How to Record Digital Audio from VHS Tape for Transcription

What you need

• A VHS player
• A PC/laptop
• A twin phono to 3.5mm (1/8 inch) Stereo Jack Lead (available from (for example) Maplin - UK, RadioShack -USA)
• A SCART phono out adaptor (available as above)
• Sound editing software such as Goldwave (Shareware) or Audacity
  Setting up

Put the VHS cassette into the player and check that it's the correct tape! With the VHS machine turned off, put the SCART adaptor into the SCART socket. If you're planning to record video as well as audio, now or in the future, you're better off purchasing the slightly more expensive SCART to phono/S-vido input-output adaptor, which does exactly what it says on the tin - allows you to both input and output sound and video. To output video to your PC though, you would also need an S-video card.

In order to transfer audio only, plug the twin phono sockets (red and white) at one end of your lead into the matching colours on the SCART adaptor.

Plug the other end of the lead into the microphone socket of your PC.

Using Goldwave

In the control box set preferences as follows:

• Record tab: record mode: unbounded
• Volume tab: Device: your sound card (e.g. NVIDIA sound card in my case)
• Device tab: Playback device: Primary sound driver
• Device tab: Record device: Primary sound capture driver

You can chose the time in advance e.g. if you know the video is 1 hour long you can set to record for one hour. Or you can leave it to just record. If you record a lot of blank at the end you can 'save selection' (from the file menu) and select the relevant bits.

The settings I use are 'mono' at a sample rate of 44100 if it asks, but I have to confess that I don't really understand sample rates fully and would welcome advice from an audio wiz!

In Audacity I believe you have to set the file as x amount of silence and then record over it, but I'm not sure about that as I've only used Goldwave.

Recording

Press record in your sound editing software.

Press play on your VHS machine.

The VHS is recorded into digital audio.

Finishing

When the VHS has finished press stop on your VHS machine and stop in your sound editing software.

Now you MUST save your file - this is a bit slow for a large file, but if you don't do it you lose it!

I believe Goldwave automatically defaults to WAV files (see my article on digital file types if you're not sure what file type to use) but if WAV is too large for you e.g. if you need to send the file to your transcriptionist, you can convert. Probably due to my settings and through no fault of the software itself, I get very poor results converting to wma (a really compressed file) but I get excellent results converting to mp3 (fairly compressed). To do this simply 'save as' and choose mp3 from the bottom box in the dialogue box.

You should now have a fully functioning audio file which can be sent to your transcriptionist or loaded into your transcription software.

About the Author

Anne Hickley has many years experience in a wide variety of administrative posts. Roles have included provision of secretarial services, PA work, project management and administration, academic and business report writing and editing, and recruitment. She runs Penguin Office Services (http://www.penguinofficeservices.co.uk/) and Penguin Transcription (http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk/)

Transcription - Making Your Life Easier

When it was first used and aired over the radio, the word transcription drew large attention and become the gist of the public’s conversation. Newspapers also have many data about and everybody who can read it become interested in getting into it.

Being a transcriptionist, working on transcriptions offers a different kind of job opportunity. It is a task that you can get fond of, aside from that you will also be earning more money as compared to other jobs.

However, does working as a transcriptionist present to you the greener pasture you are looking for?

Quality transcription generally means providing the client with the clearest and most comprehensive drafts that the clients look into. In order to achieve this goal, the company makes sure that they get highly experienced transcriptionists and the best audios that can be acquired.

The work somehow leads to pressure, aside from being a deadline-driven business; it also needs a full precision. All the information that you will be hearing over the audio, you must be able to transcribe it accurately. The clients always seek for an output that is both credible and reliable.

The companies also have to make it sure, that they will deliver the complete transcripts in the quickest time as possible. Aside from accuracy, deadline is another important consideration. Once the client has given a particular cut-off limit, by whatever means, it has to be delivered.

The value of a transcription will vary on how the clients assess the work that these transcriptionists accomplished. The increase or the decrease on the number of their clients will also depend upon the quality of output that the transcriptionist produced.

Most of the noted formats that are accepted by the transcriptionist are the following:

1. Court tapes- This will be comprise of the coverage of court hearings be it in higher or lower courts. It will also include testimonies from both of the parties involve in a particular case.
2. Interviews- This will also include the dialogue usually between the interviewer and the interviewee.
3. Board Meetings and Conferences- The important agenda of the meeting are necessary things to be discussed and taken into account.
4. Roundtable Discussions- this refers to either a formal or an informal manner of laying discussing things out by a group.
5. Medical Advisory Groups- Usually, this is one of the most in demand services in transcription at present.
6. Video and Film Time Coding- Clients who are in the field of movie editing are offered these services.

