Transcription Software For Spoken Word Audio Files

[leigh]

I recorded some lectures and the client was asking me about written transcriptions. Is there any way to use the Mavericks Dictation service to transcribe from audio files?

Is there any commercial software you'd recommend for this?

Thanks.

**Leigh

[mikehalloran]

I recorded some lectures and the client was asking me about written transcriptions. Is there any way to use the Mavericks Dictation service to transcribe from audio files?

Is there any commercial software you'd recommend for this?

Thanks.

**Leigh

This has been around for awhile. It got a big upgrade in Mountain Lion, actually, and tweaked in Mavericks.

The most well known commercial product is Dragon Dictate for Mac from Nuance. I bought it recently and plan to compare the two this week (perhaps tonight) - the 3.04 updater for Mavericks compatibility was just released.

I have a handicap and use dictation software. I prefer Dragon but have used the built-in since it wasn't 10.9 compatible till now.

I have not used either on a spoken word file but I have a definite need so I am hoping to be able to make it work easily.

[Phil O]

I messed with it in Mavericks for a bit, but couldn't get the routing from DP right. If you find a way to make this work, please let us know.

Phil

[mikehalloran]

This method works for Dragon. It's probably not as good as MacScribe but that product still hasn't been updated to work in ML or Mavericks. Since I have an iPhone, I should be able to adapt it for my use.

http://www.macworld.com/article/2013093 ... r-mac.html

There seems to be no similar feature in Apple Speech to Text.

The suggestion at the end about re-transcribing via parrot speaking works with Speech to Text, of course.

Here's an interesting free tool if you want to figure out how to adapt it to your purpose. I understand that it outputs editable text as one the formats.

http://utranscribe.tv/

[leigh]

Thanks for the research, Mike!

**Leigh

[mikehalloran]

One obvious solution that the MacWorld article overlooks is that you can use any mp3 recorder to record spoken word, then convert the file to .wav using QuickTime 7.6.6, Toast, DP or a dozen other programs, some of them free.

As I mentioned, I already own Dragon Dictate and have since v.2. It works very well once you learn it and it learns you. Since my stroke, I type one handed - and it's the wrong hand. I have Dragon on my iPad and iPhone already.

I'm being hired to ghost write a book so I have a real need for transcription software. If I can get Dragon to learn the voice of my subject, great. If not, there's always parrot speak, something I learned to do really well when I was younger - learned it to annoy the hell out of my brothers as a kid and it was one of my stage tricks in the '70s. I've not tried it since my stroke but I'm sure that I can get good at it again if I need to.