What are the different techniques involved in transcribing audio?
Some of you may think that audio transcription must have a pretty straightforward technique, just listen and type, right? Well, this is what many first-time transcribers assume and go on by what they hear, until they see the proofread version and see how many silly mistakes they made because they weren’t paying attention. The process of turning audio to text, also known as audio transcription, requires as much brain and concentration as it requires fast hands, good coordination, and very good audio equipment.
Over the years, we have seen transcribers making extremely silly mistakes, and those were mistakes which could have been easily avoided, if only they were listening properly instead of only hearing. As we all know, there is a big difference between hearing and listening, and the art of audio transcription is in the listening. It goes without saying that listening is a huge part in the field of audio transcription, and that you need to have solid knowledge of the subject matter being discussed in the audio file, whether it’s an interview or a conference call, or a podcast or a sermon. Different sets of skills needed for different types of audio transcription, as described below:
Medical Transcription: Transcriber needs to have a bachelor’s degree or at least a background in pharmaceuticals. Makes things much more easier when the doctor talks about medicines administered to the patient, and the types of diseases.
Podcast Transcription: Solid general knowledge needed for this, since podcasts can be on any number of topics. The podcasts we have dealt with over the years have been from healthcare, music, entertainment, psychology, gardening tips, construction, IT, video games etc.
Sermon Transcription: Transcriber must possess thorough knowledge of Bible and everything else related to Christianity. Also, most recent knowledge is very useful in case of Christianity podcasts talking about recent events.
Business Transcription: Good financial knowledge needed, because of a lot of financial terms, especially in cases of earnings results conference call transcription, where most of the talking is done by the CFO about the past quarter’s financial performance.
Academic Transcription: No special information needed here, the transcriber only needs to be attentive, fast and resourceful.
Legal Transcription: Transcriber should know a fair degree of legal terms, and it should be alright, but should also have a look at past court transcripts to know exactly what level they need to be at.
Hopefully this article will help budding transcribers get better at their job, and also for outsiders to see how tricky and difficult the job of audio transcription can be sometimes.
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