Features To Consider Before Purchasing Audio Transcription Software

A transcriber job for many languages is massively hired today as it is in line with the increase of video content created on many platforms. The purpose of transcription is to provide a better understanding of the message delivered by the video or audio. Some studies also suggested that the written version of audio will be more beneficial and useable for different purposes.

The advancement of technology has brought us simplicity with all automatical working tools including transcription tools. However, there has a higher possibility of error so manual transcription still has its place in the project with sensitive information that has no place for error. Their pros and cons are often compared as we have noted below. 

Manual Transcription

Pros:

• Fewer errors related to linguistic ambiguities
• Often negates the need for additional reviews for accuracy
• Manual transcriptions can be edited and polished as they are being created

Cons:

• Can take hours or even days to complete a full transcription
• Manual transcribing still leaves room for human error
• Costs much more in time and labor than automatic transcription

It’s critical to comprehend how automatic transcription varies from manual transcription in order to comprehend what features an automatic transcription tool offers. You simply write each word that you hear when you manually transcribe an audio file, a video file, or even a live event (like a webinar or lecture). If there are numerous speakers, it is ideal to distinguish between them in the text so that anyone reading the transcription can easily follow along.

Although manual transcription is decreasing its popular in common languages, hiring someone to manually transcribe audio and video in less popular or rare languages is still very common. When doing so, especially when there is background noise or several speakers, the transcriber will frequently need to go back and listen to specific areas multiple times to make sure they understand every word. This is why it can still take many hours to manually transcribe a 5-minute video. Furthermore, it goes without saying that manual transcription will require more time the longer the film.

Automatic Transcription

With the increasing demand for transcription services, audio and video transcription software is gaining peak momentum in sales. The transcription software is considered very efficient and time-effective. Yet, there are still some issues when automation is set without human supervision. 

Pros:

• Can transcribe hours of human speech in minutes or seconds
• Offers live transcription as people are speaking, which could otherwise only be done by a trained stenographer
• Costs far less than manual transcription

Cons:

• Usually requires human review for 100% accuracy
• Can make mistakes related to linguistic ambiguities
• Offers varied results based on the quality of the underlying software

A software program that can perform live transcription or post-recording transcription in a matter of minutes or even seconds can take the role of a human transcriber in automatic transcription. The majority of automatic transcription software can now detect numerous speakers, recognize words even in low-quality audio, and organize the text into a legible document. 

That being said, automatic transcription is not always accurate. Software used for transcription can make mistakes just like people do, especially when dealing with specific linguistic issues. Some transcribing algorithms may be unable to provide a 100% accurate transcription due to strong accents, muttering, or unusual colloquialisms. For this reason, it is frequently preferable to have a person evaluate an automatic transcription in order to find and correct any inaccuracies.

If you are a transcriber or learning to be one, using software could give you an extra hand. You can take advantage of the time and cost-saving benefits of automatic transcribing, so we have narrowed down this list to the 5 best automatic transcription tools on the market:

Otter.ai

Otter.ai provides both consumers and organizations with live, automatic transcription services. Otter.ai is one of the best transcription tools available, whether you require software to take live notes during a lecture or you want to give your team a written transcription of a business meeting. The most widely used video conferencing systems, such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex, are all perfectly compatible with it. Furthermore, you may rapidly input recorded audio or video sources to have the software instantly transcribe them.

Basic Offerings:

• Basic – Free version
• Automatic Transcription
• Real-time note taking
• Keyword and summary analytics
• File importation
• Highlight and comment tools
• Calendar and video conferencing software integration
• File sharing and collaboration Pricing

Pros:

• Provides high-quality live transcriptions and notetaking
• Can quickly and accurately transcribe pre existing files
• Offers both free and affordable paid plans

Cons:

• Requires human review for 100% accuracy
• Some features are limited to paid plans

Trint

Like the top audio-to-text transcription services, Trint uses automated speech recognition (ASR) and natural language processing, as well as other cutting-edge AI technologies (NLP). Trint boasts “99 percent accuracy” with its automatic services, in contrast to other comparable tools that are reluctant to make specific promises about what to anticipate with your transcription. Furthermore, Trint makes it simple to submit files in a variety of formats, including MP3 and MOV files.

Basic offerings:

• Automatic transcription in up to 31 languages
• Live transcriptions in up to 15 languages
• Transcript editing tool
• File importation
• Highlight and comment tools
• File sharing and collaboration

Pros:

• Offers transcription services in dozens of languages
• Great for team collaboration and editing
• Can transcribe audio playback from 8 distinct file types

Cons:

• Requires human review for 100% accuracy
• No free plan is available
• Far more expensive than most other transcription services

Happy Scribe

A transcription and subtitle program called Happy Scribe provides both automated and custom (manual) services. Unlike the majority of other automatic transcription programs, Happy Scribe supports transcriptions and subtitle services in 62 different languages in addition to English. A monthly or yearly subscription is not required to use Happy Scribe’s services; instead, you can use them whenever you need to.

Basic Offerings:

• Automatic transcriptions in up to 63 languages
• Manual transcriptions by native speakers
• Video captioning
• Transcript editing tool
• Project and spending analytics
• File importation
• File sharing and collaboration

Pros:

• No contracts or long-term subscriptions required
• Can choose between automatic and manual transcriptions
• Supports a total of 63 languages (including English)

Cons:

• Only guarantees up to 85% accuracy on automatic transcriptions or subtitles
• The standard pricing structure is not cost-effective for those who need to transcribe frequently, even with volume-based discounts
• The turnaround time on automatic transcriptions is roughly 30 seconds for every minute of audio or video, which is far longer than many other automatic transcription tools

Sonix

Sonix is a service that offers automatic transcription, translation, and subtitling. Over 40 distinct language projects are supported by the platform. The business also guarantees extremely quick turnaround times and exceptional accuracy. Word-by-word timestamps and the capacity to upload several tracks and combine them into a single text transcription are two other capabilities Sonix offers above the bulk of automatic transcription systems.

• Basic Offerings:
  • Automatic transcriptions in 40+ languages
  • Automated translations
  • Automated subtitles
  • Highlight and comments tool
  • File importation
  • Transcript editing tool
  • File sharing and collaboration
  • Multitrack uploading
• Pros:
  • The combination of transcription, translation, and subtitle services offers a benefit. 
  • possibilities for both pay-as-you-go and subscription 
  • Numerous other tools for editing and sharing files 
• Cons:
  • No free plan choice 
  • Large-volume clients are not benefited by the pricing structure. 
  • Custom dictionaries, automated timestamps, and multitrack uploads are not offered as part of the pay-as-you-go service.

Descript

Automatic transcription is merely one of the tools Descript offers, in contrast to many of the other programs on this list. Descript provides screen recording features, video and audio editing facilities, a podcast production suite, and of course automatic transcription. Descript also offers expert transcriptionists on-call in case you prefer to have your content transcribed and edited by a person rather than using their automatic transcriptions.

Basic offerings:

• Automatic transcription
• Manual transcription
• File importation
• Transcript editing tool
• File sharing and collaboration
• Filler word removal

Pros:

• Provides both free and premium options. 
• allows you to automatically eliminate unnecessary words (like, uh, um, etc.) 
• In addition to automatic transcription, access to additional features and services 

Cons:

• The Free plan’s total transcribing time is only 3 hours, whereas the Creator and Pro plans’ monthly transcription time caps are 10 hours and 30 hours, respectively. 
• Manual transcriptions are considered a separate service and are charged at $2 for each audio or video minute. 
• Descripts’ manual transcriptions are only guaranteed to be 99 percent accurate.