Typing up hours of conversation, interviews or speeches can be incredibly dull and tedious. Transcription software packages alleviate this problem by converting human speech into a text transcript, or at least by accelerating the process.
This list of the top ten transcription software packages has been assembled to help you save precious time and get back to more intellectually stimulating ways of spending your time.
Rev Transcription Review. I am constantly on the lookout for work from home companies that are always hiring. It’s nice to know that, should you need it, there are places you can go to immediately to start the application process and (hopefully) have a new gig lined up by the end of the week. Rev is a transcription service, CCExtractor is a data extractor for some forms of already-captioned media. Guest • May 2018 Disagree Agree Free Open Source Mac Windows Linux.
1.Express Scribe
An excellent transcription package designed specifically for Mac users, Express Scribe, comes with a wealth of handy features such as variable speed playback, foot pedal control functionality, and speech to text engine integration.
It supports a wide variety of file formats, including MP3, DCT, WAV and DS2, and also allows you to load audio material automatically from email messages, your local computer network or through the incorporated Express Delegate transcription workflow management program.
2.MacBMD
MacBMD is aimed at helping you perform specific tasks, like transcribing historical records en masse. It comes with its integral Viewer window for ease of application and allows you to access/upload completed transcriptions to the FreeBMD site for free. It also comes with a queries tutorial to help you through the installation process.
3.Transcriva
Transcriva utilizes a style chat interface to facilitate the transcription of text without relying on voice recognition software, which can very often prove unreliable. It instantly recognizes and links transcribed audio files to your inventory, meaning you don’t have to hunt for / source quotes or sound bites. You can also use USB foot pedals to control audio while entering text.
4.iSay
One of the easiest packages to use available on the Mac, iSay simply converts speech into text once it is imported from a huge variety of devices, including phones and Windows computers. The package is incredibly convenient featuring seamless email integration, hotkeys, and a user-friendly interface.
5.Dragon
This software is another easy to master / intuitive program that enables you to convert speech straight into text. Aimed at helping you produce status reports, spreadsheets and other everyday office paperwork in a much shorter timeframe, Dragon is over 99% accurate and suitable for use by novices and professionals alike.
6.SeventhString
Designed specifically for helping musicians transcribe music into tabs/sheet music, Seventh String boasts a truly unique audio recognition system that can also be used for voice recording/transcription. It will also run on virtually any operating system on which it can be installed, without excessively taxing your machine’s operating power. Best free photo editor for mac air.
7.Adobe Sound Booth
The Speech Analysis function is just one aspect of this much larger sound editing software program offered by Adobe. On average it will take around 2 hours to transcribe an audio file that is 2 hours in duration, but offers a good degree of accuracy and allows you to copy and paste the resulting transcript directly into Word.
8. Listen N’ Write
One of the more basic transcription software packages out there for the Mac, Listen N’ Write doesn’t type for you, nor does it use voice recognition software. Instead, it is a media player that offers intuitive bookmarking and rewind features and an integrated word processor to simplify the process of listening to audio material and transcribing it. More manual work, perhaps, but then again, it is entirely free!
9.VoxSigma
VoxSigma is aimed at those hoping to transcribe large volumes of audio material afflicted by background noise or chatter. Compatible with an extensive range of languages, it is most commonly used by call centers to transcribe employee conversations for training purposes. It produces highly detailed XML documents featuring labels for speech / nonspeech segments, speaker tags and much more.
10. InqScribe
InqScribe is another highly intuitive, multi-language-compatible piece of software that allows you to both views a video and transcribes it all in one window. You can also create subtitled videos and use a foot pedal to control audio playback, leaving your hands free to type. While it does not type for you, it will simplify and quicken the transcribing process.
11. ATMac
One of the easiest software to use when you are using a Mac. This software will enable you to write emails, chat with your friends, and other needs where you need to write anything. The software is capable to identify all the different types of English dialects and accents which include American, Northen Ireland, Southern countries, Australian, British, and even Indian. There are even option to add different pedals and other accessories which you can press when you don’t want to type in what you are saying. This software is easy as well as effective to be used, but do note that this type of software cannot always be trusted and hence a proofreading is required after you dictate all the things.
