Sonix Tutorial – Sonix | Zapier – How to Create a Zap that will automatically transcribe files when placed in a Dropbox folder

: Hello, everyone. My Name is David Nguyen, and I'm one of the folks here at Sonix. Today, we're going to show you how to automate your workflow with Sonix by using Zapier. We're going to make a zap that watches a folder in your Dropbox account. And when you upload an audio or video file to that folder, we'll have Sonix automatically transcribe that file for you. It's super easy, and it should only take a few minutes.

How to create a zap in Zapier

: So, first thing you want to do is click on make new zap button or make a zap, same thing. And you're going to be taken to this page. It looks confusing, but it's actually not. There are two parts to a zap. The first part is the trigger and the second is an action. So, in this instance, Dropbox is going to be a trigger because we're going to watch a folder on Dropbox. And every single time a file is placed in that folder, that triggers an action, which is we're going to transcribe the file by Sonix.

: So, you want to first set up the trigger. So, you're going to search for Dropbox. Obviously, I know it's right here, but we're just going to go through the search box, and you're going to choose new file and folder. Click that, save and continue.

Linking your Dropbox account to Zapier

: Now, you're gonna have to link your Dropbox account to Zapier. So, what you're going to do is you're going to click connect an account. And you're going to log in to Dropbox. Click sign in, get the authorization, and it should look something like this. My information is a little blurred out right now. So, you click test just to make sure everything works. It does. And then, you click save and continue.

Choosing a folder you want Sonix to ‘watch’

: Now, you have to choose a folder that you're going to watch. Please do not choose the route folder. That's not a good idea. So, I just created a folder that's called Sonix Uploaded Audio. Include file contents, yes. If you don't see your folder in there, especially if you just created it and want to see in this page, please click refresh fields, and it will appear in that dropropdowndown.

: Now, click continue. And what it's going to do is it's going to look inside of that file or, excuse me, inside that folder for a file. In this case, it found File A, which is entitled Pete Combs Recording Tips, and there's all this metadata that's attached to it. This looks good because this file is in that folder. And then, you're going to click continue. Cool. So, you have the trigger, a new file in a folder in Dropbox.

Setting up the action to automatically transcribe a file

: So, the action is going to be under Sonix. So, you want to search for Sonix. It looks something like this. And what we want to do is transcribe a file. So, click save and continue. And now, we have to connect to our Sonix account to Zapier. So, you want to click Connect an Account.

Where to find the API key

: So, what we need from you is an API key. If you click on Sonix Preferences, it's going to open up the preferences page witin Sonix. On that page, you'll see an API key. Copy that, paste it here, click yes, and continue. It should look something like this. Click test just to make sure everything works. Success. So, now, click save and continue. Cool.

Extra settings with the zap

: Each zap has a few extra settings that you need to configure. One of them as language. What language are all the audio files in that folder going to be? So, there is an edge case here, which is if you have both English files and, say, Spanish files that you are uploading, you need to actually make two zaps, apps one for all the English files and one for all the Spanish files. And just to make life easier, you should put them in separate folders. So, for our file, Pete Combs Recording Tips, it was actually spoken in English with an American accent. So, you want to click on that. File URL.

Going through the metadata in the file to find the direct media link

: So, now, you have to go through the metadata of that file, and what you want it to do for File URL is the direct media link. That looks like this. It's a pretty long filename, but it's encoded by Dropbox. So, that's what you want to click. It's going to look something crazy like that. And then, finally the name. This is how you want the transcript to show up once it's fully uploaded and transcribed in Sonix.

: So, usually, you would select this, choose the file name, and then you could say uploaded via API or via Zapier. That's just a good way, so that you know which files were automatically uploaded through Zapier and which files were manually uploaded by you through our uploading system. And then, you click continue.

: And then, you have an option right here to run a test with Sonix. Basically, transcribe the file that it found in that folder that you created. So, you can click that. It will send the test the Sonix. It will send that files to us, and we'll automatically transcribe it, but we'll skip that test for now. Then, you click finish.

Name your zap

: And we're not quite done yet. What you need to do is name your zap. So, in this case, it would be Upload to Dropbox – Transcribe with Sonix. There's sometimes a folder that you could put it into to stay organized. And then, you need to turn on your zap. Here we go.

: But that's it. It was super simple. Now, you can upload any file you want into that folder, and have it be transcribed by Sonix. If you have any other questions, please reach out to us at [email protected] All right. See you guys.

Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix

Tutorial – Sonix for Radio & Podcasters

Introduction

: Sonix for Radio and Podcasters. Sonix makes transcription easy, fast, and affordable. In this tutorial, we'll go through how to upload a file using multitrack, how to create show notes in Sonix, and how to use the Sonix SEO-friendly media player.