On the other hand, when it also deals with the transfer of your audio in various media types, you can do it on neither of the audiotape, Compact Disc, CD-ROM, DVDs, and some can be transmitted to videocassettes. There are several preferences so that it will be easier for you to transfer the data from the audio that you needed.

The entire task in transcription needs to be done precisely. The transcriptionists make it sure that they are able to make all the necessary omissions, corrections, formatting and other technical tasks that must be done before sending the outputs to the clients.

The companies also provide for several trainings and reviews for their transcription to keep track that the quality of their work is for the better.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides transcription resources on www.abouttranscription.info.

Finding Affordable Transcription

You may have been conducting research interviews, focus groups, market research, but whatever your reason for recording conversations you’ll be looking for an affordable transcription service. There are many transcription services available but sometimes an affordable transcription service can seem hard to find. Transcription is not cheap, because it is a lot more involved than copy typing, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find an affordable transcription service, and by providing good quality recordings you can make the transcription more affordable, as it will take less time to complete.

You may have planned to do the transcription yourself, but if you are not a fast touch-typist and do not have specialist transcription equipment then you have probably now realised that it’s going to take you a very long time. I have had clients come to me saying it was taking them 20 hours to produce a transcript of a 1-hour recording. That’s why they ended up using a transcription service!

The most important thing to remember is that it’s just not possible to type as fast as you speak. Even an experienced transcriptionist will be able to average four times as long for a good, clear one-to-one interview – so an hour of recording will take an average of four hours to transcribe. A focus group may take six hours or more per hour of recording. (Industry standards obtained from the Industry Production Standards Guide (I998), published by OBC, Columbus, OH, USA) Transcriptionists also have to make sense of what’s being said, punctuate the speech correctly and use the right homophones (words like there/their/they’re that sound the same but are spelt differently.)

So how can you make sure that your transcript is clear, in order to get an affordable transcription price? Basically, the easier you make the transcription for the transcriptionist, the more likely they are to be able to give you an affordable transcription quote.

First of all, use the best recording equipment you can afford, and make sure it’s fit for purpose. This means that for interviews you should record with an external microphone rather than one built into the recorder, which is only designed to pick up one voice dictating. For focus groups you should have several microphones so that all participants are close to a mike.

If you’re conducting interviews then, if at all possible, conduct them in a quiet room, as background noise will dramatically increase the time taken to transcribe the recording, as the transcriptionist may have to listen to sections several times in order to capture the interview speech. It is helpful to spell out your interviewee’s name at the beginning of the tape, before starting the interview, and speak out any information you would like on the transcript header e.g. the date, the job title of your interviewee etc. You may also want to conduct a ‘debrief’ session at the end of the recording, when you are alone, in order to quickly record your impressions of the interview. For research interviews this is often part of the methodology.

Focus group transcription will cost more than a one-to-one interview transcript, but you can still get an affordable transcription service if you work to make your recording as clear as possible. Again make sure the recording is conducted in a private quiet room. Air conditioning can affect a recording, but so can opening a window, so if it’s a hot day it’s worth making a couple of test recordings before you start to see if there are problems! It’s really important to firmly chair a focus group too. Remind all the participants that all their views are valid, there are no rights and wrongs and, while you’re interested to see if they agree or disagree with each other, they should try not to talk (or shout!) over each other to make their point. Saying this at the beginning is important but it’s even more important, if you want affordable transcription, to remind participants each time things start getting a bit ‘out of hand’ that they need to speak separately for the sake of the recording. Finding the balance here between letting the talk flow and making sure you get a good recording is quite an art!

Conference recording is best left to the professionals if possible! Often these days a venue will provide recording facilities of good quality, included in the price. A microphone needs to be set up for the speaker and there should also be people in the audience with ‘roving’ microphones to take around to any audience members wanting to ask a question.

Digital recording systems provide the best quality and many transcriptionists only work with digital now, so if you want to give yourself the widest field then it’s certainly worth considering digital.

Any information you can provide to the transcriptionist about your recording will help, and may help toward an affordable transcription service. For example a list of key words will reduce the time spent ‘Googleing’, searching the internet to find out how to spell technical terms, names of organisations etc. If you can provide this info it certainly saves time, and saving time saves you money, again reaching toward that goal of an affordable transcription service. Technical work will always be more expensive than non-technical, but providing a ‘crib sheet’ of key words should reduce the cost.

Most transcriptionists work in a standard format, whether that be tabular, tabbed, interviews shown as initials or full names etc. Again most are happy to work to your specifications, but the standard format might well be cheaper, so think carefully about whether you need something different or not. Find out what the standard format is in advance if it concerns you, and you may be able to adapt it to your needs. If, for instance, it’s essential that you have speakers in different fonts or different colours, this will add to the price. It might be more cost-effective for you to put this in when the basic transcript is returned to you!