12. Mac Speech Scribe
This software is enabled to handle most of the audio to text conversion. The accuracy of this software has been the best of all while converting any audio to text. If you are dictating anything and in the meantime the software is unable to convert any word to text, then it will continue to work for the future speech, this will, in turn, get competed when you are done with the further dictation, with this it will enable you to have a better control over what you are typing and also it will help you to make it much more simple to dictate you lengthy paragraphs.
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What do you think about the top 12 transcription software we talked about above? Have you been using any of such software earlier if yes do let us know your experience in the comments on how much did you liked the software and how much did you use the software, also do note that this software has a limitations and at times it might become a pain for you to correct the words which were misspelled.
Ryan Law contributed to this article, as did Zapier Senior Writer and Editor, Matthew Guay
Transcription is no longer the sole reserve of journalists or doctors. It's more affordable than ever, ready to unlock the SEO benefit of a podcast or video transcript, turn interviews into powerful quotes and social proof, or even document meetings and conferences.
From services powered by human transcribers to powerful machine learning-powered apps, there’s a wider selection of transcription services than ever before. To help you find the best service for your unique use case, we tested nine of the most popular, inexpensive transcription apps and found the best four—each designed to save you hours of painstaking transcription time.
What Makes a Great Transcription Service?
To find the best transcription services, we focused on three critical criteria: accuracy, speed, and price.
Accuracy is paramount to a transcription app, so we put each service through its paces with a short two-minute audio clip. The clip contained 282 words, two speakers, two different accents, and a few niche brand names and pieces of industry jargon—and to compare the accuracy of each platform, we calculated how many mistakes each made.
Speed is another crucial factor. Given enough time, we could all transcribe audio with close to 100% accuracy, but these services are designed to take the manual labor out of transcription. From the moment we hit “upload” to the second the transcription was finished, the timer was running.
Finally, we come to price. Transcription services are cheaper than ever, and a growing number of computer-powered transcription services have forced prices down further. Years ago, transcribing an hour of audio could easily cost over $120, but today you could hire someone on Fiverr to do this for you from $5 for 10 minutes of audio. All of the services in this list cost $1 or less per minute of transcribing time, beating even that low price.
But how do computer-powered services compare to old-fashioned human transcription, in terms of price, speed, and accuracy? To decide, we tested the biggest names from both camps to see which came out on top.
Learn more about how we select apps to feature.
The Best Computer-Powered Transcription Apps
Want a quick, cheap, and fairly accurate transcription? Online transcription apps are generally more affordable than human-powered transcription services. These apps are a solid choice when you need something transcribed fast and the audio doesn't contain a lot of complicated lingo that needs human deciphering.
Temi
Best for fast, frictionless transcription
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Temi touts itself as “speech to text transcription in 5 minutes,” and true to its description, the service made short work of our two-minute audio sample. Temi took just 60 seconds to analyse the audio, understand the speech, and email the finished transcription. In addition to having one of the quickest turnarounds of the apps tested, Temi also has the lowest per-minute price. This should be your go-to transcription app if speed and price are your priorities.
Uploading audio to Temi was also the easiest of the bunch: the entire process only took just four clicks from opening the site, taking advantage of Temi’s free trial offer to get started without any payment details or account setup, and receiving the finished transcript.
For the most part, Temi’s accuracy was spot-on, only falling short in a few instances where it missed words or misinterpreted some tricky acronyms (it transcribed “A and D” as “Andy,” “indie,” and “Emiri” at different stages).
Though it doesn’t have quite the depth of functionality as other transcription services on this list, it more than makes up for it in terms of its speed and price: At just 10 cents per minute, it’s the cheapest transcription service with a high accuracy rate.
Trint
Best for transcribing, editing, and collaborating in one place
Trint took just two minutes from upload to finished transcription and was the most accurate of the transcription apps tested. Although it costs more than Temi, it also includes more handy features.
Trint provides a host of functionality with tools. You can review your audio alongside your time-stamped transcription, and use handy keyboard hotkeys to rewind, pause, and fast-forward the recording. Once it's finished, you can email the finished transcription to colleagues in a click.
