Once in a while, every transcriptionist runs into a file that has poor audio. We’re going to go over some tips on how to deal with poor audio.
Owning quality equipment is one of the first steps to help you with poor audio. The key to spending money on equipment is to spend money on items that will help you transcribe faster and more productively.
And if equipment helps you hear the audio better, you will be faster because you’ll spend less time on inaudibles. Two things that can help you with poor audio include higher-end headphones and an external sound card. Make sure your work environment is quiet enough so that you can hear the audio without distractions.
Here are some transcribing tricks. A good rule of thumb is to listen to something three times and then move on if you still can’t catch it. You don’t want to spend too much time on inaudibles at the expense of not moving on with the file and taking too long. You can also try to listen to the word or phrase at a higher speed and a lower speed.
Sometimes, we just need to hear a word differently to catch it. The final trick is to wait until you proof the file to audio and try to understand the word then. Sometimes, it’s easier to hear the second time around.
Express Scribe has some audio processes within it that can help clean up audio. The easiest way to access these is to right-click on the file and scroll down to the bottom where it says Special Audio Processes.
You can choose background noise reduction, extra volume boost, or high pass filter. We’ll go into these in more detail in the next lesson. Another thing you can do is to use other audio players. Sometimes, audio files sound better in different programs.
If the file doesn’t sound that good in Express Scribe, try free programs such as the FTW Transcription program or For the Record. You can also invest in another paid audio player, such as Transcription Buddy, StartStop, or InqScribe.
There is also audio editing software that you can use to clean up files. Some of these are free and some are paid. One of the free ones is Audacity. Audacity has a noise reduction feature that you can use to improve your audio. You can also amplify audio, adjust the bass and treble sounds, and do more complex audio editing.
Don’t spend too long playing around with the audio if you can’t get it right. But it is a good skill to learn so that when you have poor audio, you can clean it up and save some time. Perhaps the most important lesson is to realize that some bad audio can’t be fixed.
So, stay in communication with your company or client about poor audio. When I first receive a file, I preview it by listening to a few seconds of it at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, so I can see if I may run into audio issues. Many companies will let you send in a short sample of your transcript if the audio is very, very poor. And then, they’ll communicate with the client about it, if they want to continue with the file.
Always follow the guidelines that your company sets out in dealing with poor audio. If you’re working with a client, communicate with them about the poor audio and ask them how they would like to proceed.
