Category: Education

Education How to record better audio on your phone

Transcribe high quality audio from events with Sonix - how to better record audio from your phone

There’s a smartphone in your pocket everywhere you go. You can make phone calls with it using the built-in microphone. And with easy to use recording apps, you the ability to easily record in-person interviews, lectures, and meetings.

But when you re-listen to these recordings, the audio just doesn’t sound quite right. Sometimes the audio sounds muffled, or there’s a lot of intrusive background noise, or you can’t easily discern certain words and phrases. Don’t worry, this is completely normal.

Bad audio quality is something that you and your listeners can quickly detect and be frustrated about. Not only is it hard to listen to, but it’s hard to understand what is being said. Automated transcription services such as Sonix have a hard time with low quality audio recordings.

What should you do? Well, you don’t have to buy thousands of dollars of gear or book a recording studio to have great sound. It’s easy to capture great audio from your phone by simply tweaking a few key settings, changing how you record, and for the best results: invest in a portable microphone.

Tweak your recording settings:

Put your phone on airplane mode and mute your notifications.

By putting your phone in airplane mode, you prevent phone calls and text messages from interrupting your recordings. Also, most phones have a “Do not disturb” feature, this will prevent notifications and vibrations from interrupting your audio recording.

iPhone (iOS): Voice Memo app (included with your iPhone)

Improve the audio quality by recording in lossless format (which is a non-compressed audio file). You can easily do this by going to Settings > Voice Memos > Audio Quality and choosing “Lossless.”

iPhone (iOS): Voice Record Pro app (free with ads or ad-free for $7 USD)

Voice Record Pro is a more powerful version of the built in Voice Memos app. You can control the gain, sample rate, bit rate, and encode quality. You’ll need to use trial and error to see what settings will suit the environment that you are recording in. Try a short test recording and re-listen to it with headphones to see what settings decrease the environmental distortion and sounds clearest.

Android: Titanium Recorder (free with ads)

Titanium Recorder is a powerful voice recorder. Tap the menu button (it has three dots in the top right of the screen) and choose Settings. Here, like in Voice Record Pro, you can adjust the sample rate, bit rate, and gain to make sure that your audio recording is clear in the environment that you are recording in. Just like above, try a short test recording and re-listen to your recording with headphones and change the settings as necessary.

Change how you record:

Ensure that your microphones are not covered or obstructed.

First, find where your phone’s microphones are located. They are usually at the bottom of the smartphone because that’s where you’d speak into if you were making a phone call. They could also be by the camera(s). Just make sure that when you are recording, you don’t have a case or your finger covering these microphones. By uncovering your microphones, you will prevent your recording from sounding muffled or garbled.

Point your microphones towards your main speaker.

Most phone microphones are directional and if your microphones are pointed away from the main speaker, it relies on the echos or reverberations of the speaker’s voice off of the wall or table. These echos are really hard to decipher and cause the audio quality to be very poor.

For big rooms, bring the microphone closer to the speaker.

If you are recording in a conference room and want to better transcribe your meeting minutes, pass the phone around from speaker to speaker. Having the microphone closer to the speaker will make the audio sound much better. Also, if you are recording a lecture or a speech, sit in the front row if possible; do not try to record from ten rows back.

Portable microphones you should consider:

An external microphone will give you the best audio quality.

By supercharging your phone with an external microphone, you will ensure that you have the best recordings. However, it’s a challenge to choose which microphones will work best with your phone. iPhones require the microphones to have a Lightning connector, while Android phones require the microphones to have a USB-C connector.

