Transcription wave offers digitalization, archiving services and transcription for Audio Cassette Tapes, Betacam and VHS. The analog format which is long forgotten was once the backbone of the audio and video production industry in the past years. Today there are numerous stores of VHS, Betacam and audio cassette tapes that have been left to collect dust sitting in dark and enclosed boxes never knowing if they will ever be rescued and see the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite all the technological advancements, Transcription wave had all the equipment in conjunction with the expertise that is needed to work on the ancestral analog clunkers.

Analog Decay

With time, analog tapes usually lose their quality and clarity. As times goes by you may find that the entire media that is stored on the tapes becomes useless. To get the information from this kind of decay is next to impossible and when it can be done it requires a lot of money. Before you get to such a point of not return, you should make a point to work with Transcription wave to digitalize, transcribe and digitalize as an attempt to save the analog gems.

Digital Archiving

The benefits of coming up with a digital video or audio archive has a lot to do with the capitalization of business assets. When analog media decays with time, it also looses the value it has to your company. Depreciation usually happens slowly over a long period of time but eventually the financial stock value of old cassettes, stock footage and any other analog media disappears. It therefore makes a lot of sense to spend a little money in the digitalization of the media to preserve their value financially while maintaining the integrity of video and audio permanently. Word Wizard is able to work with any format that you might have stored to ensure you don’t lose a thing.

Legacies of Progress

When the world was still young very many years back, it used to take a room full of machines to go through the process of transcription especially with time codes. Transcription wave spent a lot of money to acquire top notch quality decks that can handle any video or audio format. The company likes doing the work as it reminds them of yester years. While most companies will only focus on digital media the company prides itself in the maintenance of original analog capabilities that gives them the cutting edge over their competition without a doubt.

Most people can’t tell their .wma files from their .aiff files. This is because in the first place they do not choose the right sound format for the intended purpose. Whether for the purpose of downloading royalty free music or converting music files to digital format for portable players – it is important to choose the correct file format.

Sound can be stored in a number of file formats, but there are distinct differences between these various file formats including:

1. Compressing ability: You can save up considerable storage space, using a file format which is easily compressible. If you intend to store quite a number of songs, it would be a good move to go for a file format which can easily be compressed without distorting the sound quality.
2. The quality of sound maintained after compression: The down side of compression is that the sound quality is lost progressively, each time the sound file is compressed. While compression is a good method of saving on storage space, it is not the best option for audio recordings with dialogue meant for transcription.
3. Software compatibly: There are select audio formats which can be played using just about any music software or on any music player. There are some music files which are copy written and are therefore software dependent, limiting the ability to reproduce them or play them using incompatible music players.

The intended purpose for an audio recording should determine the chosen audio file format, whether its music downloaded online or an audio recording made for transcription purposes. Here is a breakdown of a few file formats in relation to their strengths and short falls.

1. RealAudio was developed for audio streaming purposes, particularly for streaming internet radio on low bandwidth connection. Websites which provide music streaming services for their visitors also use this file format. The file extension is denoted as .ram or .rm and one sort fall is that because of the low bandwidth audio quality reduction is experienced.
2. WAV denoting ‘waveform’ was developed by Microsoft in collaboration with IBM. This audio file format is incompressible and for this reason it takes up a lot of storage space. Due to its lossless quality, this file format is greatly used fort broadcasting purposes and it is distributed in CD and DVD format. The main advantage of this format is that it is easily covetable into compressed MP3 format. The file format is also compatible with both Mac systems and Windows, including several web browsers.
3. MIDI denotes Musical Instrument Digital Interface and they are some of the smallest file formats supported by several software as well as web browsers. For this reason, it is greatly used in both professionals and amateur music production. The file format produces music with limited amplitude, which is its main short fall.
4. MP3 is a popularly chosen file format used in music recording. The file format is also used to accompany MPEG files. The file format can be compressed to one tenth of its original size, making them easy to download. It is not the best choice for looping; this is because of the silence present at the beginning and end of MP3 files. WAV formats are the best choice in the case that looping is required.
5. WMA stands for Windows Media Audio and it is similar in Quality to MP3 files. The file format is supported by most audio players apart from the iPod. It is greatly used for streaming music online and internet radio, because of its ability to be delivered in continuous data flow.
6. AIFF was developed by Apple and it stands for Audio Interchange File Format. The file extension is denoted as .aiff or .aif and it is supported by virtually all web browsers as well as most audio playing platforms.

Remember that the choice of an audio file format should always be determined by the intended use of the audio recording.

