March 25, 2005
Curious George: Digital Voice Recording Transcription
Is there software that will take a WMA digital voice recording file and turn it into a txt or doc file?
My boss just bought this digital voice recorder. She was under the impression that she could record her notes about meetings, plug it into her computer, and voila, have a Word document. Now that thing has come in, and we are setting it up, I don't see that particular function. And while I am not much of a techie, because I do know how to run a macro on a spread sheet, my boss thinks I am. Since our IT department doesn't support this type of equipment, she has asked me to "figure out how to make this work". Am I assuming incorrectly that there is some sort of software that can perform this function? I've done some preliminary searches, but I'm not sure what I am looking for. Can any of you techno siminians make a recommendation? We are on pc's with Windows 2000.
-
Are you just looking for general speech recognition software? I know the folk who work on Sphinx; I have seen it automatically transcribe stuff like news broadcasts and Nova documentaries, but my understanding is that the state of the art isn't sufficiently advanced for anything more free-form.
-
Fugyare, yes, I guess basically that is what I am looking for. But you are confirming my suspicions that this isn't really commonplace technology.
-
You'd have to have a pretty high quality recording for voice-rec software to work worth a damn, wouldn't you? What software I've seen had trouble accurately transcribing an actual human voice, so I'd bet that transcribing a recording could really give it fits.
-
Your boss sure is dumb.
-
If you can find, install, configure and tweak the software you're looking for, it'll still look leke these line right hair, requiring you to playback the file and edit the document, which, as you are doing, you will realize, is the most efficient way of doing it in the first place. Guess you could also try backward-engineering MacTalker for System 6, since its probably on your boss' desktop.
-
I dictate onto a mini-disk all the time, then transcribe from that. I use Dragon Naturally Speaking, which I find works very well (although you have to train it). I plug my headset speakers into the mini-disk player and the headset mic into the computer, and read back whaterver I'm hearing in my headphones. This works much better than trying to dictate right into the computer because when the computer gets something wrong (as it does relatively frequantly) you don't loose your train of thought as you go back to correct the transcription: you just pause the tape.
-
Your boss would probably be better off just typing up her notes instead of going through the steps of recording the notes, using software to transcribe the recording, and then editing the transcript. Three steps become one.
-
My boss is a VP of a very large organization. (Which explains her lack of practical knowledge). Thanks to everyone. I see can now tell her that there is no simple, easy way to do what she wants to do.
-
For the record, I'd like to make a point -- yes, it's stupid for users to assume that this sort of technology exists at present. However, don't forget that a large part of the non-L337 computer-using public is under constant assault from advertising and marketing designed to make technology seem much more advanced than it currently is. Those of us who know better should stick to enlightening the public, and lose some of this L337ist attitude. I daresay my mechanic could school me on quite a few aspects of automotive technology, and chastise me for my ignorance. (We're all stupid about some thing[s].)
-
Well, if it comes down to it, I do transcription and have been looking for a side gig - if you need help, I would be thrilled to help and currently use the Olypus software. :-) Feel free to email me at my profile address.
-
Pay someone in india to transcribe. pennies a sentence.
-
Check out ViaVoice by IBM. The Pro USB and Advanced editions may do what she wants.