Invest in a Great Microphone and Other Recording Equipment. Sky gamblers infinite jets 1 0 2. Whenever possible, whether you are. Transcribe recorded music. Free to try User rating. Publisher: Seventh String Software Downloads: 9,825. Transcribe Pro for Windows 10. Paid Transcribe Pro for Windows 10. Thank you for choosing.
The Transcribe! application is an assistant for people whowant to work out a piece of music from a recording, in order to write it out, orplay it themselves, or both.It doesn't do the transcribing for you, but it is essentially a specialisedplayer program which is optimised for the purpose of transcription. It has manytranscription-specific features not found on conventional music players.
It is also used by many people for play-along practice. It canchange pitch and speed instantly, and you can store and recall any number of named loops.So you can practice in all keys, and you can speed up as well as slow down.There is some advice about play-along practice in Transcribe!'s help, under the heading 'Various Topics'.
And it is also used for speech transcription. With its support for foot pedalsand its superior slowed-down sound quality, it is an excellent choice for this purpose.There is some advice about speech transcription in Transcribe!'s help, under the heading 'Various Topics'.
Conventional music players (whether hardware such as a CD player or an iPod,or software such as Windows Media Player or iTunes) are really designed for peoplewho want to listen to whole tracks. They are very inconvenient for transcribingmusic as they are not designed for this purpose. If you copy the recording toyour computer's hard disk as a sound file then you can use Transcribe! instead.Transcribe! offers many features aimed at making the transcription job smootherand easier, including the ability to slow down music without changing its pitch,to analyse chords and show you what notes are present, and the capability ofadding markers and textual annotations so you can easily navigate around thetrack. Transcribe! also has a piano keyboard displayed on screen which you canclick to play reference notes.
It is important to understand that Transcribe! does not attempt to do the whole job, processingan audio file and outputting musical notation or midi - this would be nice, but is a currently unsolvedresearch problem. The spectrum analysis feature is very useful for working out those hard-to-hearchords, but you must still use your ear and brain to decide which of the peaks in the spectrumare notes being played, which are merely harmonics, and which are just the result of noise andbroad-spectrum instruments such as drums. If you have never worked out even a simple piece ofmusic by ear then Transcribe! will probably not help you (seeIntroduction to Transcribing Music),but if you do sometimes work out recorded music by ear then Transcribe! can makethe job a lot quicker and easier.
If you are working from a video file then Transcribe! can usually display the video too.
Transcribe! takes no interest in MIDI files - these already contain explicitinformation about what notes are to be played and when, and there are plenty ofprograms available which can display this information. Transcribe! deals withaudio sample data files.
Transcribe! plays and records audio files but it is not an audio editor.It is capable of applying various effects to audio such as speed change, pitchchange and EQ. You can save the modified audio to a new sound file if you want.
Transcribe! is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Transcribe! is Copyright © 1998-2020 Seventh String Software.
You may download Transcribe! and use it for 30 days evaluation period forfree. If you want to continue using it after that you must buy it.
What's Special About Transcribe!
There are a lot of software applications and hardware devices out there whosestated purpose is to help you to transcribe music (seethis page).Almost all of them are in fact tools for slowing down the music without changing the pitch.
Transcribe! certainly does perform this trick but I have never regarded it as themain function of the program, and in fact version 1 of Transcribe! didn't even havethis feature. I have done a lot of transcribing and I have always found that the mostawkward and tedious part of the job is simply that of navigating around the trackand controlling playback. On a CD or other conventional music player, the business of finding againthe section you want to hear, of playing again the phrase you are working on, andgenerally knowing where you are, is a constant distraction from actually concentratingon the music.
Transcribe! displays the track as a scrollable waveform from left to right. Youcan place markers for sections, measures and beats, and you can label them withdescriptive names and add textual annotations if you want. The markers identifythe various points in the track and you can click on any point to play instantly fromthat point. There is a rich collection of keyboard shortcuts for controlling playback,and you can also use pedals for hands-free playback control.You will soon find that this allows you to concentrate on the music instead ofspending your timefiddling with the playback controls and wondering where you are.This may not sound very glamorousbut if you actually do transcribe music then I think you will appreciate what I am saying.
Features
Depending on version, Transcribe! reads audio from many differenttypes of audio file and audio CD. It also has a 'Record' facility forrecording from analog sources such as cassette or vinyl. It displays the audiowaveform and allows you to scroll around, place markers for sections, measuresand beats, and easily play or loop from any point.