Based on our interviews with a few of our most active customers here at Sonix, we have narrowed down the list to a few affordable options:

iPhone: Sennheiser HandMic Digital

The hand-held Sennheiser HandMic Digital is ideal for recording speeches and is great for mobile journalists, podcasters, and musicians. It is a top quality microphone with a high-quality cardioid microphone with a shockmount – which allows it to significantly reduce handling noise while recording only the speaker and eliminating any side noise. It has a lightning adapter so you just plug it into your iPhone and you’ll have instant broadcast quality recordings as long as you hold the microphone close to the speaker. The Sennheiser HandMic Digital Microphone is available on Amazon for $259.

iPhone: Shure MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone

The Shure MV88 iOS condenser microphone conveniently connects to the bottom of your iPhone and provides a stereo microphone to capture more of the surrounding environment instead of just one speaker. It automatically can adjust the EQ, compression, and limiting features to guarantee that you always get the optimal results. This microphone is built for the on-the-go journalist for when you need a quick and easy microphone to record that on-the-record interview. The Shure MV88 iOS Digital Stereo Condenser Microphone is available on Amazon for $149.

Android: Beyerdynamic FOX USB Condenser Microphone

The desktop Beyerdynamic Fox Microphone is a studio grade quality microphone that you can put on a desk or a table when recording and it will give you great audio quality over USB-C. It has a large diaphragm condenser capsule that will accurately reproduce your voice and eliminate a lot of environmental noise. The Beyerdynamic FOX USB Condenser Microphone is available on Amazon for $149.

Both iPhone and Android: Apogee MiC +

The Apogee MiC Plus is a professional studio quality microphone that you can plug into both your iOS devices (iPhone, iPad), Andoid, or Mac/PC. This microphone is incredibly flexible and can record any sound from interviews to podcasts to vocals to music. It’s small enough to fit in your pocket so it is perfect for recording on the go and has flexible connectivity over both lighting and USB-C. Just plug it into your phone and you are ready to get a high quality recording with increased dynamic range. The Apogee MiC Plus is available on Amazon for $259.

Lavalier Microphone: BOYA Omnidirectional Clip-on Lapel Mic

For a more subtle approach, you might want to consider clipping a lavalier microphone to a tie, shirt, collar and then run the cable to your phone under your clothing. This is great for capturing great sound during a video without having to hand hold a microphone. A lavalier microphone helps capture high-quality, clear sounds because by clipping it to your clothing you guarantee that it is only capturing your voice.  The BOYA Lavalier Microphone model BY-DM1 is the iPhone/Lightning version that’s available on Amazon for $69.95, and the BOYA Lavalier Microphone model BY-DM2 is the Android/USB-C version that’s available on Amazon for $69.95.

One final thought:

Not only will having high quality audio recordings improve the quality of your automated transcriptions with Sonix, they will also benefit your listeners who have a higher likelihood to stay better engaged with your content. If you only were to do one thing as a result of reading this article, we would highly suggest that you add a portable microphone.

Or if you are truly rebellious, you can add a standalone portable digital recorder such as the Zoom H1n Portable Digital Recorder (available on Amazon for $139.95) and have a fully dedicated, pocket-sized device for your recording needs.

Education Automatically convert your video to text in three easy steps

Do you have a video file you need to convert to text? Do you want a quick way to create subtitles or captions? You’ve come to the right place.

The ability to easily, quickly, and inexpensively convert video to text can save countless hours. It’s mundane work that most people don’t enjoy. If you think about the last time you transcribed something you were probably pulling your hair out. An hour long video file can take the average person anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to transcribe. If you don’t want to be average, there’s a great solution for you. It’s called automated transcription and it will make your video transcription nightmares go away.

Here’s how it works. It’s super simple to convert your video to text.

  1. Upload your video file to Sonix
  2. Receive your video converted to text in minutes
  3. Edit & export subtitles

1. Upload your video file

Go to Sonix and click the upload button. You can drag and drop your file from your computer, select it directly from your desktop, or import it from Dropbox or Google Drive. If you don’t have a Sonix free trial account, you can create one by clicking the “Try Sonix for Free” button. It takes less than 60 seconds.

The ideal video file should have no background noise, no people talking over each other, and people speaking clearly. The better the quality of the sound, the more accurate the video transcription will be.

You can transcribe in multiple languages including:

English (including American, British, and Australia accents), Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, Slovak, and Swedish. Sonix is constantly updating languages. For an up-to-date list of supported languages go here: Sonix upload page

Please make sure the file format you upload is compatible with Sonix. Here is a list of file types that work with Sonix:

Audio: .mp3, .mp4, .m4a, .aac and .wav

Video: .mp4, .wma, .mov and .avi

2. Receive your video converted to text in minutes

The first 30 minutes of your transcript is completely free. You’ll receive an email notifying you when the transcription is complete. Sonix’s proprietary technology can return a transcript to you in less than 5 minutes.

