Transcription

[Maighread Tobin]

Has anyone experience in using transcription software to transcribe MP3 voice recordings? These relate to in-depth one-to-one interviews.  I am interested in hearing the pros and cons of using it as an alternative to transcribing ‘by hand’.  I have recently read a reference to Transana in an article on SRMO, and it sounds like a useful resource.  I don’t need the level of detail reqired for a CA analysis, although having it would be a bonus.            

Maighread

[bernard smith]

Is there in fact ANY software that is available that can transcribe more than one voice? Don’t all transcribing software need to “learn” the voice of every speaker and so the use of such software is really limited to you being able to have your own audio notes transcribed. I am not aware of any software that is able to deal with more than one speaker.  

[bernard smith]

So your voice is the one voice that Dragon needs to work effectively.. That sounds like an incredibly labor intensive and time consuming process.

[bernard smith]

I didn’t mean teaching Dragon to hear your voice was labor intensive, I meant that if you were the one voice that Dragon used to transcribe the interviews then you would have to listen to a a strip of talk then say that strip and then listen and talk and listen and talk. I would imagine that reciting an hour of interview talk might take you two or three hours of listen and talk to Dragon.

[Maighread Tobin]

Thank you for the responses.  I had seen early versions of Dragon some years ago, and it was cumbersome, but it probably has improved since then as Dave Collingridge says.  I will follow it up.  I have recently downloaded a demo version of Transana, which is capable of handling video material as well as audio, and it seems quite versatile so far.  You still have to type as you listen and watch, so it seems that nothing will replace the hard work!  I am used to using discourse analytic methods with published texts, and this is the first time I have had to consider the preparation of voice data for analysis.  I have been reading a debate recently on the merits of transcribing after the analysis versus before the analysis, so that has been food for thought as well.     

[Muir Houston]

I

If all you want is some software which eases the process of typing up interivews, than a useful free piece of software is

Express Scribe Transcription Playback Software

http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html

 

which allows you to use keystrokes as a typist would use a foot pedal – when you press a key, the recording stops and shift back a couple of seconds (user defined) and then starts again –

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