. There are long periods in which I dictate and nothing happens. Then all of a sudden it all comes out, but the delay is unacceptable. I'm going back to version 3.

Thanks again for all your help Tom.

David
 
Sorry you're having these problems. It's a mystery. Are you sure that your dictation mike is not being chosen in the mac preferences?

I have some screen grabs of my setup but I can't upload them here because they are tiff files and this site won't accept tiff files for some reason. I will email them to you if you give me an address (use the private message function).

Tom
 
Tom:

Thanks, but I am very happily back with version 3. It is much faster, the sound is not garbled, and the volume is not an issue. There are the crashes, particularly when running any Microsoft program on the Mac side, but overall, it is a less frustrating experience.

In fact, I am dictating right now using Dragon...

Thank you again for all your good efforts on my behalf.

David
 
I am also getting poor audio from microphone after 4.0 upgrade

Hi,

I am using Windows XP pro SP3 with the latest parallels 4 software. I am using the built in Macbook Pro mic. I used to get good quality sound from this mic in parallels 3. Now my voice is barely heard and fails the Windows "Test hardware" test.

>> what has changed to affect this?

Note: I am using the mic for skype.

Thanks
 
Try getting a USB mike and follow the instructions in this thread. It works a charm fore me. Also, the inbuilt MBPro mike is a dud for speech recognition. You may be getting acceptable results, but you will get much better results from a USB mike - check out the Nuance website for recommended mikes or go to the recommendations at knowbrainer.com

Tom
 
I suspect there are a lot of people looking for resolution to this issue, so it is good that it is getting the attention it deserves. We'll be watching for the next PD4 version, hopefully sooner.
 
I am trying to use a Plantronics Calisto Bluetooth USB headset with DNS 10 in Parallels. I have had a similar experience with using default Windows audio. I have been able to connect the headset via USB, but it seems to drop the USB connection unpredictably, and cannot connect in the VM sound configuration and VM USB configuration (seems mutually exclusive).
 
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