Transcription entails the conversion of human voice recordings to text. As a transcriptionist, you must listen keenly to the audio and type what you hear. The topics can range from legal to medical and business, among other topics.
You will agree that typing manually as you listen to a recording can be pretty cumbersome. There are possibilities that the speakers can have a heavy accent, speak fast or are not audible enough.
And this can make your work hard. For such reasons, you need transcription software that will enable you to be accurate and fast, thus increasing your productivity.
What is a transcription software? A transcription software enables individuals and business to convert human speech to text transcripts.
There is a wide range of transcription softwares in the market today that you can rely on to capture audio bites and provide you with written records.
They vary based on features, functionalities, and capabilities. Some of them are free tools that provide essential services. Others offer complex solutions. You select the best based on your objectives or business goals.
Below is a list of the top 10 transcription software that increases productivity:
1. The FTW Transcriber
One of the best transcription software that will make you more productive is The FTW Transcriber. This software, commonly used by professionals, is a downloadable tool.
An important aspect you will enjoy while using this transcription software is its ability to support audio and video file types. It enables you to save different formatting settings and can be used with all word processors.
What’s more? This software’s automated timestamps and high-quality sound playback features will save you time.
It also offers you the convenience of using it on your smartphone or tablet. However, it’s limited to Android and Windows operating system.
While using The FTW Transcriber, it will appear as a small orange box, and you can move it around your screen to where you prefer it. This makes playing, pausing, increasing or reducing volume or skipping forward or backward is easier.
The FTW Transcriber offers a free trial, and the paid version starts at $1.00 per month per user.
2. Transcribe
If you want to save time when transcribing, Transcribe is a great option.
This transcription software offers you three ways to convert sound into text. First, you can use automatic transcription, whereby the audio to text conversion takes very few minutes.
The second way is through fast and accurate dictation. While doing this, you need headphones. Then you load your audio and slow it down to your preferred speed. Speak out what you hear.
Simple and fast, right! Transcribe supports many languages, including English, French, Hindi, Spanish, and other Asian and European languages.
The third way to use Transcribe is by using a tightly integrated player and editor. If you have to transcribe manually, this functionality will allow you to do it fast. You slow down the audio, auto-loop it and use the text expander or a foot pedal.
Other Transcribe features that interest you using this software include handy keyboard shortcuts and foot pedal integration. You can also create video subtitles.
Transcribe offers a 1-week trial, and the starting charges are $20 annually.
3. Express Scribe
Express Scribe is a transcription software mainly designed for professional transcribers. You can install it for free on your PC or Mac. Express Scribe is primarily famous for its ability to decrease your turn around time.
To make your experience seamless, this software allows you to control all your transcription activities through the keyboard or a foot pedal. The wide range of hot keys controls ensure efficiency and great speed.
This software lets you play various formats, even encrypted dictation files.
Some other features you might like while using this software include the multi-channel control, file management, compatibility of the processors, and adjustable speed playback.
The software can also automatically send the finished transcriptions directly to your clients.
You can get both a free or paid version. The free version supports the standard file formats such as mp3, wma, wav and dct. With the paid version, you get proprietary format support.
4. Inqscribe
InqScribe is a transcription software that streamlines manual transcription with notes, insertion of timecodes and playback controls.
You can download this software, and its user interface is so simple that it enables you to do all your transcription tasks in one window.
Among the features that will make your work easier and fast while using this software include the keyboard shortcuts. You can customize them to meet your needs and preferred styles.
With Inqscribe, you can also create snippets. This enables you to insert the frequently used expressions with a simple keystroke. Even better is the ability to insert time codes in the transcript anywhere.
This transcription software supports audio and video file types from a hard drive, flash drive, URL or CD.
You can download Inqscribe for free and buy an individual license at $99.
5. Sonix
Sonix is online-based transcription software that can make your work easy and fast. It has an in-browser editor that enables you to play, organize, edit, and share your transcripts anywhere. It supports both audio and video file formats of any kind.
While using Sonix, you upload a file and have it transcribed within a short time, say about 5 minutes. If you want to do a qualitative analysis, all you have to do is search for your transcripts and analyze it.
Even better, it has a multiuser functionality enabling you to share files with your team.
This software has a cutting-edge AI that supports several languages, accents and dialects. The automated transcription guarantees high level accuracy. It also timestamps every word automatically.
Other features that will make your transcription task better include speaker labeling.
