Transcription technology?

Fri May 14 22:27:45 UTC 2010

Hi again,

I should have mentioned that I take it for granted that one wants a program
that links sound/video files to text, so my recommendations are based on
that. I would never consider transcribing in Word. Among other reasons, Word
doesn't necessarily support old versions (what if you want to archive your
data--you don't want those transcripts to be inaccessible in 10 years) and I
like to search my transcripts and be able to click and listen to the audio.
 For articles or presentations, I just export the transcript and put it into
a document format. Some of my students like to transcribe in Word (using
Audacity as a media player), then cut and paste into Transana or a similar
program that links audio and text.

Best,
Robin
______________________________________

Robin Shoaps

2009-2010 Faculty Fellow, Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto

Assistant Professor of Anthropology
The University of Chicago
1126 E. 59th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Office: Haskell 301
Lab phone: 702-5533
Fax: 702-4503

_______________________________________

On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 6:22 PM, Robin Shoaps <shoaps at uchicago.edu> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I personally find Elan to have a high learning curve (though I'm not that
> familiar with it), and found trying to set it up to allow for searchable
> interlinear gloss was rather difficult and frustrating. But people who
> aren't interested in having that function seem happy with it. And that
> doesn't seem to be an impediment for the MPI folks I know (though they get
> on site tech support). It really does seem wonderful once you have set it up
> for your needs.
>
> I have my RAs use Transana with a pedal, by the way, though I'm considering
> Atlas.ti. From what i understand you can export Transana files into it and
> it allows for easier coding.
>
> One concern is what format your transcripts can be exported in (other
> transcription programs, atlas, even word or open office), whether the
> software is proprietary and whether support for older versions or older
> formats of data will be supported in the long run. Both Transana and ELAN
> recognize that this is an issue for academics and archives, so I think their
> future seems more promising than some of the commercial or "court reporter"
> designed software out there. (Of the latter, I have had my Talk Radio and
> Discourses of the American Right students (working with English talk radio
> data that is not multi-party) use transcriber. It's free, multi-platform and
> easy to use and does link sound and text).
>
> My admittedly not terribly recent experiences with PRAAT indicate that this
> is not the best program for transcribing long (i.e., longer than 5 minute)
> segments. It's great for phonetic analysis, obviously, but did not meet my
> needs for transcribing multi-party conversations or my large sound files.
>
> I use Audacity (nice because it's cross platform and also free) largely for
> digitizing, editing and  saving/converting formats, but not transcription.
>
> Best,
> Robin
> ______________________________________
>
> Robin Shoaps
>
> 2009-2010 Faculty Fellow, Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto
>
> Assistant Professor of Anthropology
> The University of Chicago
> 1126 E. 59th St.
> Chicago, IL 60637
>
> Office: Haskell 301
> Lab phone: 702-5533
> Fax: 702-4503
>
> _______________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 14, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Sarah Wagner <swagner at mail.utexas.edu>wrote:
>
>> Thanks for this information.  I noticed no one mentioned ELAN.  Is that
>> because y'all haven't used it, or because you find other programs better?
>> In particular, I'm transcribing multi-party audio/video conversations, and
>> find ELAN to have a nice set up for that.  I haven't looked at all the
>> others, though and wonder if I should change, since ELAN is a bit
>> cumbersome
>> in other respects. Thoughts?
>>
>> Sarah
>>
>> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 6:10 PM, Steven Talmy <steven.talmy at ubc.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I sent this a few hours ago, but it doesn't seem like it made it
>> through.
>> >
>> >
>> > -------- Original Message --------
>> > Subject:        Re: Transcription technology?
>> > Date:   Wed, 12 May 2010 13:26:36 -0700
>> > From:   Steven Talmy <steven.talmy at ubc.ca>
>> > To:     galey modan <gmodan at GMAIL.COM>
>> > CC:     LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Hello everyone,
>> >
>> > As far as I know, the short answer to Steve's question is no, there is
>> > no transcription software that one can use to transcribe interviews, at
>> > least automatically (i.e., plug an mp3 file into it and it spits out a
>> > transcript). However, there are many other options, as I'll describe in
>> > a moment. In answer to Galey's question, yes, there is software that
>> > allows you to plug a foot pedal into a USB port on your computer:
>> > ExpressScribe<http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html>