Trint’s intuitive interface supports a broad range of file formats and ways to upload audio, and after poring through the transcript, I found only 14 mistakes—giving it a high 95% accuracy rate.
Great speed and great accuracy at a competitive price: If you're looking for a transcription app that you can use with your team, give Trint a look.
Human-Powered Transcription Apps
Although computers these days do a great job of transcribing speech to text, if you need the utmost accuracy or have complicated audio to transcribe, transcription services powered by people are the way to go. They're the most accurate, and these services are both fast and competitively priced.
Rev
Best for near-perfect transcriptions.
At $1 per minute and with a turnaround of less than 20 minutes, Rev is among the best values in transcription services. The service is easy to use, fast, and extremely accurate—it's the service we use here at Zapier for transcribing interviews.
In stark contrast to the machine-powered transcription services, Rev’s human transcriber (thanks Gemma!) nailed every single brand name, acronym, and piece of industry jargon. There were no missing phrases, and the only problem was a brief patch of apparently inaudible sound—culminating in an impressive 98% accuracy rate for Rev. Though the service took markedly longer than the machine services, I was only waiting for 17 minutes, pretty crazy when you consider the logistics required to pair my project up to a transcriber.
The editing and review features were basic but functional, but with such a high accuracy rate, it didn’t matter as there was little I needed to change. These figures aren’t unusual for Rev: they tout a 99% accuracy rate, and guarantee that audio excerpts less than 30 minutes will be transcribed within 12 hours.
See our Rev review for more details or check out how you can automate Rev with over 1,000 other apps:
Scribie
Best for accurate transcription when time isn’t a worry
Like Rev, Scribie’s human transcriber managed to pick out and correctly identify every acronym and brand name. In fact, the only errors I came across were a couple word omissions, and nothing that changed the meaning of the conversation. Video clip editor for mac.
With Scribie’s budget pricing coming in at just $0.60 per minute, their 98% accuracy rate was also accompanied by the lowest cost of any transcription service in this category.
The tradeoff is turnaround time. Scribie’s cheapest tier is their “5 day turnaround,” and although the finished transcription was delivered well within that timeframe, it still took 36-hours from upload to delivered file. If timing isn't an issue for you, Scribie is an affordable and accurate transcription service option.
Rev Transcription ReviewsHonorable Mention: Self-Service Apps & Freelancers
Want to transcribe text yourself? An app like oTranscribe (pictured) can help.
The real benefit of a transcription service is freeing up your time. But if you’re willing to be more hands-on, you can think about DIY-transcription or hiring and managing freelancers.
DIY-transcription is simply doing the hard work of transcribing audio yourself. Apps like Transcribe and oTranscribe were developed with this in mind. They pair audio players with simple text editors to easily transcribe as you listen. For example, after uploading your video, you can click play and then start typing the content yourself as you listen along, with hotkeys that offer crucial functionality (such as pausing and rewinding) at your fingertips to make the process as fast as possible. YouTube, similarly, allows you to enter closed captioning text when you edit an uploaded video.
There are also a wealth of transcription professionals available at freelancing sites like Mechanical Turk, Upwork, and Fivver. Select the transcriber, and send them the audio file to have them transcribe it for you. Note, though, that transcription quality can vary depending on the quality of the audio file you send and the transcriber's skills. I tried to have an interview with a programmer transcribed via Fivver, for example, and in the end had to scrap the project, because the transcriber wasn't able to make out the abbreviations and acronyms in the conversation.
Overall, the transcription services powered by people scored higher in the accuracy stake while costing a bit more. But, crucially, there’s a smaller gulf in quality that I was expecting. The machine-powered services were faster without exception, and offered their services at a fraction of the price.
If accuracy and minimal editing are prerequisites for your transcriptions, you’ll be best served by the human touch. If you’re looking to turn recorded audio into text in the quickest, cheapest way possible (and you don’t mind the occasional slip-up), it’s worth trying a computer-driven service.
One thing’s for sure: both approaches are better than laboring over your own transcriptions.
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Want to save more typing time? Here are more resources to help you get more out of audio and type less:
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