How to upload a file using multitrack in Sonix

: How to upload a file using multitrack. One of the major benefits of multitrack is that you can name speakers before you upload. This results in automatic speaker labeling, which can save a ton of time. Second, you'll get more accurate transcripts because voices on each track are isolated, so there's no crosstalk. Our machines don't like it when people speak over top of each other.

How to enable multitrack in Sonix

: In order to use multitrack, you need to turn it on first. It's under your account preferences. Click enable multitrack uploads. Note that multitrack is only available to our paid versions. If you're using the trial version of Sonix, you don't have access to multitrack, and you'll need to upgrade to try it out. Just click save. And, now, you can go and upload.

: So, here, you select multitrack upload. I'm going to drag in two tracks from my desktop. Here, you can name the recording. And, here, you can specify who is speaking. Next, we select the language. In this case, it's English American. And I'll put this into my Sonix tutorials folder. And, now, we hit start transcribing.

: Once you hit transcribe, the file is sent to our machines, and you're now directed back to your homepage. You can see the status of the transcription right here. It takes roughly five minutes for a one hour file to transcribe.

: And, now, we're finished transcribing. Simply click on the file to see your transcript. You can see that Sonix combines the two tracks into one transcript, and separates the speakers by name automatically.

How to create show notes in Sonix

: How to create show notes in Sonix. You can create show notes in seconds with Sonix. Just click on the yellow note and enter a description. And there's a few more notes here already populated. All the notes show up in the top nav under the notes menu item.

Navigating to show notes in Sonix

: By clicking on a note from here, you can easily navigate to that section. That's it.

How to use the Sonix SEO-friendly media player

: How to use the Sonix SEO-friendly media player. Search engines like Google can't index audio nearly as well as text. With the full transcript of your audio in Sonix, every single word gets indexed by Google.

: To use the media player, just click the embed button and simply copy the code to your website. Sonix gives you a few options before you copy and paste to your site. You can include show notes. You can allow users to download the audio and the transcript. And, lastly, you can point the Sonix media player and your host. You do this for a few reasons. First, so that you don't need to have two media players on your web page. Second, for RSS feeds. And third, to track downloads stats from your hosting service like Libsyn or Spreaker.

: Hit copy, then paste to your website. The embed code will paste into any website provider like WordPress, Squarespace, or Weebly. Once you copy and paste on your website, this is what you'll see.

Overview of all the features in the SEO-friendly media player

: The first big difference with the Sonix media player and other media players is that the full transcript is contained in the player. This means that every single word that is spoken can get indexed by search engines, boosting SEO to drive more traffic to your podcast or radio show.

: Second, you can click on any word and start playing from that point. Third, the show notes are built right into the media player. Just click on the list icon, and the show notes display below. You can quickly navigate to a section in your podcast or radio show by clicking on that section.

: And to boost your SEO even further, these show notes are recognized as headers for SEO purposes. This means your content appears structured to Google, and Google will rank that content higher. And then, if you ever need to make changes to the transcript inside Sonix, and you want those changes to appear in the player, no worries that will happen automatically, but it may take up to an hour to refresh.

: Other features in the player include play and pause the audio, jump back or forward 15 seconds, turn the volume on and off, turn auto scrolling of the text on and off, and adjust the playback speed. You can also download the audio or the transcript. You can share the recording with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or by email.

SEO-friendly media player analytics dashboard

: And last but not least, the Sonix subscription also comes with a full analytics dashboard. It tracks views, plays, downloads, and shares, as well as the top countries, and top 10 referrers.

SEO-friendly media player heatmap (listener entry and exit points)

: And a really novel bit of technology we call the heatmap. This shows areas on your show that are listened to the most and the least. We can do this because we have the full transcript and can track entry and exit points to your content. Imagine how great this could be for your advertisers. You could show them exactly how many times their ads were listened to.

Thank you

: Thanks for listening. If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to us at [email protected]

Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix

Sonix Tutorial – Introduction to Sonix

How to upload a file in Sonix

: How to upload a file a Sonix

: To upload a file to Sonix you simply click on the upload button. Sonix accepts multiple file formats listed here for both audio and video.

: Sonix also accepts the following languages.

: You can upload a file by dragging and dropping the file into this quadrant, selecting it from your Dropbox account, or your Google Drive account, or simply selecting it from your desktop which is what I'm doing here.

: The green status bar shows the status of your upload. You can actually upload multiple files. I'm just going to add the same one again. You can see that this is uploaded as well but I've decided I don't want this file. So I can easily remove that here.