You’ll be taken to your account page inside Sonix where all your completed transcripts will go. Just click on the transcript link and review the result.


3. Edit & export subtitles

While getting fast, accurate, timestamped transcripts are critical, it’s just the starting point for Sonix. This is where the magic starts. Because your transcript is online, we’ve created a way where you can edit the text while listening and watching the video. If you remove text using our strikethrough feature, you will actually remove the video portion too. It’s like editing video by editing text!

You can highlight parts of the video, make notes alongside the transcript, and you can share it with other video editors or collaborators.

You can also export your transcript in multiple formats including SubRip (SRT) and Web Video Text Tracks (VTT) which are file types you’ll need to create subtitles and captions. The SRT and VTT exports are super flexible. You can adjust the length of your subtitles by character or duration. You also have the option to include or exclude speaker names.

With Sonix you have everything you need to transcribe your video quickly and inexpensively. Creating captions and subtitles has never been easier.

Click here to convert your video to text and let your transcription nightmares drift away!

Education 7 best ways to market your podcast

You’ve created an awesome podcast and you want more people to know about it. What do you do? These 7 tips will help you market your podcast and drive more listeners.

Number 1: First impressions matter

You need your show to be awesome and catchy right from the start. Remember that your voice and your guest’s voice are literally in your listeners’ heads. And in many cases, during very intimate times like a run, on a train, or in the car. They’re on their own. Just you, your show, and them. So forming a relationship really matters. It’s easier to develop a relationship when you get off to a good start.

Number 2: Benefits, not features

In traditional marketing speak, it’s important to talk about the benefits, not the features of your product or service. This same philosophy applies to your podcast. What is the listener going to get out of your podcast? Why should they spend time listening to you versus doing something else? And listeners want to understand what they’re in for right away. Get right to the point or you will risk losing them. There are numerous stats that show that listenership drops off precipitously when podcasts have drawn out intros.

Number 3: Build a web presence

While many listeners may find you through iTunes, Spreaker, or GooglePlay, having a web presence is important. It shows your serious and gives a little more background as to who you are, and why you created your show. Your website needs to work well on any device. Especially mobile. Your listeners are on the go and so it follows that your website caters to mobile users.

Number 4: Transcribe your podcast

Optimizing SEO is paramount. Transcribing your podcast is the first step to getting SEO benefit. If you are not familiar with SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization. Search engines like Google can’t crawl audio so it’s best to have a transcript of your podcast alongside the audio. You can also use excerpts from the transcript in social media.

Services like Sonix convert audio to text very inexpensively. Sonix also provides a media player that will host your transcript with the full transcript driving you better SEO.

Number 5: Promote on social media

Social media is a relatively easy way to promote your show and engage with your audience. Best thing to do is just get in the habit of posting regularly on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. Create a simple spreadsheet so you can keep track of your social posts. Also, you should consider posting things that aren’t readily available to your audience. Things like a quick behind-the-scenes video can add personality and help you develop a relationship with your audience.

Number 6: Collaborate with other podcasts

Get on other podcasts! This is one of the most useful things you can do. Many podcast listeners find out about other shows from the shows that they listen to regularly. Getting on another podcast gives you the perfect opportunity to plug your own show–if you have a big-name guest coming on your show, make some noise about it! A good way to develop relationships with other podcasts is to hype up other podcasts on your show.

Number 7: Send email and newsletters

Emails and newsletters are great for sharing details that entice people to listen to your podcast and spread the word. In these communications, you can talk about popular guests you’ve had on your show, share feedback you’ve received from listeners, or even ask your audience for ideas for upcoming shows. Email and newsletters help you cultivate a relationship with your listeners.

Education How does automated transcription work?

Automated transcription has come a long way in the last few years. Whether you’re a podcaster, journalist, video editor, lawyer, student, or researcher, the need to convert audio or video to text is a part of your life. Transcribing audio and video, lightly put, is painful.

