Comments on: Batch Speech Transcription programs?

Question: Batch Speech Transcription programs?

empath — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 04:39:03 -0800

Batch Speech Transcription?

Are there any programs that, given a directory of wav or mp3 files, can do voice recognition and transcription on them? I don't need perfect accuracy.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:20:14 -0800

I've been looking for this too. I'm assuming the previous incarnations of this question didn't yield satisfactory answers. There really doesn't seem to be anything accurate out there at all, unless the voice on your files is enunciating perfectly. I'd be thrilled if someone could demonstrate otherwise.

By: sleevener

sleevener — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:24:53 -0800

Haven't checked any of the programs linked, but this might be worth investigating.

By: empath

empath — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 06:29:17 -0800

I wonder how podzinger does it, then. They can't have hired people to transcribe all those podcasts, can they?

By: i love cheese

i love cheese — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 07:14:18 -0800

Podzinger uses speech recognition software. It is a spinoff of BBN Technologies, a company that has been working on speech recognition for decades. I don't believe they have (or will) released their software for public use.

By: i love cheese

i love cheese — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 07:31:55 -0800

There are products that claim to support batch transcription. They are far from cheap:

Dragon Naturally Speaking SDK Server Edition (contact Nuance for pricing)

Wizzscribe SI for Linux $3400

By: perpetualstroll

perpetualstroll — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:54:18 -0800

There was also another company, I can't remember their name offhand, that did podcasts and they kept their costs down by hiring transcriptionists from India.

By: ejaned8

ejaned8 — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:05:50 -0800

I remember seeing transcription fairly cheap on Amazon's Mechanical Turk. A company that does transcription using that is Casting Words, so that might be another option.