MY NEW, LOWER, REVISED, EXCELLENT RATES FOR 2012: Bronze, Gold, or Platinum--Choose Your Level!


PLATINUM: Tier 1 (1 to 2 business days' turnaround) = $95 per audio hour, or $1.58 per audio minute. [This Tier is also for conference calls, medical transcription, or very difficult to hear audio.]


GOLD: Tier 2 (3-5 business days' turnaround) =$80 per audio hour, or $1.33 per audio minute. [This Tier is also for interviews with 2 interviewees or English as a second language audio files.]

BRONZE: Tier 3 (6-10 business day's turnaround) = $70 per audio hour, or $0.86 per audio minute [This Tier is also for well-recorded audio with one person talking or interview with one other person.] For proofing of voice recognition documents, please also use Bronze Level charges.
[A $10 bad audio fee will be charged for extremely difficult or inaudible mp3 files.]

23.11.09

Insider Tip Two: Always Make Sure Your Audio Is Top Quality


This area of dictation and recording audio or video is crucial for transcription. I have transcribed many audio files that were barely audible. The worst was some medical dictation in a room full of echoes and someone sneezing and coughing right into the microphone (perhaps the camera person?). I had to listen at full volume, and when the person sneezed or coughed into the mic, my hearing went dead for 15 to 20 minutes each time! I actually lost some of my hearing during the course of transcribing for those people, and that's not worth any amount of payment! Hearing is priceless.

To avoid audio problems, you need to check the following:

1. Do you have the best quality microphones that you can afford? It is worth the investment.

2. How close or far away are the people speaking from the mic? They need to be a comfortable distance away, and this needs to be tested several times in the actual venue before you begin your recording to make sure it's not too soft or too loud and distorted.

3. Turn off phones, alarms, radios, or any other electronic or noisemaking devices so they won't interrupt your recording or obscure the voices. You'd be surprised how many people try to talk over a ringing phone or a room full of people talking, laughing, or shouting.

4. Make sure you're talking slowly and articulately. If your recording is an interview, repeat what the interviewee said for the transcriptionist if you could tell they were mumbling or stumbling. This will help the transcriptionist tremendously.

5. If you're making a video recording, make sure you mic the people who are speaking up close. If the mic is on the video camera, then the loudest person will be the camera person--not always your intention! Using lapel microphones is very helpful in videoing a conference or group, and if you must, pass a microphone around and make sure the person is holding it before they start talking or until they are finished. A common tendency is to let the voice trail off at the end of a sentence, or be passing the mic to the next person while still finishing a sentence. Believe me, it's very difficult to transcribe what that person is saying if they do that.

6. If you're using Voice Recognition Software, the person dictating must have great English speaking skills and a large vocabulary. If they don't, you will get inferior documents full of grammatical mistakes as well as unintelligible words. Accents are a problem with VRS. I wouldn't recommend using this type of software. You will still have to pay a transcriptionist to proofread and edit your transcripts even after they are done. It's just not cost effective.

7. Lastly, just try to remember the transcriptionist when you're recording. Think about how easy or hard it is to hear what you're saying and adjust accordingly. Your transcriptionist will love you for this!

15.11.09

Insider Tip One: Voice Recognition Software versus Transcriptionists


What do hospitals, teleseminar hosts, songwriters, and e-book writers have in common? They all need their audio or video files to be transcribed into excellent documents. Which is better? Is it better to have an expensive voice recognition program that will automatically create documents from your dictation? Is it better to hire a live transcriptionist to transcribe your audio and proofread and edit as they go? That's the question we'll explore here.

I suppose you've heard a lot about voice recognition software, especially with companies like Google marketing Google Voice. There are a lot of people selling this type of software on the Web. The thing that they don't tell you in their sales pitch is, in order to get flawless documents from your dictation/audio is to speak perfectly, with perfect annunciation, perfect grammar, without false starts or "Um" or "You know" or "So..." and then you have to count on the software to work perfectly. The problem is, no dictator is perfect, and no voice recognition software is perfect. Thus, you end up with garbled unintelligible mush that you or someone else has to deal with. In the end, you would be much better off hiring a reasonably priced transcriptionist to transcribe your audio or video perfectly the first time. If you don't, you're paying for very expensive software that doesn't do the job completely, then paying for it to be gone over with a fine tooth comb by a paid transcriptionist for errors. That's just not a good use of your money or time. The answer? Hire a freelance transcriptionist to work for you who has your best interests in mind and who is willing to follow your document needs to the letter. You don't have to use a large corporate transcription service. They're too impersonal and deal with such a large volume of documents that you get lost in the shuffle. Find an IC at home transcriptionist who will work for you personally and be your personal transcriptionist. They aim to please, and you will be delighted at the great quality of work they turn out in record time!

For six other "Insider Tips" see the article below.

12.11.09

Getting Great Documents from Your Audio or Videos: Seven Insider Tips

1. Don't bother with voice recognition software. You will have to have someone proofread and edit your transcript heavily afterwards anyway. Get an affordable speedy transcriptionist instead right from the start. You'll save money in the long run.

2. Make sure your audio is clear, free of static and background noise, and that the person(s) speaking is being as articulate as possible. Using a good quality microphone is key. Also testing your audio equipment in the same environment in which you will be using it first will save you a lot of headaches later.

3. Remember who your target audience is and stay on topic. Try to remember that you are being recorded and omit the types of verbal trackbacks that you use when talking casually. Write things down if it helps.

4. Don't record more than 30 minutes at a time--it will be too cumbersome a document to read otherwise, unless you plan to create several chapters in an e-book or it is part of a larger body of work.

5. If your audio/video is a webinar or teleseminar, make sure you clearly identify each caller and spell their names for your transcriptionist ahead of time.

6. Find a transcriptionist with whom you can relate to well personally and who is willing to transcribe your transcripts just the way you like them done. There are disagreeable and agreeable transcriptionists. Shoot for the latter!

7. Make sure your transcription service is US-based (no outsourcing--it's just not worth the potential savings), affordable, quick, and uses English accurately.

I will expand upon each of these seven tips individually in my next article.

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