You can use the software’s speaker dropdown to say who said what. You can also add notes and comments directly into your transcript.
Sonix offers a free trial that includes 30-minutes free transcription, and the prices start at $5 per hour.
6. Dragon Anywhere
This is a transcription software that allows mobile dictation. It makes it easy to create, edit, format and share documents of any length across different platforms.
When you use Dragon Anywhere, your voice acts as the keyboard. For this software to capture your speech accurately, you must pronounce all the words and punctuations correctly.
What you dictate and how you dictate determines what you see on your screen. Interesting, right! This software saves you the time and effort typing your ideas and thoughts.
This transcription software will enable you to work faster and wiser. It has a super speech recognition accuracy that is personalized. As you continue to use it, the accuracy gets better. You can dictate over a long period.
Other exciting features about this transcription software include its ability to correct and format words and insert standard clauses.
Once you are done transcribing, the file can be shared through email or cloud-based apps such as dropbox.
Dragon Anywhere pricing starts at $15.00 per month per user. It is compatible with iOS and Android operating systems.
7. OTranscibe
If you are looking for a free, open-source transcription software to increase your productivity, OTranscribe would be ideal. You can use this tool using your web browser.
A good feature about OTranscribe is that its interface is simple; you can control the text editor and player in the same window.
You don’t therefore need to keep on switching between windows and apps. You have a better chance to work without distractions. Navigating the transcripts is also seamless because of the interactive timestamps and the keyboard.
To use this software, you must access your browser and start transcribing. The browser needs to support HTML5 features.
Once you load your audio file, you can control the playback very easily, either using the keyboard or buttons on your screen. When you finish transcribing, you can export the file to Google Drive or paste it into a document.
8. Happy Scribe
Happy Scribe is another transcription software that makes speech to text conversion convenient.
Besides the automatic transcription this software supports, you will also love how quickly it completes the job. Once you upload your file, it takes about half the length of the file to transcribe the audio.
Happy Scribe also guarantees accuracy. The software will capture all the full stops, commas, exclamation and interrogation marks.
It also includes your personalized vocabulary. If there are acronyms or terminologies that you need to include, you can rely on this software to do that for you.
Other features that you will enjoy include subtitle generation and speaker identification.
Happy Scribe does not have a free version, but it offers a free trial. For the paid version, pricing starts at €12 per hour.
9. Otter
Otter is web-based transcription software most suitable for capturing notes during meetings, lectures, and other vital conversations. This software is AI-powered.
When you are in a lecture or meeting, taking notes and listening to the speaker can be difficult.
Otter offers real-time streaming transcripts to ensure that you concentrate, become more productive and engage in whatever activities you do with your teams.
The software will find and capture spoken information and convert it into text. You can then share it with your team.
This transcription software supports features such as AI/Machine learning, audio and video formats, speech recognition, timecoding, file sharing, natural language processing and collaboration tools.
10. Trint
Trint is also a transcription software that can increase your productivity mainly because of its effectiveness and efficiency.
This is a web-based transcription platform that uses artificial intelligence to facilitate both audio and video transcribing.
Using this software requires you to upload your file. It supports .mp3 .mp4, .m4a, .aac, .wma, .avi, .wav, and.mov formats.
Once you upload, you can edit your transcript and verify as you audio plays. You can also name speakers, check timecodes and correct words.
This software also supports over 30 global languages, including US and UK English.
Interestingly, Trint allows real-time transcription. Trint will deliver live transcripts in less than 3 seconds if you have a live event, and capability is available in 15 languages. You can easily share such live events with your teams.
Trint offers a free trial.
Conclusion
Transcribing is time-consuming. And when you do it manually, it will be very unexciting and cumbersome.
Of course, some people can transcribe for you, but at a fee. You can use the above transcription software to reduce such costs and simplify this task.
As you can see from the analysis above, these softwares will get your transcription task done. Therefore, you might be in a dilemma over which one to choose.
When determining the best software to use, consider the objectives of your business. The interface of the software should also be simple and friendly. You don’t want to spend much time figuring out how to use it.
The price is also essential to factor in. You can choose the free version or the paid version. Most free versions will enable you to access the basic features, meaning you cannot do much.
However, the paid versions, though costly, will sometimes solve all your transcribing needs.
If you are unsure of the transcription software to settle for, you can try the ones with free trials. If it satisfies you, you can proceed to pay. Otherwise, keep trying until you settle for the one that suits your needs best.