When collecting materials, media files are long and often disused. The process of turning voice from audio files into something useful, such as a transcript, once required a person to manuallytranscribe the audio (a service that is still available) rather than their being an accessible and accurate method, to do so.
Media, tells a story that incorporates different information to what can otherwise be found solely via text or other forms of metadata. Whilst emotional intonations and other relevent capacities of audio analysis to machine readable formats is a constituent of what can be done, this guide will provide some basic examples of how to process Audio as to transcribe to text as to provide text based information that can be used for further analysis that will be covered in a different post.
ONLINE SERVICES & TOOLS
After a short amount of time searching for basic tools; three have been easily identified alongside the means in which to use YouTube to perform this action.
YOUTUBE
By uploading media to YouTube, YouTube can transcribe the audio automatically. Searching google using terms like “Automatically transcribe audio using youTube” will easily pick it up.
A number of online services exist to provide automatic Audio to Text. Many of them provide a free trial. A few examples include;
Sonix: Sonic (invite link) provides 30 minutes free.
Trint also provides 30 minutes free.
SpokenOnline also provides 30 minutes free.
Local Desktop Alternatives include products provided by Nuance who has a long-history in the field, producing solutions for multiple sectors.