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FacebookMacSpeech Scribe – Transcription From Digital Audio Files For Mac
Feb 14
Digital Dictation & Transcription, MacSpeech Scribe, Software, Voice Recognition Software australia, Mac Compatible Voice Recorder, Mac Speech Recognition, Mac Voice Recognition, macspeech dictate, MacSpeech Scribe, MacSpeech Transcribe, Olympus DS-3400, Olympus DS-5000 10 Comments
At the recent MacWorld 2010 Expo in San Francisco, the place for companies developing technologies for the Apple Mac and iPhone to show off their ideas, MacSpeech announced the launch of their new software product MacSpeech Scribe.
MacSpeech Scribe will do what alot of existing MacSpeech Dictate customers have been asking for, transcribe from a digital recording of their voice. Now you no longer have to be in front of your MacBook or iMac to dictate audio to be transcribed. Using one of the certified MacSpeech Scribe digital voice recorders you can record your thoughts anywhere. Then at a time convenient to you have MacSpeech Scribe transcribe the audio for you.
This is similar concept to the Philips LFH0667 (formerly LFH0660/10) which was a cut down version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 for Windows which would only take audio from a digital recording.
MacSpeech Scribe is a stand alone product and is not an add-on to MacSpeech Dictate. If you already own MacSpeech Dictate and have created and trained a profile for your voice that profile can not be imported into MacSpeech Scribe, you will have to start from scratch with a new MacSpeech Scribe profile.
Only a small number of digital voice recorders have been certified by MacSpeech to work with MacSpeech Scribe. These are the iPhone, iPod Touch (2nd Gen up with a mic) and a few Olympus digital voice recorders. Of the Olympus recorders on the certified list only the DS-3400 and DS-5000 are currently available in Australia. MacSpeech Scribe can take audio in .aif, .aiff, .mp4, .m4a, .m4v and .wav format so in theory a huge number of other voice recorders will be compatible (although not certified). Remember, its all about the audio quality, so just because the $20 USB recorder you bought off eBay records in one of the supported audio formats the quality of that recording may leave you disappointed – stick with Olympus and you won’t go wrong.
MacSpeech Scribe is available now for download from the MacSpeech Australia store for $199. We hope to have a copy in the next few days and will blog a review of the setup, training and performance.
Lewis
Feb 14, 2010 @ 18:51:20
Sorry, but Scribe does not take in mp3 files – I just came back from Macworld today and asked their QA manager point blank. Also, make sure you’re running 10.6 since it also won’t do Leopard.
Dave
Feb 15, 2010 @ 12:38:37
Thanks Lewis,
Yes you are correct, .mp3 is not a supported format – that was a mistype of .mp4 on my part. How was MacWorld? Did you come away with a long list of goodies for “your must” have list?
Thanks
Dave
Dictate Australia
Lewis
Feb 15, 2010 @ 18:49:51
It was a smaller gathering for sure but I didn’t really miss Apple’s presence TBH. They had a Sennheiser booth where all their products they brought to the show were 50% off and tax free, so the consumer whore that I am couldn’t pass up the deal and got myself into a pair of HD 228 for $50 out the door. Bulkier for sure than the B&O A8 buds I’ve been using but the bass response and upgraded performance offsets the additional size handicap.
I also picked up a copy of Scribe (naturally) but being a long holiday weekend in the US, will have to wait until I get back into work on Tuesday before loading it up since my iMac at home’s only running 10.5.8. Great bunch of peeps at MacSpeech BTW. Not sure how it’s going to roll for customers outside the US but they promise free tech support for Scribe (and for their other products I’m assuming?) for as long as you own the product. Kudos to the company for this impressive gesture.
One last thing – I can recommend the Olympus DM-520. MacSpeech has blessed the DM-420 but I think the 520’s a better overall deal. It’s as close to a perfect voice recorder used for transcription that I’ve used, in addition to being capable of ingesting Audible .aa files and moonlighting as a iPod. My guess is that since it also records linear PCM (at 16bit 48kHz) you might find some musicians using it too. The included case even comes with a 1/4-20 tripod lug and a flip-up metal stand for interviews and multimedia work. And the Micro SDHC slot can allow you add on memory on top of the 4 gigs soldered inside so theoretically you can record 5000 hours (1k on board, 4k on chip) before needing to take your files off. Best of all it takes AAA batteries, so no worries about getting stuck with some custom battery that could be hard to track down years down the road. If you guys down in Oz have a chance to look this over, I think the DM-520 might impress you.
Almost forgot, great website you guys got going here – nicely done.
Dave
Feb 15, 2010 @ 19:28:57
Awesome comments Lewis and much appreciated. We hear alot about MacWorld and the products, great to hear from someone who actually went as a consumer. I have been looking out for a good quality pair of blutetooth stereo headphones, have you come across any that you could give the thumbs up to?
The DM-420/DM-520 are not available in Australia, we tend to lag behind the US and Europe with recorders.
Thanks
Dave
Dictate
Tony D
Mar 02, 2010 @ 02:37:11
Would be interested to read users experience of Scribe. In particular how do you add and train new words. I wss going to buy but have been put off by trouble people are reporting at the MacSpeech forum related to downloads and poor customer support. Unfortunately people are more likely to write if they are dissatisfied so not sure if this is just an unrepresentative minority.
susanne
Mar 02, 2010 @ 07:17:23
Has anyone tried macscribe with the iphone? Is it really 99% accurate?
thanks
Susanne
susanne
Mar 02, 2010 @ 08:05:15
Should I import from my Iphone using AAC or AIFF, since the marketing material doesn’t mention AAC
Dave
Mar 12, 2010 @ 20:08:52
Hey Susanne
According to the manual you will need aiff (or wav, aif, mp4, m4a, m4v) from your iPhone. Here is a link to the MacSpeech Scribe manual page 37.
Thanks
Dave
Dictate Australia
Amanda
Apr 28, 2010 @ 10:57:19
This sounds great! Exactly what I need!
Is it worthwhile investing in a higher quality iphone headset beyond the standard apple earphones + mic?
I tend to do a lot of my audio recording in the car and are wondering whether the background noise of the engine/traffic is going to be a big problem and whether a better quality headset would resolve some of the issues?
Cheers!
Amanda
Dave
May 05, 2010 @ 18:29:29
Hey Amanda
Background noise does not help, for best results recording audio in a quiet environments would be best. Actually using the standard iPhone headset and mic would help the cause as your voice will be close to the mic on the headset cable, no need to invest in a more expensive headset. Also, the inbuilt mic in the iPhone (and now the iPad) is very good.
I hope that helps.
Dave
Dictate