Multilingual Transcription Experts
1-800-Translate provides fast, accurate transcription services in most languages, in most media. Rapid turn-around by experts in the field for law, medicine, and news. Native-speakers only, with knowledge of the subject matter in all available major languages.

We've been transcribing non-English audio and video, scripts and transcripts for such clients as ABC, A&E, BBC, CBS, Fox, Fuji Sankei, MSNBC, MTV, NBC, and NHK.

Transcription in Formats of Your Choice
We work in all tape formats, micro, standard and executive, tapes. We work in most video tape formats, too: VHS, SVHS (Super VHS), Digital Video Cassette, 8mm (standardl), Hi8 (8mm), Digital 8, Beta, Beta SP, 1/4-inch, Digital Video, QuickTime, AVI, DVD, RealVideo. We support audio files in most digital formats including Windows PCM (WAV), 8-bit signed raw format (SAM), ACM waveform (WAV), Apple AIFF (PCM encoded data only) (AIF), CCITT mu-Law and A-Law (WAV), Dialogic ADPCM (VOX), DiamondWare Digitized (DWD), IMA/DVI ADPCM (WAV), MPEG3 FhG (MP3), MPEG audio (layers I and II), Microsoft ADPCM (WAV), Next/Sun CCITT mu-Law, A-Law and PCM (AU), Apple Quicktime, Raw PCM Data, Real Audio (RA, RAM, RMM, RM, etc.), SampleVision format (SMP), Sound Blaster voice file (VOC), and TrueSpeech (WAV).

Good Recording for Good Transcription

Do a sound check before beginning recording.

Transcription machines put a lot of wear and tear and tape. Use fresh tape.

Record on "slow" setting for best audio tape quality.

Background noise can make dialogue inaudible, or require expensive digital augmentation.

Keep microphones close to speakers.

No audio-vox. Keep microphones on all the time, so not a single word is lost to transcribers.

Identify speakers and confirm spelling of names, if possible at time of recording.

Multiple tracks for multiple speakers are usually used only in courtrooms, but help to reduce inaudibles caused by cross-talk (more than one person speaking at a time) no matter what the setting.

T-60 is best for standard tapes, since longer tapes are more likely to tear when being transcribed. Longer tapes are fine for executive and micro formats.

VHS is good for visual cues so transcribers can fully understand the context of speech. Audiocassette tapes are used with dictation machines, so that transcribers can more easily maintain focus and concentrate on accuracy.

Getting Good Transcription
Use native-speakers who understand the matter at hand. No guessing. Inaudible comments are indicated with an [inaudible].

Spoken grammar is often incorrect when written. Let your project manager know if you want a verbatim script with every "umm" and "ahs" or a version edited for grammar and clarity. In any language, spoken communication can sometimes be hard to follow when put into print. Listeners are highly tolerant of spoken error, since utterance is only one part of the communication package. A tortured phrase on the page may go unnoticed by the listener, who understands from social cues what the speaker really means.

Word-for-word transcription is less easily understood than the light edit often applied by transcribers. Repetition, restarted sentences and "ums" and "ahhs" are sometimes left out of a transcript or translation. Sometimes, these redundancies and hesitations are crucial to meaning, and a diligent transcriber/translator will include them, or modify meaningless conversational place markers to make the intended meaning clear.

Catching the unspoken in another language can be more difficult. Since most transcripts are prepared for legal or broadcast use, they frequently represent conversations that are emotionally charged or sometimes are heavily ironic. This kind of emotional content can be included in brackets. In past projects we have used the draft version of Human Markup Initiative (HMI) for defining gestural, emotional and intentional aspects of spoken communication.

Transcribing Video Scripts
Translations to be used as scripts for voice-over or subtitles are time-coded when transcribed. Version control is maintained through the use of file names and date/time stamps on each page. We can translate directly from audio to control costs, but a transcript in the source language before translation allows for a more accurate check of the final product. Going straight to translation tends to increase the chance of error but is faster and less expensive.