Transcribe! can also display the video synchronised to the audio for mostvideo files.
Loops and positions can be stored and recalled. There are many keyboardshortcuts and you can configure these as you like. You canconfigure Transcribe! to respond to pedals of various types so as to keep your handsfree : start and stop playback with your feet!
There is extensive and readable help accessible from within the program.
The 'spectrum' feature displays the strength of the various pitchesin any chord or note you select, in the form of a graph - a wavy line over apiano keyboard graphic. The heights of the various peaks in the graph indicatethe strength of the note above which the peak appears. This is not a magicbullet for analysing chords but it can be a very useful source of information.
Transcribe! will perform 'note guessing' and 'chord guessing' - that is,it will attempt to interpret the spectrum information for you, markingthe notes being played on the piano keyboard, and attempting to name the chords(in standard form such as 'Am', 'E7#9', etc). Note guesses can be displayed in'piano roll' form, showing the guesses over time, aligned to the waveform view.
Transcribe! supports Automation (or Scripting). You can runTranscribe! automatically from commands in a file, perhaps to processa number of sound files, saving them at different altered speeds, or toinstruct Transcribe! to play various sound files with various effects.
Transcribe! offers various audio processing effects (Slowdown, Pitch Change,EQ filtering etc) intended to help with transcribing. These effects all run in'real time'. This means there is no pre-processing or otherwaiting, the processing is performed on-the-fly while playing and you caninstantly hear the effect of changes to EQ etc. For instance if you press thehalf-speed button while playing then playback simply continues, at half speed.
Mono/Karaoke
This effect allows you to mix the two channels of a stereo recording together invarious ways including phase-reverse, commonly known as 'karaoke' asit sometimes has the effect of removing the vocal (if the vocal is panneddead-centre).
EQ
A powerful EQ filter.
Tuning
Adjustment to playback pitch, in cents (hundredths of a semitone) for finetuning and also larger shifts of up to three octaves, which can for instance beuseful in hearing low, murky bass parts by raising them by an octave or two.
Transposition
Special handling for those of you who play a transposing instrument such astrumpet or saxophone.
Speed
Speed variable from one twentieth to double speed.
Click here for an MP3 file (321 KB)demonstrating the sound quality ofslowdown-without-pitch-change. It contains 7 seconds of a guitar solo playedquite fast, followed by the same at half speed. This is what you get when youpress Transcribe!'s half-speed button.
Click here for some slowed down samples ofColtrane's 'Giant Steps'.
I haven't bothered to give lots of samples, since you can download Transcribe!for a free trial period and try it yourself.
Tutorial Videos
Here is a two minute video by me, Andy Robinson, giving a very brief overview of Transcribe!
youtu.be/8ujO2WD6Oj0
Here are some more videos demonstrating the use of Transcribe! - these have all been produced by Transcribe! users - thank you!
Here are two excellent tutorial videos - thank you Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson, Jeff Beck).
Quick start: youtu.be/lxNl2LnI-2E
Full length tutorial: youtu.be/iVrjCrazqWU
Transcribe Recorded Audio
Here is an excellent 30 minute tour of Transcribe! - thank you Ariane Cap.
arisbassblog.com/transcribe-tutorial-my-favorite-transcribing-software-explained/
Here are two videos totalling over 20 mins and showing many things - thank you Christopher O'Hara.
Part 1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6Xmsu6AI6c
Part 2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrYpjglihYo
Here are three videos by Levi Clay showing how to transcribe - thank you Levi.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBnJvcXuaPk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMN0e0z-b84
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz53B3kZg5s
Here are several videos showing many things - harmonica focussed but applicable to all instruments. Includes (in video 5) an interesting technique for learning/memorising music by taking the phrases in reverse order. Thank you Carlos.
harmonicapractice.com/transcribing.html
There are three videos here totalling about 30 mins and showing many things - thank you Darren.
www.strumpatterns.com/Gear/LoopingMp3s.htm
This shows markers, EQ, speed and pitch change, and looping - thank you David at www.youtube.com/wallimann
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH8oudKwQiA
If you go to about 5'40' in this one, there's a great demo of the right way to use Transcribe! for bass lines - thank you Luke at Become A Bassist.com
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6zvflY7Z70
This demonstrates using video looping for drummers (at about 2 minutes from the start) - thank you Beyond Salsa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXWJw-0a_fM
Starting at about 7 minutes in this one is a nice demo of various of Transcribe!'s features - thank you Pete.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHvKm0FYakg
Transcribe From Recording
Other Languages
Transcribe! itself is in English only at present but here we have some tutorial material in other languages kindly offered by Transcribe! users. Stellar mail converter 2 0.