But now there is technology like Sonix that automates the entire process of transcription. Hence the term automated transcription.

 

 

What is transcription?

Transcription is the process of converting recorded speech into text. Transcription involves listening to a recording of something and typing the contents into a document. In many cases, this is an interview of some sort. It can take an inordinate amount of time to transcribe something especially if you are doing it manually.

 

What are the different kinds of transcription?

Manual transcription

The most traditional form of transcription is manual transcription. Manual transcription involves listening to audio or video files and then typing the words into a document. Many people choose this option because there is no associated cost. The cost equates to much an individual values their time.

Human transcription services

There are many human transcription services on the market but they can be slow and expensive. They are, however, more accurate than automated services. Human transcribers use technology to assist in the conversion of speech to text like a shorthand system. There are also a very small number of people like court reporters that can type in near real time. The accuracy of these transcripts is negatively affected because there is little to no time to correct mistakes as they occur.

In summary, human transcription has been around for decades, it isn’t the most efficient or effective way to convert audio or video to text.

Automated Transcription

Automated transcription, as the name suggests, is amazingly fast. While human transcription can take anywhere from 24 hours to 4 days, automated transcription can be completed in minutes. A 30-minute audio or video file can be transcribed in less than 5 minutes.
Another added benefit of automated transcription is security. No human ever sees the audio or video file, nor the transcript. It’s done entirely by machines. If the security of your files and transcripts is important to you, then automated transcription in many ways is better than human transcription.

Sonix uses the latest artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques to derive the most accurate automated transcripts. Sonix has been independently reviewed as the most accurate automated service.

Once a file has been transcribed, you’ll receive an email notifying you that your transcript is ready. All the transcripts are centrally hosted in your Sonix account online for easy access. Just click on the link and you will see the time-coded transcript displayed in your browser. Because your transcript is online, Sonix stitches the audio to the text which makes it easy to edit your files. You can also easily search for keywords, share the file with another user, highlight and strike text, embed captions in video, and export in many different formats.

To be clear, automated transcription is not perfect. The technology continues to get with every day that passes, but there will undoubtedly be errors. And if your file is recorded in a loud environment, there are people talking over each other, or speakers aren’t articulating clearly, the resulting transcription will be negatively affected. On the other hand, with really clear, crisp audio, the accuracy of the transcript can be upwards of 95-98%.

Lastly, automated transcription is relatively inexpensive. While traditional human services can cost anywhere from $60 to $100 per hour of audio or video, automated transcription with Sonix is just $6 per hour with a subscription. The effective cost for those that transcribe regularly is substantially less.

 

What makes automated transcription possible?

Automated transcription is possible because of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. With each file that is uploaded to Sonix, each and every sound within that file analyzed and interpreted using artificial intelligence and natural language processing.

The next step is to match those sounds to words in our extensive and growing dictionary. Sonix works in different languages and varying English accents and continuously improves as more voice data is ingested into our systems.

There are four basic steps with automated transcription:

STEP 1

A user uploads an audio or video file and selects the appropriate language spoken (Sonix works in many languages and several different English accents).

STEP 2

Sonix then runs the file through its automated technology which combines artificial intelligence and natural language processing to derive accurate transcripts. Depending on the size of the file, this can take anywhere from 2 to 8 minutes.

STEP 3

When the file is complete a user will receive an email with a link that takes them to the online transcript.

STEP 4

With a browser-based transcript, users can easily edit problem areas.
 

The future of automated transcription

We are several years away from error-free automated transcription, but the technology continues to improve day after day. As more and more people turn to automated transcription, more voice data is collected and analyzed. The result is improved speech-to-text algorithms and more accurate transcripts.

In the meantime, there are many ways to get the most out of automated transcription in its current state. Most of that requires users to capture high quality audio and video. Reducing background noise, multiple speakers talking over each other, and swallowed words can greatly increase the accuracy of automated transcription.

 

New to Sonix? Click here for 30 free transcription minutes!

Education What are the benefits of using multitrack in Sonix?

