As I have been recording interviews for a doctoral research project, the next step is to transcribe them. As there are many political issues regarding how to handle transcriptions (do you notate pauses, tone grammatical corrections, and the like—also sifting through some of the vast literature on this topic), I will do this myself to better be able to navigate the process and create a key for what and why I make decisions about the interviews.
Thus, I needed to purchase a transcription foot pedal, and ASAP at that!
Not knowing where to get one of these (lots sold online, though I am in a rush to get started), I located AAAPrice, where I purchased an Infinity Foot Control IN-USB-2. The fellow who helped me there, Adam, not only gave me directions to their Brooklyn office (they usually sell online, so going to the office is a bit unusual. As I said, I was really in a rush to get this!), but he also showed me how to set it up with the basic (free!) software that works with these pedals, Express Scribe. He even gave me a printed set of instructions! I cannot recommend his company enough for the wonderful and personal service I received.
With this said, now off to transcribe!
Dude,
I use speech recognition software (Dragon fwiw – which I shadow the speakers with) and a hacked Emacs transcribe mode to get intereviews transcribed in around about 3x the length of the interview, maybe slightly less. Contact me if you want more details.
@kd
Interested to hear how you use Dragon Naturally Speaking with the interviewees! Have not been able to figure that one out in practice at all.
Jeffrey
can you tell me more about the pedal?
I had no idea they existed and am still struggling to understand what you do with it.
Thanks
Hi Kd,
I’d love to know more about your strategy to transcribe interviews. Would be grateful for any tips you could offer.
Thanks
@Cristina Costa-
Hey, Cristina!
The foot pedal is to be able to start, stop, advance, or rewind the recording while listening to it so the hands never have to leave the keyboard. I found it a little odd to get used to, but trying it without the pedal by only using various keyboard function keys was beyond tedious.
I am about to begin my new round of transcription this evening for my current project http://silenceandvoice.com/archives/2010/06/11/request-for-doctoral-faculty-participants-for-a-study/ so will let you know if anything works differently after not having used this for several months.
BTW, I use a free online program Express Scribe http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ for the audio, and which the foot pedal integrates into.
Jeffrey
You can also use the FTW Transcriber with the Infinity pedal. It’s also free, and it does a few things Express Scribe doesn’t do, e.g. it loads files instantly, and it plays a much bigger range of file types. You can get it here: http://www.theftwtranscriber.com/ Hope that’s helpful!