General information on transcription
Dragon NaturallySpeaking Premium, Professional, Legal and Medical editions can transcribe speech recorded on a digital voice recorder, smart phone or tablet.
If purchasing a digital voice recorder for transcription, I recommend Sony or Olympus. However there is less need these days to purchase a digital recorder. If you have a smart phone or tablet, apps are available for recording speech.
The process is as follows:
If purchasing a digital voice recorder for transcription, I recommend Sony or Olympus. However there is less need these days to purchase a digital recorder. If you have a smart phone or tablet, apps are available for recording speech.
The process is as follows:
- Record your speech using a Digital voice recorder, smart phone or tablet
- If recording on a smart phone or tablet, use a Recording app
- Transfer the audio file to your computer
- Use Dragon naturally speaking to transcribe speech to text
- Correct recognition errors. This is not essential but will improve recognition accuracy for future transcriptions.
Recognition accuracy when transcribing recorded speech
Note that recognition accuracy when transcribing recorded speech is generally not as high, compared to using Dragon on your computer, for the following reasons:
Dragon will not accurately transcribe recorded interviews, meetings or lectures etc for the following reasons:
Note that recognition accuracy when transcribing recorded speech is generally not as high, compared to using Dragon on your computer, for the following reasons:
- when recording your speech on a recording device, you don't see the text so there is no visual feedback on accuracy. When dictating using Dragon on a computer, we get immediate visual feedback on recognition accuracy and instinctively start to speak more clearly if recognition accuracy is poor;
- when transcribing recorded speech, even if the quality of the recording is high, with a high sampling rate, Dragon is dealing with a sampled recording;
- when recording speech on a voice recorder, smart phone or tablet, the quality of the sound signal could be compromised by not having the device at an optimum and consistent distance from the mouth. The quality of the sound signal could be improved by using a headset microphone rather than holding the device in your hand, particularly for long recordings. Use of a headset microphone will also assist those with overuse injuries who might have difficulty holding the device up for long periods.
Dragon will not accurately transcribe recorded interviews, meetings or lectures etc for the following reasons:
- Dragon can transcribe the speech of one speaker only, at a time. In an interview or meeting situation there will be more than one speaker recorded in the one audio file;
- Dragon cannot accurately transcribe the speech of speakers it is not familiar with (ie a user profile needs to be set up, before Dragon can accurately transcribe that person's speech);
- In an interview or meeting situation people will generally be speaking in a conversational tone. To transcribe accurately, speech needs to be very clear;
- High levels of background noise will affect the accuracy of transcribed speech.