Media library for tagging & transcripting recordings

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palacs
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2016 11:30 am

Media library for tagging & transcripting recordings

#1 Post by palacs »

Dear All,

I have lots of podcasts and online radio recordings, mostly interviews, talk programs about a wide range of topics. I would like to somehow index or categorize them and for the purpose I'm looking for a portable freeware. Requirements below.
  • Ease of putting on time markers (with a keyboard shortcut) and annotate them with custom text.
  • Supports creating subtitle-like timed transcripts for each file which can be actively displayed during playback. Supports search in all of these transcripts at once.
  • Automatic transcripting based on voice recognition would be a big advantage, however I highly doubt if there's anything like that in offline software, so this is not a must.
  • Can tag each recording and can search for these tags among all recordings. Tags should be user-specified (e.g #climatechange #technology #science).
  • Basic editing features, possibly without re-encoding (like in mp3DirectCut). It's also good if it can launch an external application with the ease of a click (or a keypress).
  • Can detect, jump through silent parts in a recording with a keypress.
  • Still compatible with Windows XP (SP3 is enough).
Any help is appreciated.

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webfork
Posts: 10818
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Re: Media library for tagging & transcripting recordings

#2 Post by webfork »

That's definitely a cool idea and would make an amazing software program. I like what you're suggesting and hope someone can put it together. I can see uses across a variety of groups and industries. As of right now, here's what I know from messing with software a lot for many years.
palacs wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:45 am Ease of putting on time markers (with a keyboard shortcut) and annotate them with custom text.
Supports creating subtitle-like timed transcripts for each file which can be actively displayed during playback. Supports search in all of these transcripts at once.
I don't think that exists yet. Unless you just create an audio-only video and enable subtitles. We have a few subtitle management programs here on the site (https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=40). There might be a way to get a transcript added to an MP3 via metadata, but I'm only speculating.
Automatic transcripting based on voice recognition would be a big advantage, however I highly doubt if there's anything like that in offline software, so this is not a must.
This is probably the biggest ask. I believe the (non-free) Dragon Naturally Speaking will do that but it's never 100%. Unless it's improved over the last few years, the program had difficulty even with an excellent microphone, excellent audio, and trained to a specific individual.
palacs wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:45 am Can tag each recording and can search for these tags among all recordings.
We have a number of MP3 tagging tools here on the site (https://www.portablefreeware.com/index.php?sc=44). Alternatively, you might ask the gPodder crew if they'd be willing to integrate that into the program.
palacs wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:45 am Basic editing features, possibly without re-encoding (like in mp3DirectCut). It's also good if it can launch an external application with the ease of a click (or a keypress).
Can detect, jump through silent parts in a recording with a keypress.
We have a few different MP3 editors here on the site. I think Audacity has some tools to help out with silence, though not quite as you describe.

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