: You can rename the file and then you're ready to transcribe.

: The last thing is to make sure that language that you select is the language spoken in the audio or video file. In our case it's English American so we're good.

: And then you just hit start transcribing.

From there you're taken back to your home screen. And you can see that this file appears. And the status is also here. Right now the file is preparing. It takes roughly five or six minutes for an hour of audio or video to transcribe. And once it's done you'll be notified from Sonix.

How to edit a file in Sonix

: How to edit a file in Sonix.

: Just click on the file and you'll be taken to the transcript.

: It looks a lot like a word processor but the big difference with Sonix transcripts is that the audio is switched to the text. If you click anywhere in the transcript you can hear the voice behind the words that are spoken.

: My name is Pete Combs and I'm a reporter for K O M O KOMO Radio in Seattle. I've been doing this for about 40 years and my life has.

: This makes it super easy to edit your transcript and correct any errors.

: Now there are tons of features around editing for your transcript. But in this tutorial I'm only going to go through 5 key thing. Number 1: using Heatmap to locate problem areas, 2: Sonix shortcut keys, number 3: Find and Replace, number 4: creating a new speaker, and 5: highlighting and strikethrough.

Using Heatmap to locate problem areas

: Using Heatmap to locate problem areas

: If you click on the tiny thermometer Sonix will highlight the areas that we aren't confident or correct. The lighter the text the less confident we are and the darker the more confident we are. This allows you to navigate around the transcript and quickly fix up areas that look more problematic.

Shortcut keys in Sonix

: Shortcut keys

: If you click the shortcuts menu item in the top now it shows you all the shortcut keys that can help you speed up editing.

: An important shortcut key is TAB. TAB allows you to stop and start the audio while editing.

: Find and replace

: Find and replace does exactly what you'd expect it to do. You can find it under the edit dropdown or you can simply click this icon.

: Enter the word you want replace. The word that you want it replaced with. Click replace all and you'll see a notification that shows how many times that word was changed.

Creating a new speaker

: Creating a new speaker

: If you have files with multiple speakers you may run into issues where we don't separate speakers perfectly. That's not a problem. You can easily create a new speaker by clicking anywhere in the text.

: Say this was a new speaker here. Just click enter and create a new speaker by entering here. It's as simple as that.

Highlighting in Sonix

: Highlighting and strikethrough

: Highlighting and strikethrough are two features that are mostly used to prepare your file or sections of your file for export. To highlight word, sentence, or paragraph, simply click on a word and hold and drag until you've captured the section you want.

: Then simply select the paintbrush. You'll see the highlight turns yellow and Sonix also identifies the time stamps for the start and the end. You can also see the highlight in the progress bar so it's easy to navigate.

Strikethrough in Sonix

Strikethrough works much the same way as the highlight. Simply select the area for the paragraph you want to strike and click the strikethrough icon. The text that's been struck through is highlighted in red and it also appears the progress bar.

Organizing your files in Sonix

: Organizing your files in Sonix

: Your Sonix account operates in a similar way to Dropbox or Google Drive. We store all your audio video and transcripts. It's all part of this subscription fee.

: You can create update delete and organize your files in any way you want. The first folder is called "Shared with me". This folder keeps all the files that have been shared with you by someone else.

: If you want to create a new folder simply select new folder. You can rename move or delete your folder. And you can drag and drop files inside of other folders.

How to share a file in Sonix

: How to share a file in Sonix

: You can easily share a file with another person so they can view the transcript. Just click share.

: Here you have two options. You can copy this link and send it to anyone. But note that the recipient can only view the transcript.

: You can also enter someone's email address. And select whether the recipient can view only or edit as well. There is also space here to write a personal note.

: Just click invite and they'll be invited to the transcript.

How to export a file from Sonix

: How to export a file from Sonix

: Exporting a file is simple. Just navigate to the file you want to export and click export.

: You can export your transcript audio or video in a variety of different ways. This makes it easy to get into your workflow quickly.

: First you can export the transcript in text format into Microsoft Word or as a text file. And then you have several times stamp options. Include timestamps on every paragraph, include timestamps every 30 seconds, include milliseconds with the time code.

: You can also export with or without a speaker names.

: And lastly you can export just the highlighted section.

: You can also export the transcript into audio and video editing software like Adobe Audition, Adobe Premiere, and Final Cut Pro.

: If you want to include captions alongside your video you can do that by exporting an SRT file.

: Lastly you can export the audio from your file. And you have three options here. You can export the whole file, just the highlighted section, or the audio with the strikethroughs removed.

Automatically convert audio to text with Sonix