Anybody using otter.ai?

[JayFarrar]

Got tipped by a friend about a site called otter.ai that is, essentially, a free transcription service.

I gave it a look, and it seems pretty incredible but I haven't put it to use yet.

My friend has the paid version and says it saves huge amounts of time as you no longer have to transcribe your own interviews. You can also turn it on and record zoom and youtube meetings and press conferences, and it generates a transcript.

I think it will be a game changer for how I report, but I was wondering if anyone else was using it.

 

[rubenmateo]

I think someone else mentioned this elsewhere, but I think it’s great for longer interviews. For shorter ones, 10 minutes or less, I prefer doing it myself since I usually have to fix punctuation and some off words in Otter transcripts that takes about as much time to go through as does listening to the whole thing.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

I have used it and I like it

 

[Flip Wilson]

I pay an annual fee for Otter -- $50, I think -- and it's money well-spent. I record interviews on my phone and upload the audio files to Dropbox. Then on my computer, I go through Otter to pull the files from Dropbox and it works its magic. It doesn't take long for the transcription to be done. However, it's probably about 85 to 90 percent accurate. If I'm doing a Q&A, I have to read back over the transcript while listening to the interview and make changes. (Their/there; are/or; four/for...stuff like that.)

Still, it's a bunch quicker than doing the transcribing yourself.

You can use it for free for a certain number of minutes or transcriptions.

 

[Col. Nathan R. Jessup]

This seems interesting.

 

[Danwriter]

I've been using Rev.com for a couple years now and it has changed my workflow. Most of time now I use their AI service at $0.25 per recorded minute and have found it to be 80-90% accurate, and I can interpolate the accuracy gaps. Really helps with lengthy/dense technical quotes that I can just cut and paste and correct (when paraphrasing isn't warranted). Most of the time I hate transcribing, so it's worth the (very tax-deductible) costs, which are now more affordable than ever.

 

[PaperDoll]

I only tried Otter once, at an international soccer event with multi-speaker press conferences and a mixed zone. I watched the live transcript appear, and it didn't reflect reality. I'm not sure if it was the accents, the sport-specific terminology, or the chaos.

The colleague who recommended Otter said it learns as one uses it, so I probably didn't give it a fair trial.

I blame soccer.

 

[Danwriter]

...although worth noting that these services have a very Uber-ish business model, with actual human transcriptions put out for bid among a self-selected pool of workers. It's a tight squeeze for most of them, balancing speed vs accuracy, especially if English isn't a first language. For journos it's an interesting interaction point with capitalism. Like being in a store and wondering if that shirt you're thinking of buying was made by a Uighur.

 

[Flip Wilson]

If I want 100 percent accuracy, I know a person who transcribes. She charges $1 per recorded minute. But for a hour-long Q&A that's due the day after the interview, I've paid it.

 

[justgladtobehere]

Everybody gotta go Otter.

 

[PaperClip529]

I use Otter for longer interviews. It’s a lot easier and quicker to clean up the misses than it is to transcribe it all myself.

 

[SoloFlyer]

I use Otter for all situations that I can. For longer interviews, it saves the bulk of transcription. I just have to go in and clean up errors.

For short interviews, it's nice to be able to jump right to an answer with a single click. Really helps on deadline.

 

[motorsportwriter]

I've been using the paid version of Otter for close to a year. Definitely worth the money. Example: I recently did a 25-minute interview. If I would have tried to transcribe it, probably would have taken well over an hour. But with Otter, took me about 20-25 minutes to go through the transcript, make some minor corrections or fixes. Well worth it.

 

[ringer]

Sounds intriguing but the Otter website is very light on details about how it all works.

So for those who have used Otter:

1. What's the process for getting audio from your laptop's hard drive to Otter
2. In what format does Otter send back the transcript? Word? Or something else?
3. If you have to cut & paste their transcript into Word, are there crazy formatting issues?
4. The *free* service is limited to 40-minute recordings. If your recording is longer - will they accept it and simply stop transcribing at the 40-minute mark? Or do you have to kill time figuring out how to cut it before sending?

Thanks in advance

 

[SoloFlyer]

Sounds intriguing but the Otter website is very light on details about how it all works.

