{"id":202,"date":"2018-04-07T23:11:04","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T03:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/poetponders\/?p=202"},"modified":"2023-11-26T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T18:55:27","slug":"descript-and-other-tools-for-transcription","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/2018\/04\/07\/descript-and-other-tools-for-transcription\/","title":{"rendered":"Descript and Other Tools for Transcription"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you need to transcribe audio or caption video, take a look at Descript<\/a> now.<\/p>\n

Some days, my words are jumbled and speaking well is a challenge. On most days, my right arm doesn\u2019t work well and typing or handwriting is painful. For me, writing on any given day is a choice among levels of discomfort.<\/p>\n

When my voice is steady, even through sheer willpower, there\u2019s no question that I would rather transcribe than write by hand. Dictating longer texts is easiest for me using Dragon Naturally Speaking<\/a> from Nuance. I\u2019ve used the predecessors on the Mac and Windows and each year dictation improves. After nearly 20 years of using dictation \/ transcription on personal computers, I am amazed by the progress in the last five years.<\/p>\n

I discovered\u00a0Descript<\/strong> while searching for a cost-effective transcription service<\/a> for my blogs and podcasts. I also wanted something I could use for basic transcription of multi-person interviews and meetings, when Dragon isn\u2019t the best tool. Dragon is amazing if I am alone, dictating a long document, using their special formatting commands. Dragon is ill-suited to transcription.<\/p>\n

Transcription services range from slightly affordable to outrageously expensive. In the past, I have used Rev.com<\/a>, which is $1 per minute with excellent accuracy. Rev is ideal for companies that have the budgets for $60\/hour plus extra for timestamps (essential for quickly finding quotes) and verbatim transcription. Other services I researched average $4 or more a minute, especially if I need to transcribe interviews with two or more people.<\/p>\n

Descript\u00a0<\/strong>is not Rev.com, let me say right up front. Descript is machine-based, artificial intelligence, for the basic service. It is also only $0.15 per minute, and that includes a transcript I can export into Word or export for use as captions. For $10 a month, and only $0.07 a minute, you can edit the audio in ways that are hard to explain in a text-based blog.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend<\/strong> Descript<\/a> because it does automatic transcription\u00a0and audio<\/strong><\/em> editing<\/strong>, which makes it uniquely powerful.\u00a0Visit the\u00a0Descript website<\/a>\u00a0and try the demonstration. Working through the training demo, I was astounded at how much time I could save.<\/p>\n

Editing audio is slow and tedious<\/strong>. I use Garageband<\/a>, Logic Pro<\/a>, Audition, Pro Tools<\/a>, and the open source Audacity<\/a> for school projects. To remove an extra word or to fix a word gap you need to \u201cextract\u201d the audio segment. If you have multiple speakers, you risk creating some odd effects when you fix one person talking with others in the background. Editing audio is a craft. In time, you learn the audio wave markers for breaths, \u201cum\u201d sounds, and other ticks you need to remove or mask.<\/p>\n

Decript removes words and sounds\u00a0as you edit the transcript<\/strong><\/em>. It\u2019s magical. Someone says \u201cuh, the, ah, you know\u2026\u201d in the transcript? Delete the words and the audio file<\/a> also marks those to remove on export. You get cleaner audio with the editing process.<\/p>\n

Once you have this edited audio and transcript, you can use other tools to refine the results. I end up in Logic, but any good audio application will work. It does not need to be a $300 digital audio workstation<\/a> package (DAW).<\/p>\n

The monthly price for Descript subscriptions will rise from $10 to $20 monthly in the future. I hope the $0.15 per minute rate doesn\u2019t increase, which is ideal for many bloggers and YouTube video producers.<\/p>\n

Again, I recommend Descript, without hesitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you need to transcribe audio or caption video, take a look at Descript now. Some days, my words are jumbled and speaking well is…<\/p>\n

Continue readingDescript and Other Tools for Transcription<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":13,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[22,23,25,26,168,243,273,381,530],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-technology","tag-accessibility","tag-accommodations","tag-ada","tag-adaptive","tag-dragon","tag-google","tag-iep","tag-nuance","tag-technology","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/12\/FB_Banner_Pen_Mac.png?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfiw78-3g","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1654,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/1654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}