Transcription is undeniably one of the most lucrative jobs and most businesses utilize these services on a daily basis. Transcription is essentially the conversion of an audio or video recording into written form. For the longest time, the medical and legal fields are the industries which greatly utilized transcription services but these days it is almost impossible to find a business which does not need these services during the course of their operations.

There are several challenges transcribers encounter and transcribing stutterers is amongst the list. Recordings with these speech quirks make it quite a task trying to accurately grasp what the speaker is saying. When working with recordings with speech quirks it is important to talk to the client and ask them how they would like you to approach the transcription. This will help you know how to work on the recording and it will also prevent misunderstandings when submitting the final work to the client. This also means saving on time which would be spent reworking the transcription in case the client does not accept it.

It is important to understand that stutters are of importance in certain fields and they should therefore be included in transcripts. However, certain clients may feel like the stutters are unnecessary and will ask you not to include them in the final transcript. Here is a brief guideline to help you as a transcriber effectively work on a recording with speech quirks.

• Note down exactly what the stutter says including the verbatim. This means that if they stutter a word write it out as they have said it and the exact number of times. If they stutter the word three as “th th th three” that is how you should note it down. This type of transcription is greatly used in the legal and research fields, because how the speaker says something is highly of importance as what they are actually saying.
• Another approach would be to write the transcription out without including any stutters. This means that you would only write out the message the transcriptionist was attempting to convey without including how they conveyed it.  There are clients who will specifically ask you to exclude the stutter and only write the word the stutterer was conveying.
• The most common form of transcribing a stutter is using intelligent verbatim. In this case instead of noting down “th th th three,” you would note it down as “th three.” Similarly, there are clients who will ask for only the word being conveyed and not the stutter itself.

Video transcription is essentially the process of transforming video into text format. The transcript in this case contains all the words spoken in the video and in some cases the non-verbal cues as well.

The conversations in a TV show or movie are accurately captured during the video transcription process. The transcription also notes the sound effects accompanying the visuals. These transcriptions are commonly used to subtitle films or TV shows, so that they can be watched and understood by anyone around the globe. Subtitles also help the deaf to enjoy movies and TV shows just like anyone else.

Video transcripts serve a number of other functions, not only for the audience but also for the video production team. During filming of movies or TV shows, producers often have to meet stringent deliverables from networks or studios; hence they produce the transcripts to show the filming progress as well as accurately capture the content and dialogue. Transcripts in this case also help to document camera shots and angles as well as time codes (which are very important during the editing process). Translations are also usually derived from video transcripts, so that diverse translations of the video content can be generated.

Video transcription is not only confined to movies and TV shows; video recordings of commercials, academic sessions, business meetings, songs and interviews can also be transcribed for diverse reasons. These transcripts are often used as references or for documentation purposes in schools, universities and corporate organizations. Transcription has been simplified by digital video formats such as mp4, Quick time, WMV and Real media. Transcripts are also highly useful when it comes to search engine optimization for web casters and pod casters.

Most people upload video transcripts alongside YouTube videos, and thus increase the accessibility of their videos through search engines. The transcript essentially contains the information about a video and search engines such as Google are able to capture certain phrases, which are used to generate the video in Search Engine Results Pages. This means that web users are able to access your video easily and to serve their needs; the video may also at times begin playing at the precise point where the search engine phrase is used.

Video transcription is popularly sort by television networks, film producers, multimedia companies and educational organizations. It is wise to seek the services of a professional transcriptionist because video transcripts require the highest level of accuracy, in order to effectively serve their intended use. More on television transcription.

Most people are familiar with wmv, avi, mp3 and mpeg audio and video file formats. Gif and jpeg are also commonly used image file formats. There are several other audio and video file formats which most people come across on any given day, but few people are able to determine which file format best suits their needs or even tell one file format apart from another.

There are scores of file formats in existence; whether talking about audio, image, video or document file formats. Now, one thing most people don’t bother with is attempting to understanding why all these file formats are in existence; especially file formats which essentially perform the same task.

There is an endless list of questions when talking about the diverse file formats in existence, in relation to their use. This guideline is a simple breakdown on the different types of audio file formats, to help you understand which file format to choose according to your needs.

Decoding the technical terminology

File format is probably the most popular terminology that you will come across and it essentially refers to the way in which data is encoded.

Codec refers to the algorithm used to encode data. Codec can also be used inversely to decode one file format to another. Commonly, codecs are used to shrink file sizes. If compression is more important that file quality, Lossy codec is commonly used to encode data. Loseless codec on the other hand maintains data in its entirety, ensuring that the file integrity is maintained.