>> >
>> >
>> > More on Steve's question:
>> >
>> > In my experience, there is no substitute for an experienced transcriber
>> > sitting down, listening to the audio/video record, and transcribing it.
>> > If you have lots of money, I would suggest hiring a research assistant,
>> > and training them in the theory and practicalities/conventions of
>> > transcription that you are after. You could also hire a professional
>> > transcriber, but the ones I've hired in the past have been very
>> > expensive, and usually "tidied up" the data, e.g. glossed over
>> > micro-details such as pauses, false starts, hesitations, etc. It's
>> > definitely not the case that all transcripts must include such details,
>> > but if that's what you're after, you'll need to train someone.
>> > Regardless, if you have someone else transcribe your data, I think it's
>> > important to go over what they wind up producing to check it.
>> >
>> > I use Audacity (freeware) for my transcriptions, and type right into
>> > Word.<http://audacity.sourceforge.net/?lang=en>. Here are a few other
>> > alternatives. This is by no means an exhaustive list, so please add to
>> it!
>> >
>> > Transcriber (freeware) is good, though I haven't used it much recently:
>> > http://trans.sourceforge.net/en/presentation.php
>> >
>> > F4 (freeware) is also good, and can be used with video:
>> > http://www.audiotranskription.de/english/f4.htm
>> >
>> >  CLAN (freeware) has been developed explicitly for CA:
>> > http://www.paultenhave.nl/clan.html
>> >
>> > Transana ($50) is very good for video (also audio):
>> > http://www.transana.org/
>> >
>> > Dragon Naturally Speaking ($200 for Preferred version, now in version
>> > 10) is probably closest to what Steve is looking for. It's an excellent
>> > (really impressive) talk to text application: you speak into a USB mic
>> > connected to your computer and it transcribes what you say. It requires
>> > quite a bit of training to your voice, and prefers very clear input with
>> > little background noise, which makes it pretty much unworkable in terms
>> > of plugging in a sound file of naturally occurring talk and having it
>> > transcribe it. I've tried it on interview recordings and classroom
>> > interactions, and the results have been laughable: pretty much
>> > gibberish. Maybe in a few more years...? Regardless, I have had students
>> > tell me they use it to do preliminary transcripts: they listen to the
>> > audio of an interview, e.g., then speak what was said on the recording
>> > into the mic, and DNS converts that to text. That still takes quite a
>> > lot of time though, and requires further editing for details of
>> > delivery, turn-taking etc. I personally only use DNS for transcribing
>> > fieldnotes, and for making comments on students' papers. I don't like
>> > using it for much more than that.
>> > <
>> >
>> http://www.dragon-medical-transcription.com/dragon_naturally_speaking_Preferred.html
>> > >.
>> >
>> > This is a really incomplete list, so I'd love to hear what others use.
>> >
>> > All the best,
>> >
>> > Steven
>> >
>> > ..................................................................
>> > Steven Talmy, Ph.D.
>> > Assistant Professor
>> > Department of Language&  Literacy Education
>> > University of British Columbia
>> > 2125 Main Mall
>> > Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z5
>> > Canada
>> >
>> > Office:
>> > Ponderosa E 221
>> > 604.822.2353
>> > 604.822.3154 (fax)
>> >
>> > LLED website:<http://www.lled.educ.ubc.ca>
>> > personal website:<http://educ.ubc.ca/faculty/talmy>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 5/12/2010 12:31 PM, galey modan wrote:
>> >
>> >>  Further to Steve's question, I'd be interested to know if anyone knows
>> >>  of any good transcription technology which allows you to use a foot
>> >>  pedal so you can keep your fingers on the keyboard and stop and
>> >>  backspace with your foot, like the old-fashioned cassette transcribing
>> >>  machine way.
>> >>
>> >>  Galey
>> >>
>> >>  2010/5/12 Leila Monaghan<leila.monaghan at gmail.com>:
>> >>
>> >>   From Steve Bialosok, please reply to him--
>> >>>  Steve Bialostok<stevebialostok at yahoo.com>   (University of Wyoming)
>> >>>  10:39am
>> >>>  I am looking for some sort of transcription technology. My work
>> involves
>> >>>  both interviews and classroom discourse.  I am unaware of
>> sophisticated
>> >>>  software other than the type you can buy between $100-200.00 at Best
>> Buy
>> >>> or
>> >>>  the Apple Store. I have been given a substantial amount of money (far
>> >>> more
>> >>>  than $200.00) to buy something that works well. And since I'm
>> >>> techno-stupid,
>> >>>  I'm hoping that it doesn't take a genius to make it work. Anyone out
>> >>> there
>> >>>  have any ideas or product names. (And to all those techno-savy folk
>> out
>> >>>  there, what is "easy" and "simple" for you may be brain surgery for
>> me.)
>> >>>  Steve
>> >>>
>> >>>  --
>> >>>  Leila Monaghan, PhD
>> >>>  Department of Anthropology
>> >>>  University of Wyoming
>> >>>  Laramie, Wyoming
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>>
>
>