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Desperate Transcription Issues

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by 21, Oct 15, 2009.

  1. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    That software exists, I could have bought it with the recorder for another couple hundred dollars. Decided not to because I wanted to clean it up as I went. Now second guessing that decision.
     
  2. Bob Crotchet

    Bob Crotchet Member

    Buy.com has the standard version of Dragon Naturally Speaking for $70. (http://www.buy.com/prod/nuance-dragon-naturallyspeaking-v-10-0-standard-voice-recognition/q/loc/105/208720685.html). Preferred version for $115 with a $50 rebate (http://www.buy.com/prod/dragon-naturallyspeaking-10-preferred-mini-box/q/loc/105/208720686.html).

    And then there's this (year-old) pessimistic note (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/askjack/2008/feb/21/canspeechrecognitionsoftware):

    I am about to start a university research project involving in-depth interviews. I am aiming to download audio files of interviews to my computer from a digital audio recorder. I would then like to use software to turn the recorded voices into text. I need to do this on as low a budget as possible. Rachel Elliott

    You can't do this at any price: even humans still have problems transcribing interviews accurately. After more than 25 years development, Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking software can turn speech into text, and it can handle digital files. But it only works well if you have a clean file (without much hiss or background noise), and if the user speaks clearly and carefully.

    Good luck!
     
  3. imjustagirl

    imjustagirl Active Member

    I actually don't mind transcribing. If anyone on here ever needs someone to transcribe, and you can e-mail the digital file, I'll do it on the relative cheap.
     
  4. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    Can I venture to guess that you have a Vista computer? My software (Voice Studio with Panasonic) won't rewind in Vista and Panasonic won't make a patch for the US... I found one on its Japan site, but it isn't compatable with plain old Voice Studio...
    If I want to save and rewind to catch up, I put into the flash drive or an SD card and have the Studio grab the sound off those...
    A Rube Goldberg way to transcribe, but it works...
     
  5. Anyone have experience with Dragon Naturally Speaking? Does it work well? How does it work? Can you just play the audio file, open the Dragon app, and let it go? Do you have to babysit it?
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I'm not familiar with that program, but I've used similar programs and if anyone is speaking fast or has any kind of an accent, it doesn't work.
     
  7. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    I'm told that program works best when only one person is speaking (ie, a lecture or dictation), and not so great for an interview setting where you get different voices and volumes.

    Slappy, I don't have Vista on my laptop (have it and hate it on a desktop I no longer use because of Vista), and I don't know why Windows Media won't do what I want it to do.

    Downloaded the VLC Media Player, will give it a go today. Balloon Boy screwed me up yesterday, but today I am determined to make some headway on this mess.
     
  8. Stitch

    Stitch Active Member

    VLC does the job. I use it on my iMac, but also have used it for years on Windows machines. I wouldn't mess with Audacity unless you want to edit the audio. The great thing about VLC is that it can play a lot of different audio and video formats.
     
  9. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Transcribing isn't so bad.
     
  10. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Then someone better teach me the secret, because I am dying here.
     
  11. AD

    AD Active Member

    i hear you, 21, and boy do i feel your pain. but here's the weird thing for me: i hate the thought of transcribing. it's the one thing i always dread about the writing process -- but it's always the thing that i find incredibly rewarding in the end. transcribing allows me to revisit how i was thinking during the interview, allows me to pick up quotes and info i didn't know i had, and gives me the comfort of having a conversation with the subject without worrying about writing down every little thing said. it helps me organize my thoughts, even the architecture of a story. i'm tempted all the time to say, fuck it, i'm paying somebody to transcribe this 90 minute tape, but then i'm sure that i'll miss something - not just a fact or a great quote - but a mood, an inflection that sends the piece in a different direction, and i buckle in for hours of backspacing and screechy rewinding. ugh. i hate the fucking process, but it helps me more than almost anything else. if there's a middle way, i haven't found it yet.
     
  12. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Exactly.
     
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