How To Get Money Online Fast - Digital File Types for Audio Transcription

If you are still considering which digital recording device to purchase then you have the opportunity to consider the file types it will produce before you buy. Depending on your circumstances, this article aims to discuss these different types and suggest the right one for you. There is a good chance that it will record a variety of different file types for different purposes, if you already have a digital recording mechanism. Suitable for dictation to conference recording, there are a variety of recording systems available.

'interview.wav' for example, as in, this is the set of three letters that follow the dot, You can tell by looking at the file extension, if you do not know what file types you are working with.

Which can cause problems for the transcriber, resulting in reduced audio quality, which removes data that is considered redundant, in other words a complete or 'lossless' audio file has been taken and compressed, but compression is 'lossy'; very large if they are not compressed, sound files can be very. The most obvious of which is a trade-off between quality and file size, the different file types all have advantages and disadvantages for transcription services.

Even these options have limits to the file sizes as a rule, however. You can either upload files directly to their website or send your files using a simple file transfer programme; more and more transcriptionists are using a system which bypasses email. Blocking both your email and your transcriptionist's, and even if they did it could take hours to download, most service providers will not allow a 50MB file through. But at least it is possible to email a 2MB file for transcription, no sound file of any length is small. Should be obvious, as opposed to one 40MB in size, the advantage of a 2MB file, if you are planning to email files for transcription to your transcriptionist! Many lossy formats have a negligible quality loss but are much smaller files, it may initially seem obvious that you and your transcriptionist want the best quality but in fact.

So it is worth checking first, some cover practically all digital file types while others are more limited. Your transcriptionist may only be able to play back certain file types, it also worth noting that depending on the playback software being used for transcription.

A lower sound quality will still provide a clear enough recording for a digital transcription, if it is a dictation. The 'right' file type and attributes for you and your transcriptionist will also depend on what the purpose of your recording is.

You will probably need a higher sound quality to accommodate this, where several people are seated at different distances from the recorder and speaking at different levels and pitches, for example, if you are recording a focus group.

Noisy environments) you may find you need to choose a slightly larger file size in order to maintain decent sound quality, in other cases (focus groups. In a quiet environment) you can probably afford to loose sound quality and the recording will still be clear for transcription, for example dictation (one person speaking into machine, in some cases. And consequently the transcription quality, this can make an enormous difference to the sound quality and size of the file. Your recording equipment may allow you to set different attributes for the same file type.

Used for music CDs, which is the top quality, 100kHz stereo, 000kHz mono is suitable for dictation and the range goes up to 44, 8. Attributes are often shown as Hz.

Examples of different file formats and some details about their use in transcription follow:

Wav) WAVeform Audio (.

If you ask them nicely, sanyo may oblige by sending out the relevant codec on CD, if not! You should check that your transcriptionist has the ability to transcribe Sanyo wavs. A popular and moderately priced recording system but one that records specifically Sanyo wav files; an example is Sanyo. You and your transcriber may need a special 'codec' to play it back, depending on the recorder, wav. Although they all end . Not all wav files are the same! Warning! To utilise these effectively though, or similar, you certainly need a broadband connection. Have a system whereby you can send large files via the internet without using email, on my site http://www.penguin-transcription.co.uk, including myself, although some transcriptionists, rather then emailing them, this means that you will probably need to send the files on a CD. But generally very large, it is lossless. Wav) is a common file format and was one of the first audio file types developed for use with the PC. WAVeform Audio (.

It aims to cover most of the types recorded by available transcription software. There are a huge number; this is not an exhaustive list of all audio file types. But generally the sound quality change is negligible and you will save significant time and money with reduced transfer times, the following types are all lossy.

Mp3) MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 (.

The compressed files will be around a twelfth the size of WAV files. Many digital dictation recorders will also record mp3 or allow you to record WAV and then compress to mp3 to send on for transcription. This is a compressed WAV file often used in music.

Wma) Windows Media Audio (.

I have to say that in my experience of transcribing I am not sure whether this has always been the case. But apparently retaining the original sound quality, wav. To about one thirty-sixth the size of a , it is even more compressed than an MP3. Wma) was developed for Windows Media Player which is bundled with all Windows-based PCs these days. Windows Media Audio (.

Dss) Digital Speech Standard (.

And is ideal for transcription as it is small and easy to email, as compared to a WAV file, the file size is reduced by twelve to twenty times. Dss. Lanier and Grundig recorders also generally use . Dss files. Olympus recorders will record , but not all, dss was developed by Olympus and almost all. I believe . There is a free download available on the Olympus site, if not. Dss files. Most playback software used for transcription will play , in my experience.

DVF

And its small size makes it very easy to send by email, but fine for voice, it is a very highly compressed file. Dss file. This is Sony's answer to the .

Dct) Encrypted dictation (.

A wide variety of playback software will deal with these files. These recordings are encrypted at the recording end and need to be decrypted on receipt by the transcriber, which requires very high confidentiality, often used for medical transcription.

TrueSpeech from DSP Group

It is probably too lossy for focus groups etc. If you are able to record this format it is probably best restricted to use with dictation or one-to-one interview in a quiet environment. It has very high compression ratios ranging from 15:1 to 27:1. Was designed for personal computers and personal communications devices, from the DSP group, trueSpeech.

Or at least point you in the right direction, contact your VA and s/he will probably be able to assist you. There are a whole host of other file types available so don't worry if the type that your machine produces is not listed above.

Cda) CD Audio file (.

A shareware with a fully functional trial version that can be downloaded from various places including http://www.tucows.com/preview/209478 is Easy CD Ripper, and that provides a trial version, but one that I have used successfully, there are a variety of converters available, Transcriptionists specialising in digital transcription will probably be able to transcribe these files but you may be charged a surcharge for the time taken in converting them to a useable format. There are a number of ways to convert CDA files but these can be expensive and/or time consuming. Most transcription software will not work with CDA format. You may well find yourself with CDA files, for example, most transcription recorders will not record to CDA but if you are having a professional recording made of a conference or series of lectures. And the underlying file is probably a wave file or one of the other file types listed above, ) the CDA is actually just a sort of cover file that says this is a file on a CD. As I understand it (not too well! And are generally the file type of music files bought no CD, these files are standard recordings onto CD.

In order to check that the sound quality is acceptable, or send it to your transcriptionist to play back, then play it back. If you have the opportunity it is always a good idea to make a test recording with the settings that you think will be right. But any equipment should provide you with a range of options depending on your needs, depending on your recording equipment, you will probably have only a limited range of file types available for your transcription.

Please let me know and I will do my best to incorporate it, similarly if you feel that there is an important area I have not covered. I cannot absolutely guarantee its accuracy but would be very interested to hear of any errors and happy to correct them. I would just like to say that this information is based on my understanding and experience of digital transcription, finally.

2007, anne Hickley, this article is copyright.