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Filed under: Audio, Video, Productivity

Transcriptions: free, lightweight Mac transcription app


If you're a journalist, a social scientist or even just a blogger, you've probably been through the process of transcribing a recorded interview. I do a lot of transcription, but I had always done it the hard way: with a text editor open in one window, and my audio in the other. I should have just downloaded Transcriptions, which handles the whole transcription process in one app, with a lot of cool extras.

It supports both audio and video, with adjustable playback rate and automatic or manual time stamping. I don't have a foot pedal, so I haven't been able to test this, but it apparently supports those, too. I know there are other, more elaborate transcription apps out there, but this one is free, easy to use, takes up under 1MB of disk space. It makes my work a lot of less of a pain than it was when I was using Quicktime and TextEdit to do the job of this one neat little app.

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Freeware

Express Scribe makes transcribing audio a bit less painful

Express Scribe
If you've ever found yourself with a pile of audio to transcribe, you know what a hassle it can be to start, stop, and start an audio file again and again using most audio players. Whether you've recorded a business meeting on a digital voice recorder or a news conference on high end audio gear, Express Scribe can make your transcription job a lot easier.

This free Windows/Mac software lets you play and pause audio while controlling the playback with keyboard hotkeys or an optional foot pedal. If you don't type 160 words per minute, the best feature is that you can slow down the playback to a more manageable speed and Express Scribe will work some digital pitch shifting magic so that you don't feel like you're listening to goth poetry.

Be forewarned, while Express Scribe is free, NCH Swift Sound, the company behind the software will try their best to get you to install trialware for a bunch of other programs including dictation software which is not free.

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