I wanted to take a moment to share about an application I discovered. Back in the 1980s and 1990s I was able to record several hours of audio and video interviews of my relatives, many of whom have since passed away. I wish I had more but I was glad to squeeze the time into my schedule then to record what I did.
Over the years I have digitized these from the original VHS and cassette tapes so that I'll have a playable copy when the originals are unplayable or I no longer have equipment that will play the tapes. (A cassette tape my uncle made of my grandmother around 1970 is nearly unplayable now.) I have also wanted to transcribe these recordings so that the stories can be read as an option.
A few weeks ago I ran across Transcriva (http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/transcriva/). This app has helped me do exactly what I want it to do, playback a video or audio file while typing up what's being said. Before finding Transcriva I was switching between apps to type and pause/rewind/play which was a hassle. This app has all the shortcuts to do that while still typing.
Transcriva is not dictation software that will listen and type the words for you. You have to do the work yourself and given all the Southern drawl, nicknames, figures of speech, etc. that are in my recordings dictation software would be stumped. I also like the fact that I can edit out all the uhs and ums and such that folks will fill into their speech as they are between thoughts. Transcriva also allows me to easily attribute text to different speakers and I usually create one speaker called "Annotation" so that I can add my own notes throughout a transcript.
Transcriva is really helping me to preserve my family's oral history as text. Maybe now I can put the text in an ebook along with the original audio/video to easily share with my relatives.
Over the years I have digitized these from the original VHS and cassette tapes so that I'll have a playable copy when the originals are unplayable or I no longer have equipment that will play the tapes. (A cassette tape my uncle made of my grandmother around 1970 is nearly unplayable now.) I have also wanted to transcribe these recordings so that the stories can be read as an option.
A few weeks ago I ran across Transcriva (http://www.bartastechnologies.com/products/transcriva/). This app has helped me do exactly what I want it to do, playback a video or audio file while typing up what's being said. Before finding Transcriva I was switching between apps to type and pause/rewind/play which was a hassle. This app has all the shortcuts to do that while still typing.
Transcriva is not dictation software that will listen and type the words for you. You have to do the work yourself and given all the Southern drawl, nicknames, figures of speech, etc. that are in my recordings dictation software would be stumped. I also like the fact that I can edit out all the uhs and ums and such that folks will fill into their speech as they are between thoughts. Transcriva also allows me to easily attribute text to different speakers and I usually create one speaker called "Annotation" so that I can add my own notes throughout a transcript.
Transcriva is really helping me to preserve my family's oral history as text. Maybe now I can put the text in an ebook along with the original audio/video to easily share with my relatives.