Why use multitrack?

: Hi Sonix users. Today we're going to talk about how to use multitrack in Sonix. I've got Bill here to explain some of the benefits. Hi Bill.

: Hey Adam great to be here.

: Bill can you tell us the benefits of uploading multitrack files versus singletrack in Sonix.

: Sure. Many of us capture each speaker separately by using different microphones to isolate each person's voice. The result is a multi-track recording which has multiple benefits when using Sonix.

: Ok what are those benefits?

Automatic speaker labels

: The first is that you can name the speakers before you upload. This gives you near perfect automatic speaker labeling which saves a ton of time going through and naming speakers after the transcript has been returned to you.

: Nice. That's a good one.

More accurate transcripts

: Yes. And secondly you'll get more accurate transcripts because the voices on each track are isolated.

: That's great too. Why wouldn't everyone use multitrack

Always capture speakers on multiple tracks if you can

: While we always suggest capturing multiple speakers on different tracks. There really isn't any good reason to have multiple speakers on one track.

: Great thanks for this bill. You are awesome.

: I know that.

Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix



–>

New to Sonix? Click here for 30 free transcription minutes!

Education How to fix mic bleed with multi-track recordings

If you are using Sonix’s multi-track feature you may experience an issue called “mic bleed”. Mic bleed happens when you can hear two or more voices on one track.

Isolating audio tracks is challenging especially if you have multiple microphones in the same room. Sonix has built technology to help with mic bleed. We can spot areas of duplicated text and remove them from the combined transcript. Having said that, if the mic bleed is loud, Sonix will struggle to isolate voices.

Mic bleed is less problematic when you record speakers in different rooms or locations. It used to be a logistical challenge to capture each participant on their own audio track, but with all the great communication apps, it’s no longer a problem. If you are using Skype, Zoom, or some other tool to capture the audio, each speaker is using a different microphone input. This helps reduce mic bleed.

Can I fix mic bleed?

There are ways to strip unwanted audio from your tracks using other audio tools like Audacity, Final Cut, and Pro Tools. The feature is typically called “Strip Silence” which will detect areas in an audio track that are quieter than others.

Here are the links to instructions on how to strip out mic bleed.

  1. Audacity
  2. Apple Logic X
  3. Pro Tools

New to Sonix? Click here for 30 free transcription minutes!

 

Education How to add captions & subtitles to your Facebook videos

More and more people are watching videos without sound. Having the subtitles that play along with the video keeps people that don’t have the volume turned up more engaged. Subtitles and captions also makes them more accessible for those that are hearing-impaired. It’s really easy to add captions and subtitles to your Facebook videos once you have the automated transcript from Sonix.

Below are the steps:

In Sonix follow these steps:

1. Upload a file (if you aren’t already subscribed, click here to try Sonix for free with 30 free transcription minutes)
2. Upload the video you are going to post to Facebook.
3. You’ll get an email when the video is transcribed.
4. Click EXPORT and select SubRip subtitle file (*.srt)

In Facebook follow these steps:

1. Click Photo/Video in your timeline or News Feed.
2. Click Upload Photos/Video and choose a video from your computer, then click Post.
3. Facebook will notify you when your video is ready to view. Click the notification or the gray date and time at the top of the post on your News Feed or timeline.
4. Hover over the video, click Options at the bottom and select Edit this video.
5. Click Choose File below Upload SRT files and select the .srt file you exported from Sonix (Note: you need to rename the file to filename.en_US.srt).
6. Click Save.

That’s it!

New to Sonix? Click here for 30 free transcription minutes!

Education Show Notes for Podcasts: How to Make Podcast Show Notes in Seconds

Having show notes for your podcast is a must. It makes it so much easier for listeners to navigate your podcast quickly. Being able to jump to sections they are most interested in is a great user experience. It also provides a nice table of contents for your listeners. They can quickly see at a glance what the podcast is going to cover.

Mike Russell over at Music Radio Creative recorded this quick video to show podcasters how to create show notes for your podcasts in seconds. Check it out!

Want to try Sonix for free? Click here and get 30 free transcription minutes.