Finally, give some serious thought to whether or not you need a verbatim transcription. Verbatim transcription includes every repeated word, every ‘um’ and ‘erm’, all those ‘filler’ phrases like ‘you know’ and ‘know what I mean’ that may be repeated a hundred times in one interview, and can also include pauses, coughs, throat clearing etc. if required. Needless to say if this takes longer. If the transcriptionist can filter out all this stuff the transcript is quicker. In my company the cheapest level is what we call ‘intelligent verbatim’ which cuts out all these fillers but leaves the rest exactly as it’s spoken. Different transcriptionists work this differently though, so always check when you’re phoning for your quote. Here are some brief examples. Somewhat more expensive is edited, which corrects the grammar and any mispronounced words as well as knocking out all the fillers.

Verbatim

So, anyway, you know, I said …er, ‘Well, Susan, I really think you, you shouldn’t be um asking, er, me that.’ And she, erm, er, she, she, well, she said, ‘Look Mark, I dunno what you mean,’ know what I mean?

Intelligent Verbatim

So anyway I said, ‘Well, Susan, I really think you shouldn’t be asking me that.’ And she said, ‘Look Mark, I dunno what you mean.’

Edited

So I said, ‘Well, Susan, I really think you shouldn’t be asking me that.’ And she said, ‘Look Mark, I don’t know what you mean.’

You can see that a whole extra line of typing is required for the verbatim work in just those two sentences.

There are occasions when verbatim is required – depending on your topic it might be required for legal reasons, or you might be studying the language itself and the way it’s used. But if you really don’t need it, don’t end up paying for it!

There are many excellent reasons for interviewing groups of people, but don’t do this in order to try to reduce the transcription cost! As already stated, it takes much longer to transcribe a group of more than two or three people (including the moderator/interviewer) because of the time taken to distinguish the different voices and the fact that people will inevitably talk over each other, especially when they get excited, enthusiastic, impassioned or angry.

And finally, remember that the cheapest transcription quote might not be the most affordable one in the end. There is an oft-quoted phrase: if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Will it really be cost-effective to send your hard-won interviews to the cheapest service if what comes back is gobbledygook and you have to go through the whole thing correcting every other word? How much time will you then waste that could have been spent more productively on your core business?

Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_154766_15.html

Setting Up Your Medical Transcription Home Business

There are hundreds of thousands of people pursuing careers at home today because of the ongoing development of the internet. One of the many professions people are looking into as a home business is medical transcription. While it is possible to start this home business in a relatively small amount of time, there are several steps that should be taken in order to have success with medical transcription. Listed below are some things to do prior to opening up a medical transcription business.

1. Plan Ahead
   When you start a home business you have to realize that you are starting an actual business. In order to have success you have to plan everything from how you will set up the business in your home to how you will market it. There is a lot of work required with a home business such as work space, office equiment, reference books, etc. It is essential that you plan out every detail prior to jumping into it.
2. Finances
   Part of the planning process is determining the initial finances that are going to be required to get a home business going. If you jump into a medical transcription business without considering the costs, you may end up closing the business sooner than you think. Finances should include all of the equipment needed to work at home, the cost of your transcription course and the expenses of marketing and advertising your business.
3. Goals
   Once you have committed to the idea of a medical transcription home business, set goals for yourself to achieve. You need strict discipline to do your work accurately and on time. There is no employer standing behind you to make sure you are doing what you should be doing. Setting goals regarding your schooling, your marketing, and how far and in what direction you want your business to go is essential in reaching your full potential as a home based MT.
   
4. Research
   If you have never been in the MT field, do some researching to determine if this is something you think you would want to do. Vist the MT forums to research the best schools, the best transcription companies to work for and to network with veteran MTs to find out what it is like to be a home based MT. This will help you decide if this would be a career you would want to pursue.
   
5. Financial Expectations
   One of the most vital parts to starting any sort of home business is being patient in regards to income. Too often people that start a home business expect to start generating a high income immediately. Job experience is vital to improving your income in this business. A beginning medical transcriptionist is going to start at the low end of the pay scale so do not expect to start making $50,000.00 a year right out of school. Just be patient and build up your experience and you will eventually get there.

Starting a home business in medical transcription can be very rewarding personally and financially. The better prepared you are going into the business, the more success you will have down the road. Start your business off right with planning ahead to avoid some of the pitfalls of establishing a home based business.

Article Source: http://www.1articleworld.com

Marilyn Roberts has been a home based medical transcriptionist for many years. For more information and tips on becoming an MT visit her website at www.medicaltranscriptionabcs.blogspot.com to see if this is the career for you.