So for those who have used Otter:

1. What's the process for getting audio from your laptop's hard drive to Otter
2. In what format does Otter send back the transcript? Word? Or something else?
3. If you have to cut & paste their transcript into Word, are there crazy formatting issues?
4. The *free* service is limited to 40-minute recordings. If your recording is longer - will they accept it and simply stop transcribing at the 40-minute mark? Or do you have to kill time figuring out how to cut it before sending?

Thanks in advance

1. There's an import button on the Otter website. Or you can play the audio and record it on your phone, where it'll automatically transcribe. You can see the transcription either on your phone via the app or on desktop via the website.
2. The transcript is on their site or in your app. If you want to copy/paste chunks, I suggest using the web site. It allows you to select line by line. Really easy to use. You can also click on a word or phrase and start play right from that point.
3. No, just paste as plain text.
4. If you have a moment, just stop the recording and then hit record again. It'll just start a new file.

 

[ringer]

1. There's an import button on the Otter website. Or you can play the audio and record it on your phone, where it'll automatically transcribe. You can see the transcription either on your phone via the app or on desktop via the website.
2. The transcript is on their site or in your app. If you want to copy/paste chunks, I suggest using the web site. It allows you to select line by line. Really easy to use. You can also click on a word or phrase and start play right from that point.
3. No, just paste as plain text.
4. If you have a moment, just stop the recording and then hit record again. It'll just start a new file.

Thanks, great to know!
Re: #3 - If I want to copy the entire transcript and paste into a Word doc in one big swoop. Will it let me? Or will Otter insist on making me copy it line by line?
Re: #4 - what if you've already made the recording (so it's too late to stop/start mid-interview) and it's not on a phone (it's on a laptop hard drive)... and you try to import it to Otter? Does Otter reject it because it's too long? Or does Otter take it and stop transcribing at the 40 minute mark (and I can transcribe the rest myself)?

 

[SoloFlyer]

Thanks, great to know!
Re: #3 - If I want to copy the entire transcript and paste into a Word doc in one big swoop. Will it let me? Or will Otter insist on making me copy it line by line?
Re: #4 - what if you've already made the recording (so it's too late to stop/start mid-interview) and it's not on a phone (it's on a laptop hard drive)... and you try to import it to Otter? Does Otter reject it because it's too long? Or does Otter take it and stop transcribing at the 40 minute mark (and I can transcribe the rest myself)?

You can copy and paste the entire text without any issue.

I haven't used anything of that length, but my guess from how I've seen Otter work is that it would just stop at the 40 minute mark. There's no way for it to know how long a file is that you're importing until it transcribes.

It's really easy to use. Experiment. See what happens.

 

[ringer]

Solo Flyer - thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated!

So I tried it... and here's one dirty little secret about the free plan: Otter won't let you to upload more than 3 audio files -- maximum -- ever, on a free account.

So I bought a full-year and so far have only used it for audio that was recorded on another device (not an iphone, not an app). Here's what I learned:

Otter's transcripts are gibberish. It's taken me longer to fix all the missed words and mis-identified words than it would to transcribe these recordings myself. Such a bummer.

Also, when you copy and paste a transcript to Word, you lose all distinction between first speaker and second speaker -- and all the time codes. Not a huge deal, but fyi.

 

[SoloFlyer]

Solo Flyer - thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated!

So I tried it... and here's one dirty little secret about the free plan: Otter won't let you to upload more than 3 audio files -- maximum -- ever, on a free account.

So I bought a full-year and so far have only used it for audio that was recorded on another device (not an iphone, not an app). Here's what I learned:

Otter's transcripts are gibberish. It's taken me longer to fix all the missed words and mis-identified words than it would to transcribe these recordings myself. Such a bummer.

Also, when you copy and paste a transcript to Word, you lose all distinction between first speaker and second speaker -- and all the time codes. Not a huge deal, but fyi.

I haven't really used the upload feature. I record everything natively on my phone using the Otter app.

The quality of the audio file you're importing may have an impact, especially if it's audio of a phone call.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

That sounds like a great tool! I haven't used otter.ai myself, but the idea of automating transcription seems like a real time-saver, especially for interviews, meetings, and press conferences. The fact that it can work with Zoom and YouTube recordings is particularly useful, as it removes the need for manual transcription.

I imagine it would be a big help if you're dealing with a lot of audio or video content, and it could really streamline the reporting process. I'd love to hear more about how it works once you get a chance to test it out. If it lives up to the hype, it could be a game changer for many people in content creation, journalism, and even business.

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