Transcription Service involves listening to a recording of something and typing the contents up into a document, which is then returned to the client, giving them a written record of what’s on the recording.
A transcription service typically involves an interview – which might be something a journalist has undertaken with someone they’re writing about, or part of a study, where a researcher has interviewed subjects and needs to record their responses. It can take absolutely ages to type out a recording like this – much longer than you think it will, particularly if you don’t type very fast!
Earlier when one learnt to audio-type, it was all done with tapes and a special pedal you pressed to play and rewind the recording. These days, although you can still get the pedals, it can all be done with MP3s, some special software ;and the function keys on the keyboard take the place of the pedals. You can even speed up or slow down the playback.
The time it takes to transcribe a recording depends on several factors:
– the speed at which the people are talking
– the number of people talking
– the clarity of the recording (background noise, phone interview … )
– the clarity of the speaking voices (accents, speaking English as a second language, mumbling … )
If you’ve got lots of interviews to transcribe or need to have a dictation, a lecture, a radio programme or a presentation turned into text, it’s worth contracting a professional transcriber like HelpDesk247 for you.
Why use a human transcription service?
We’ve been providing transcription service for several years now. While a machine might be suitable for taking down the words of a single, non-accented speaker enunciating clearly into a good quality recording apparatus, with no background noise, no interruptions and no acronyms or jargon, the projects I’ve worked on have included some or all of these features:
- High levels of background noise – interviews in cafes with espresso machines whooshing and spoons clinking in cups
- People talking while they’re eating and eating while they’re talking
- Interruptions from waiters / room service / other members of the band or group
- High levels of tape noise leaving me straining to hear what anyone’s saying
- Multiple speakers including many people with similar voices around a conference table
- Overlapping speech
- Non-native English accents or heavy regional accents
- Very complex content – jargon and acronyms galore
- Creative content – album names, track names, novel titles, band names, author names
- Requests to provide the transcription missing out ums and ers through to smoothing the English to make it read as standard English.Understanding what’s being said on a transcription. The first issue is actually hearing and understanding what’s being said. Our specialists have a good ear and a native English speaker’s ability to predict what will come next in a sentence / how sentence structures work, plus our experience allows us to do this efficiently. Human ear can filter out background noise where sophisticated software can only go so far. And our specialists can hear around the clink of teaspoons or glasses chinking to grasp what’s being said.