Here is a tutorial video in German - thank you Bernd.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-e7SPryPac Popcalendar 1 7 4 – calendar for the menu bar.
Here is a brief written tutorial in French - thank you Michel.
Word document: FrançaisMiniGuideTranscribe.doc
Here is a brief video introduction in Spanish - thank you Arte Sonoro
YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XytIEzVTJDQ
And another also in Spanish - thank you Daniel.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dfloresmusic/videos/472778489915605/
Flyer
Sometimes people ask me for a printed information sheet about Transcribe!.We don't distribute printed materials but here is a single-sided information sheet asa pdf (Adobe Acrobat) file which you are welcome to download and print out.
You may need to right-click it if you want to download the pdf file rather thanhave it open in your browser.
Recommend this page to others, on these social network sites:
This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.
How much time does it take to transcribe an hour of audio?
The short answer: The industry standard is four hours of transcription time for one hour of clear audio, or a 4:1 ratio – that is, one hour of transcription time for a 15-minute-long recording.
In my experience as a professional professional transcriptionist, clearly recorded audio with slow, clear speakers can be transcribed at a ratio of 3:1 or 2:1 or even lower – that's one hour of transcription time for a 20- or 30-minute file.
And, on the other end of the audio quality spectrum, one hour of muffled or garbled audio with many overlapping voices might take 10 hours or more to transcribe.
So, we can say that one hour of audio can take anywhere from two hours to 10 hours or more to transcribe. That's quite a range!
Because audio quality usually falls somewhere in between the two extremes, I'd guess that the ratio for many professional transcriptionists often comes out closer to 5:1 or 6:1 (five or six hours to transcribe one hour of audio).
Factors that affect transcription time per audio hour
Aside from level of experience and typing speed in words per minute, there are several factors that affect transcription time per audio hour:
- Audio recording quality
- Number of speakers
- Background noise
- Speaker 'coherence' (i.e., do the speakers talk over each other? Do they speak quickly or slowly? Do they finish a thought before beginning the next sentence?)
- Regional accents
- Amount of research required (names, places, specialized terminology, etc.)
- Special transcript requirements, such as timestamps or true verbatim transcription
The more factors that are thrown into the mix, the longer the audio will take to transcribe. (I've encountered files that were entirely 'un-transcribable,' but that's a topic for another post!)
Most professional transcription services account for these factors by charging at different per-audio-minute tiers to compensate transcriptionists for the extra time it takes to transcribe a challenging file.
Or, they may charge a different fee depending on the type of audio – a podcast versus a conference call, for example. Podcasts tend to have fewer speakers and are produced with quality recording equipment, so they tend to take less time to transcribe.
Focus groups and conference calls, on the other hand, are more likely to have audio quality issues and many participants talking over each other. Therefore, they can take many more hours to transcribe.
How to decrease your transcription time per audio hour
If you're doing your transcripts yourself to cut costs, I recommend using pro transcription software to save yourself a lot of time. (Express Scribe is an excellent free program.)
You can also use a foot pedal designed for transcription (I use the Infinity USB pedal) to control audio playback without the use of hotkeys.
If you're working with especially challenging audio, consider using a pair of headphones 'tuned' for transcription.
For more time-saving tips, check out my post on how to transcribe like a pro.
If you're outsourcing transcription to an agency, you'll still want to consider the length of time your audio will take to transcribe. A challenging audio file translates into a transcript with more inaudibles, a longer turnaround time, and – if you're working with a transcription service that compensates transcriptionists for their extra time – a higher cost.
To minimize your transcription costs and maximize your experience, use quality recording equipment and record your audio in a location with minimal noise.
Are you interested in a career in transcription?
Visit my comprehensive guide on becoming a work-from-home transcriptionist. And make sure to bookmark my regularly updated list of companies that offer online transcription jobs for beginners and pros!
Stephanie Sinagraon April 13, 2019 at 10:19 amThank you. I am a professional transcriptionist, just recently expanding from medical and Med-Legal transcription, which bils differently, to more general transcription. I wanted to check myself and be sure my time is fairly billed to my clients compared to my actual transcription time. Your information provided was very helpful.
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