Previewing and Configuring Files

Selecting any imported file will display the Media panel where the audio configuration can be edited.

When a file is submitted for transcription, SpeedScriber automatically creates a temporary mono file by mixing all the audio tracks together.

As transcription is always done from a mono mix of the file, it is critical that you select the audio channels that have the clearest audio of the speaker(s) you wish to transcribe and disable unnecessary channels. Automated speech recognition is vastly more accurate with a high quality recording and sending a mix of channels, which could include a camera mic and other mics with high levels of background noise, can severely impact on the accuracy of the transcription.

The Media panel lists all the individual source files that are referenced by that imported file. For simple audio or video files, this will be a single source file, but for multicam or synchronized clips from Final Cut Pro X there would be multiple source files.

The filename of each source file is shown at the top. Hovering the mouse over this filename will show the location of the source file.

All the audio channels inside that source file are shown below with a checkbox to enable/disable that channel and a label showing which track and channel number this row refers to. A waveform for each channel is displayed which may take a few moments to generate but will be saved for future use. If the file is a broadcast wave file that contains iXML channel names then these will be shown over the right side of each waveform. 

The file can be played by clicking the Play/Pause button or pressing Space. The current position can be adjusted by scrubbing on the waveform or the scrub bar below. If the file contains video then this will be shown in a small viewer on the left of each imported file row.

If you have several files that share the same audio configuration, you can save time by:

  1. Select one file and set the audio configuration as desired.
  2. Choose Edit > Copy Audio Configuration or press Shift-Command-C
  3. Select the other files and choose Edit > Paste Audio Configuration or press Shift-Command-V
  4. The copied audio configuration will be set on any files that match the track and channel layout of the original file.