Container is a file format primarily used for storage and it does not place an emphasis on coding.

Metadata refers to the information stored within a file, about the file. In the case of a photo, this information could be the date an image was taken, what time the photo was taken and with what kind of camera. This information can, however, be removed from a file.

Bitrate denotes how many bits are processed per second and in the case of mp3 files the bitrate is generally 128 kbits/s and CDs have a bitrate of about 1.4 Mbits/s.

VBR and CBR differentiates a constant bitrate from a variable bitrate. VBR utilizes a higher bitrate and it essentially allocates adequate space to the complex parts of an audio file.

The different file formats and their general use

.aac is the default audio file format used by Apple. It was essentially developed to replace the mp3 file format, but it did not surpass the popularity mp3 files hold. Mp3 files have been tweaked with new codecs such as LAME and they are perceived to offer a better listening performance compared to AAC files.

.ogg is a lossy compression file format. The file format’s patent-free nature makes it highly favored by most free software developers.

.wav/.aiff is an uncompressed and lossless file formats. Wav was developed for use by PCs while aiff is used by Apples OSX. However, both file formats are supported by both of these operating systems.

Summary

For general audio use most people go for mp3 files. Those who place audio quality above anything else should go for .wav/.aiff files. Mp3 file formats encoded at 256 kbits/s offer similar audio quality to the .aac files.

Video game developers and free software developers often go for the .ogg file format because of its lack of licensing requirement. More on MP3 transcription.

Having worked in transcription for over a decade, I have heard just about every transcription myth that exists. After hearing them over and over again, I decided that it is time to demystify some of these transcription myths.

1. It takes an hour to transcribe an hour long audio recording

This could be the most popular transcription myth that floats around, but it does not hold any water. It can take longer than an hour, even up to three hours or longer, to transcribe an audio file. However, this depends on some aspects including:

• The technical nature of the recording
• The accents of those captured in the recording
• The client’s formatting needs
• The transcriptionist’s general experience

Another thing to have in mind is that audio recordings with multiple speakers generally take longer to transcribe. For instance, an hour long audio recording with multiple voices could take between 3 to 4 hours to transcribe.

The transcript also goes through a confirmation stage involving listening to the recording once again. This stage takes an equally longer time than the actual length of the audio recording.

2. Transcriptionists need to be fast typists

This is one of the other myths commonly floating around about transcription. It is in actual sense not true; in a s much as fast typing skills are an added advantage when it comes to transcription, what matters most is a keen ear to get down the right information.

The first step is to have a listen at the recording and to accurately type the information.

It seems like an obvious step right?

Surprisingly, this is the most difficult phase of transcription and even the clearest recording still takes time to transcribe.

Dealing with a recording with several voices is often the toughest task, as well as working on a recording with several voices with diverse accents. It can also be a difficult task to carry out transcription for a new client or on an unfamiliar subject.

Take note of the client’s requirements and guidelines to carry out the transcription effectively.

Clients have differing needs and it is important to accurately carry out transcription according to the client’s requests. Formatting requirements, whether verbatim is needed or not and the turnaround time are important aspects to note down when initially taking on the task.

3. Transcription is simply typing, anyone can do it – it’s easy!

The number of times I have heard this could make me a millionaire if I got a dollar each time.

It is true that technology has advanced and most people have computers at home, and pretty much everyone can type. However, not everyone can transcribe; transcription involves a combination of listening skills, hearing and documenting what you have heard. As easy as it sounds, it definitely is not that easy and that is why we are not all transcriptionists.

Transcription is also not everyone’s cup of tea and most people view it as an arduous task, hence the reason why most people outsource this work to others. The work also involves a good level of research to make sure that the names of people, places and terminologies are documented correctly.

There are different types of microphone and diverse ways of classifying them. Here, we will look at the polar patterns and diverse technologies available.
Microphones are designed with one purpose in mind, converting acoustic energy into electrical energy and as part of the process, they use a diaphragm. Now that the common ground has been pointed out, the concentration will be shifted to the differences.

Basically, there are 5 different types of microphone technologies:

• Carbon: Carbon dust was used by the earliest microphones for the purpose of identifying audio signal. Telephones used this type of microphones and still, they can be found in some of the telephones available today. In this case, carbon dust is used for the purpose of running current through and the carbon is compressed as a result of the fluctuating current as sounds waves hit the diaphragm.
• Crystal: In this type of microphone the crystals used change shape as a result of electrical properties change. A diaphragm is attached to crystal and the crystal creates a signal once the diaphragm gets vibrated by sound.
• Ribbon: In this type of microphone, a strong magnetic field is used for the purpose of suspending a thin metal wire. Current flowing through this is changed as the ribbon is moved by sound waves. This means that rather than this type of microphone responding to air pressure, it responds air velocity.
• Dynamic: In this case, the diaphragm is designed to move between 2 magnets (positive and negative) once hit by sound waves and because of this movement, a small current is created.
• Condenser: This type of microphone has been around for over a century and it requires external voltage which is also known as phantom power. The backplate and diaphragm create a capacitor. There is a varying capacitance because of the relation between the backplate and the diaphragm.

