I recently installed express dictate on a 2nd computer; it is the "latest and greatest", i.e. v5.08. A few years ago I installed v4.10 on a different computer, and it still works fine. With the old software, I was able to adjust the record volume decibels down so that the transcriptionist heard a nice pleasant voice instead of a lot of scratch+voice. Once I made that adjustment, it stayed at the new, proper level.
v5.08 doesn't have that option. Instead, the record volume adjustment is through Windows Audio Mixer (or something like that, I'm not at that computer now and don't recall). It l