Even if not prompted, is better to reboot the System. To the restart, a new icon is present nearby to the clock: clicking it, we open the panel to manage the microphone and the vocal documents.

All the "serious" products propose software updates, to solve the unavoidable "bugs" discovered by the users and accelerate the performances of the products. Emic has not exception done. To the link http://www.gmb.nl/emic/emic.htm we can download the last version of the program, clicking on EMIC-USB monitor. After having unpacked the files, double click on the file EMicMonitor_USB_Setup.exe. Answer OK to uninstall the old version of the software and accept the peripheral drivers not certified. Updating makes more simple the modification of the audio peripheral of reproduction, mouse-clicking on "Restore". It comes solved also a bug on the selection of the audio format, that allows the MP3 compression only for the vocal mail. After the update installation is necessary to restart the PC.
 

Our vocal assistant can register the audio in two formats: mp3 and wav. The most evident difference is that a wav file occupies a lot more of space than an mp3. The wav format (contraction of wave) is native of Windows systems. It is a PCM audio (pulse code modulation) without compression: a minute of audio with CD quality CD about 5 MB on disk.
The MP3 format (contraction of MPEG 1 - Layer 3) is instead compressed audio, fruit of the searches on "psychoacoustic coding of the signals. In practice only the components of the sound actually perceived from our ear are memorized, analysing the signals with mathematical models. As final result a sound of a minute with CD quality occupies only 450 Kb (with compression ratio of 1:11 referring to PCM). The compression improves more if we register only the voice, that occupies less band of audio frequencies (from 2000 to 8000 Hz). To do this magic on the sounds, we use specific software of analysis and coding of the signal, called "encoder", that produce the MP3 file starting from from the uncompressed PCM audio. There are several encoders, among them the L.A.M.E. (used by Emic USB) is one of the best in terms of quality and coding speed. Is important to note how the final dimension of an MP3 is not related only at the recording time: lenght being equal, a recitative speech (rich of shades and changes of intensity), occupies more space than a commercial letter (constant tone and poor intensity changes).
Who wishes to examine in detail the subject of coding and compression, with particular reference to the video, can read the book "From DVD to CD with a click".

Emic beautiful is its extreme simplicity of use. The recording button (symbol of the audio cassette) is of on/off kind. It is activated with a click and starts to register, with another click stop recording. The button of the vocal mail (letter envelope) registers till one keeps pressed and when one leaves again opens the e-mail with already inserted audio attachment. The functions of the buttons are programmable, one can also deactivate a button setting it as "Undefined". Various menu voices of the Control Panel, are organized in a clear way and do not present complications.

The microphone has a slider placed on the outside border which serves to select the directivity. To register vocal sounds and voice attachments, use the position "omnidirectional", that registers well up to a distance of 50 cm from the user. For voice recognition is necessary to move the slider on the position "directive". This way the side sounds are screened, to advantage the cleanliness of the audio. Better results are obtained with the microphone in axis with the speaker mouth, at about 15 cm of distance.
Who is interested in the configuration of the voice recognition services and wants to examine in detail the subject, can consult my article "Windows XP and the vocal" synthesis, published on Tom's Hardware Guide Italy, to the following link:
http://www.tomshw.it/software.php?guide=20040607
A more complete treatment is contained in the volume "Windows XP Service Pack 2 to the maximum power" (libro_sp_e.htm).