Polar pattern is the next category used to differentiate microphones and this refers to uniqueness of the region around the microphone from which audio signal gets picked up. In this case, there are 5 categories as well:

• Cardoid: Directly in front of the microphone there is strong sensitivity and this is coupled with rejection from behind and good sensitivity at the sides. (as shown in Fig)
• Supercardoid: Same as cardoid with the slight difference of reduced sensitivity around the sides. There is a small area behind the microphone that includes the pickup range (as shown in Fig)
• Hypercardoid: It is an exaggeration of Supercardoid with the sides sensitivity reduced and the rear featuring increased sensitivity (as shown in Fig). It is more direction than the other 2 cardoid patterns and as such used when maximum sound isolation between sources is needed.
• Omnidirectional: It equally picks up sound from all directions. It is the only one that is not affected by proximity (low range undesirable interference whenever a source of sound is close to the microphone)
• Bidirectional: This is ‘figure 8’ pattern which means sound gets picked equally from opposing directions. The sides do not show any sensitivity (as shown in Fig). In an interview direction, this microphone proves to be useful.

You can choose the format in which you want your final transcription to be laid out in. If you do not know for certain then we can discuss and offer several suggestions. This will depend on the number of speakers and the final use of the transcription. Most of the formats will not change the cost though extra can be charged if the format requested is special.

You also have several options in the way you want your transcriptions. You can get your transcription in print outs, on disks, in emails or can be posted to our website where you can download them.

With electronic files, there are several formats they can come in. We use the Microsoft office suite but can still use other formats like word perfect, open office, text files, Macintosh files to name but a few. A good thing with modern word processors is that they can read different formats so format may not really matter.

Digital audio Files

Most materials these days are found in digital computer formats. This is due to the establishment of multi- media computers. There are now hand held digital recorders that record on memory cards. They generate audio that you can store on a disk or use the internet to send it. Transcription wave can convert these files and transcribe them even though they come in different formats.

From your audio or video tapes we are able to create files to use on your website. Through consulting with you we will get to know what you need. We understand these formats well and we know which ones can work the best on the internet and web. We use several methods to make your audio files for your purpose to ensure that it is downloaded or transmitted effectively.

Some of the formats for digital audio files include;

Windows WMV, windows PCM (WAV), Microsoft ADPCM (WAV), MPEG3,FHG (MP3)*, MP4, M4A, IMA/DVI ADPCN (WAV),CD and DVD audio disk. Video formats (AVI, MOV, WMV), CCITT mu-law and A-law (WAV).

It is important to note that you should use Constant Bit Rate (CBR) when creating MP3 files for transcription. If you use the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) it will lower quality of the transcription because compression may cause the files to jump while transcribing.  Transcription wave will convert the VBR files for you into CBR files.

Hand held digital recorders use some of these file formats that are proprietary,

Sony memory Stick Voice (MSV), Sony Digital Voice File (DVF), Sony IC Recorder sound (ICS), Olympus (DSS, DS2).

The following are multi track propriety file formats. They are mostly used for court room sessions and law enforcement. They also have other multi-channel recording applications. They include: FTR Gold for The record (ftrgold.com), Libert Court Recorder/Player High Criteria Inc. (highcriteria.com) DCR.

The following are single track or stereo files.

• 8-bit signed raw format (SAM)
• ACM waveform (WAV)
• CCITT mu-Law and A-Law (WAV)
• Dialogic ADPCM (VOX)
• IMA/DVI ADPCM (WAV)
• Real Audio (RA, RAM, RMM, RM, etc.)
• MPEG audio (layers I and II)
• Next/Sun CCITT mu-Law, A-Law and PCM (AU)
• Apple Quicktime
• Raw PCM Data
• SampleVision format (SMP)
• Sound Blaster voice file (VOC)
• TrueSpeech (WAV)
• DiamondWare Digitized (DWD)
• Apple AIFF (PCM encoded data only) (AIF)

Transcription wave are able to transcribe your audio from internet and web sources if we are able to access it from a browser or program. Different audio files have several options that are important for the transcriptions and dictations. The options include:

Tracks: Mono, stereo, multi- track

The tracks you have determine the file size required, the more they are the bigger the file services. For the stereo or multi track unless each track represents a separate microphone at a different location then it is not very useful when it come to transcribing. If this is the case then all the tracks need to be combined for ease of transcription or can be transcribed separately.

