A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

What transcription software should I get? - Visitor

Posted: Apr 10, 2013

I think a common question that brings people to MT forums is "What transcription software should I get?" I recently spent some time trying various software products and here are my experiences. They are just my impressions, but I thought it might help someone else wondering the same question. Transcription Software Impressions. YMMV Digiscribe - Exhibited erratic pedal operation as if more than one pedal is being pressed at one time. Express Scribe - Loads a lot of additionalware even if you uncheck boxes. Will not load .wma files even though they are present on hard drive. Gear Player - Excruciating long install even after .Net 3.5 is installed. Reverse and Fast Forward sounds are unpleasant on ears. Changed settings for speed of Rev and FF and BS. Still a little raw on ears. Works well otherwise. $119.95 InqScribe - Rewind/Review will not work for me. They recommend changing default video player. Not an option for me. I am not willing to monkey with it. Software seems really meant for subtitling. WILL NOT RUN AS A BACKGROUND PROCESS. MAYBE IT CAN BE SET THAT WAY ????? MedEDocs - Need login and password for their website. Only works on their system. Powerplayer - Shows as having a Trojan virus, even the latest version. Also only plays 30 sec of audio as a Trial Software. PublicPlayer4 - No way to load .wma files. Very little info in menus. No help topics. Quikscribe - Modifies original .wma file to be propriatary .iaf without asking for save or confirmation. If enable audio in Rew/FF goes back to autoplay afterwards without pedal and requires second pedal press to stop it. Transcribe! 8 - Really geared towards music, but it works and is really inexpensive. Sound quality is excellent. $39 Transcription Buddy - Sound in Rew is a little noisy and low in amplitude. But other than that works very well. $39.95 Turbo Dictation - No smooth playback in Rew/FF modes, only time steps. Makes Rew/FF sound gritty like Gear Player. Long install, needs patches and Visual C++. Other than that seems to work well. Has not been updated since 2009. $49 WavPedal - No sound at all in Rew/FF. Other than that works. Very simple functionality. ByteScribe WavPlayer - No sound at all in Rew/FF. Other than that works. Very simple functionality. Similar to WavPedal.

Nice rundown. Which ones sound best when speeding up or slowing down dictation? - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
Maybe I don't have the settings right, but with Express Scribe, it sounds awful when slowing down dictation any more than about 95% or so. Luckily, I don't need it for work, but for possible future needs, I'd like to know which have the best capabilities in that regard especially.

Good Question. - Visitor

[ In Reply To ..]
My guess would be Transcribe! because it is music oriented. But I will compare it against Transcription Buddy and Gear Player and post my experience.

An Imperfect Test. - Visitor

[ In Reply To ..]
Well, this is not as good a test as I would have hoped for, but...

Transcribe! lets you slow down to as low as 20% and it is still workable. The speed control is a little finicky, but it does work. At 60% the sound is still very good.

Gear Player will not re-load for me. It says my Trial has expired, but it is not the number of days they state in their offer, so I cannot test it. Very annoying.

Transcription Buddy has the speed controls greyed out. I do not know if this is because I use .wma or if it is because it is a trial version.

Give Transcribe! a try and see if it sounds okay to you at slow speeds.

Hope this helps.

Great, thanks. Do you have the same experience with Express Scribe that I do - in that regard? sm

[ In Reply To ..]
That's one thing that EditScript (eScription) does well, at least, is slow down while maintaining the pitch and not going into a "tin can"/echo chamber effect as Express Scribe does for me.

[edited to add]: Okay, I wasted my trial on Transcribe! to try it, and you're right, the sound quality is nice and not as distorted as Express Scribe at lower speeds (though still a little bit of an echo chamber effect the slower you go), yet there's no easy way to speed up, which I need to have the ability to do just as much as slow down.

Yes and more info. - Visitor

[ In Reply To ..]
I use mostly .wma So ExpressScribe does not work for me in that regard. If I try a file that it can handle, I have the same experience as you do when changing speed.

I tried uninstalling GearPlayer with Revo Uninstaller and rebooting and Re-Installing and now the program will not even start. It just errors out. Just terrible.

I loaded a .wma music file into Transcription Buddy and was able to get the speed controls to work. Can vary from 50% to 300%.

Transcribe! still sounds better though. But Transcribe! has a different range. 20% to 150%. Their help file says it can go up to 200% but I can't get mine to go that high. I think we slow down more often than speed up anyway.

Re: EditScript - How is the accuracy? Whenever I have tried Dragon, I have spend more time correcting than if I just typed. :-)

Thanks, I'll check out Transcription Buddy. - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't have other VR experience to compare it to, but I have to go with all the anecdoctal reports I've read and say that EditScript is likely the best VR used by MTSOs. Due to RSI issues, I have to stick with editing rather than straight transcription, so I guess I just have to deal with the fact that since I'm borderline "disabled," I'm relegated to making this fraction of what I used to make as a result. The halving of pay for VR is obviously not justified since very few of us can actually achieve doubling of our previous production rates, and that angers me to no end. Regardless, as long as I stay in MT, attempting to find a position where I'll be using eScription will always be my highest priority (over hours, days, etc.), so I guess that makes me an "EditScript addict." :}

You can find them here... - Visitor

[ In Reply To ..]

Transcription Buddy:

http://www.libertyrecording.com/TB_main_Player.htm

Transcribe! :

http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download.html

DigiScribe software..has a patch to fix - 2bz2sleep

[ In Reply To ..]
Andy has fixed the DigiScribe footpedal and has a patch available. This software works fabulous for me. Contact Andy at DigiTel software for a fix. It actually stops exactly where I left off, and you can program it.

Good To Know. - Visitor

[ In Reply To ..]

Thanks for letting everyone know about the patch.

Hopefully he will integrate it into a revised download in the future.

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