Sample Rate

• Sample rates show the number of times each second of audio is recorded. Quality is much better in the faster rates but it takes a bigger size while slow rate’s quality is low but files are smaller.
• The typical sample rates are deducted in sample per second and they are normally 6000, 8000, 11025, 22050, 32000, 44100, 48000, 64000, 88200, 9600 and 176400. 44100 samples per second is the sample rate for CD quality audio.
• The audio frequency that can be reproduced in digital format is at most half the size of the sample rate.  So, at 44100 samples per second, a CD audio can be reproduced at most 22 kilohertz frequencies.
• For voice transcription it is best to use a sample rate of about 22050 samples per second. Transcriptions can be done at lower rates but this compromises the quality by lowering it.

Compression

• Compression can be done to some degree in some audio formats. This makes the files smaller but compromise the audio quality. The compromise may not really affect the quality but if the compression is extreme then it is likely to be seriously affected. These file formats, since they can lose some of their audio quality, are known as lossy files. A good example of this is the MP3 format.
• Compressing files is a trade off of file size to audio quality.  One needs to select a compression file that will not lower the quality of the audio files.  To compress the MP3 files one can use the Variable Bit Rate (VBR) which will significantly reduce the size of the file. It is not advisable to use it though as it cannot be used in that format by the transcriptionist. The recommended format is the Constant Bit Rate (CBR) format.

Sample size (bits)

• Bits are used to measure each of the samples as they have a standard size. The larger the size then it the audio reproduction is accurate and the file created is also large in size. For the smaller size, then the audio will be less accurate but the file size created size will be small.
• The most common sample sizes are 8- bit, 16 bit and 32 bit. The most commonly used is 16 bit.

Be on the lookout for more formats as there are new ones all the time. More on audio and video formats.

Video tape or electronic video files can be defined as video. Digital video files can be used to extract digital audio files which are then transcribed. For easier transcription an intermediate audio tape is made from video tape transcriptions. There are several more formats and standards that can be converted but with a slightly longer lead time.

For video tapes (NTSC) then the formats include

• VHS
• SVHS
• 8mm
• Hi8
• digital 8
• Beta
• ¼ inch

With digital video the formats can include

• WMV
• MPG
• MPEG
• MP4
• FLV
• Quick time files
• AVI
• DVD
• Real video
• VOB

Digital/Tapeless/Phone-In Dictation

Digital dictation and transcription have become the most common in the industry. They are replacing the hand held tape recorders. One can use a hand held recorder that has stores the dictation in memory modules or a phone-in dictation systems.

The initial digital recorders capture audio in proprietary formats which are difficult to convert using conversion machines which do not support their proprietary software.  Devices produced after 2009 can create files in several standard file formats like MP3, MP4 and WMA.

It is encouraged that one considers phone-in dictation as it has several advantages.  Transcription wave also has the capacity to download audio files for transcription, we can also transcribe from voicemail, devices and other digital transcription services.

One can customize their transcripts and there are options that can be discussed by Transcription wave.

Indiscernible

Transcription wave mark the indiscernible parts of transcription, these are parts that cannot be heard or are not definite as “[indiscernible].” Before declaring it indiscernible, the transcriptionist goes through it three times just to make sure. This is done in order to bring down your costs.  But in instances where the section is very important then more time will be spent on these parts or by listening to the tape again.

In the very hard cases, we can digitize and filter the audio for parts that must be recovered. We can filter out the background noises covering up the conversations. With this the material can be recovered. This brings up the cost because of the recovery though.

Verbatim

One can decide to get the verbatim or edited transcript depending on customer request. With verbatim, the transcripts include false starts, repeated words, stutters and does not correct grammar. It does not include the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’

Edited transcription

With edited transcriptions, the spoken English is converted to written English, grammar is corrected, and it has no false starts, repeated words or stutters. It does not include ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.

Guessing

The transcriptionist will not guess the words said, but will just use the conversation to get the context of the sections in order to understand them better.

Grammar

Grammar can be corrected as we transcribe, that is if requested. Spoken English is not the same as written English and may have errors. You can decide whether you want this done to your transcription. You can also choose to receive you transcription in verbatim where mistakes will not be corrected. More on verbatim transcription