- Speech To Text Software For Mac Free Software
- Speech To Text Software For Mac Freeware
- Speech To Text Software For Mac Free
The continuous speech-to-text software was widely considered to be the gold standard for speech recognition, and Nuance continues to develop and sell the Windows versions of Dragon Home, Dragon Professional Individual, and various profession-specific solutions.
In October 2018, Nuance announced that it has discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac and will support it for only 90 days from activation in the US or 180 days in the rest of the world. The continuous speech-to-text software was widely considered to be the gold standard for speech recognition, and Nuance continues to develop and sell the Windows versions of Dragon Home, Dragon Professional Individual, and various profession-specific solutions.
This move is a blow to professional users—such as doctors, lawyers, and law enforcement—who depended on Dragon for dictating to their Macs, but the community most significantly affected are those who can control their Macs only with their voices.
- So in such instances, the various transcription software available come to rescue. This software mainly performs speech to text conversion making your job a whole lot easier. Here are Top 10 Transcription Software for Mac. Express Scribe Express Scribe is designed considering the needs of Mac users.
- Download the latest version of Speech To Text for Mac - Turn speech into text. Read 0 user reviews of Speech To Text on MacUpdate.
- Text-to-Speech SDK for Mac OS v.3.5 Aimed at helping software developers add text-to-speech functionality to their applications. Digital Future Text-to-Speech SDK is the only true OS native (no COM/ActiveX, no client-server, etc overheads) cross-platform provider-independent.
What about Apple’s built-in accessibility solutions? macOS does support voice dictation, although my experience is that it’s not even as good as dictation in iOS, much less Dragon Professional Individual. Some level of voice control of the Mac is also available via Dictation Commands, but again, it’s not as powerful as what was available from Dragon Professional Individual.
TidBITS reader Todd Scheresky is a software engineer who relies on Dragon Professional Individual for his work because he’s a quadriplegic and has no use of his arms. He has suggested several ways that Apple needs to improve macOS speech recognition to make it a viable alternative to Dragon Professional Individual:
- Support for user-added custom words: Every profession has its own terminology and jargon, which is part of why there are legal, medical, and law enforcement versions of Dragon for Windows. Scheresky isn’t asking Apple to provide such custom vocabularies, but he needs to be able to add custom words to the vocabulary to carry out his work.
- Support for speaker-dependent continuous speech recognition: Currently, macOS’s speech recognition is speaker-independent, which means that it works pretty well for everyone. But Scheresky believes it needs to become speaker-dependent, so it can learn from your corrections to improve recognition accuracy. Also, Apple’s speech recognition isn’t continuous—it works for only a few minutes before stopping and needing to be reinvoked.
- Support for cursor positioning and mouse button events: Although Scheresky acknowledges that macOS’s Dictation Commands are pretty good and provide decent support for text cursor positioning, macOS has nothing like Nuance’s MouseGrid, which divides the screen into a 3-by-3 grid and enables the user to zoom in to a grid coordinate, then displaying another 3-by-3 grid to continue zooming. Nor does Apple have anything like Nuance’s mouse commands for moving and clicking the mouse pointer.
When Scheresky complained to Apple’s accessibility team about macOS’s limitations, they suggested the Switch Control feature, which enables users to move the pointer (along with other actions) by clicking a switch. He talks about this in a video.
Unfortunately, although Switch Control would let Scheresky control a Mac using a sip-and-puff switch or a head switch, such solutions would be both far slower than voice and a literal pain in the neck. There are some better alternatives for mouse pointer positioning:
- Dedicated software, in the form of a $35 app called iTracker.
- An off-the-shelf hack using Keyboard Maestro and Automator.
- An expensive head-mounted pointing device, although the SmartNav is $600 and the HeadMouse Nano and TrackerPro are both about $1000. It’s also not clear how well they interface with current versions of macOS.
![Free Free](/uploads/1/1/8/1/118138484/583708832.jpg)
Regardless, if Apple enhanced macOS’s voice recognition in the ways Scheresky suggests, it would become significantly more useful and would give users with physical limitations significantly more control over their Macs… and their lives. If you’d like to help, Scheresky suggests submitting feature request feedback to Apple with text along the following lines (feel free to copy and paste it):
Speech To Text Software For Mac Free Software
Because Nuance has discontinued Dragon Professional Individual for Mac, it is becoming difficult for disabled users to use the Mac. Please enhance macOS speech recognition to support user-added custom words, speaker-dependent continuous speech recognition that learns from user corrections to improve accuracy, and cursor positioning and mouse button events.
Thank you for your consideration!
Speech To Text Software For Mac Freeware
Thanks for encouraging Apple to bring macOS’s accessibility features up to the level necessary to provide an alternative to Dragon Professional Individual for Mac. Such improvements will help both those who face physical challenges to using the Mac and those for whom dictation is a professional necessity.
Speech To Text Software For Mac Free
When we are dealing with a significant amount of audio or video data, it is not that easy to hear them out and then convert them into text. The transcription task gets complicated as we may be dealing with different dialects and at times noisy data.
So in such instances, the various transcription software available come to rescue. This software mainly performs speech to text conversion making your job a whole lot easier. Here are Top 10 Transcription Software for Mac.
Using the free version, you can use the standard audio formats such as wav, mp3, wma, and dct. By upgrading to the professional version, you can get proprietary format support.
It supports both audio and video playback and plays formats including encrypted dictation files. You can also use professional USB foot pedals to control playback. This transcription software automatically receives and loads files by the internet (FTP), email or over a local computer network.
It also works with speech recognition software to automatically convert speech to text. Using the plug and play foot pedal, you can make your foot control the playback as you type, which can help you increase your typing speed. You can also load CD audio and start working as the audio loads.
Express Scribe Basic costs $29.99, and Professional version costs $34.99.
There are options to save the document and to insert shortcuts and snippets. Using snippets, you can add frequently used words in a single click. With Inqscribe, you can create a subtitled QuickTime movie or even print the transcripts. You can add time codes to jump to a particular point in the film clip.
The single license costs $99, but students and staff can get a maximum of up to $60 off on discounts.
You can also customize words for the terms you use every day, insert text or graphics that are often used and create command shortcuts for repetitive tasks. You can also transcribe voice memos from your smartphone or portable voice recorder, podcasts or audio files of any single speaker’s voice to text quickly.
It is capable of advanced customization features so that it adapts well to even the most industry-specific terminology that you use every day. It can transcribe all commonly used formats like .mp3 aif, .aiff , .wav, .mp4, .m4a, .m4v. For accurate transcription, it can also capture notes.
Data available from call centers can be analyzed using these. First, the audio segments that contain the speech are identified followed by the language. Then, the text to speech conversion is done.
It has adaptive features that can distinguish voices even if some background music is playing and is capable of converting them into text. VoxSigma outputs an XML document with annotations including speech and non-speech segments, speaker labels, and words with time codes, high-quality confidence scores, and punctuation. This XML file can be converted into plain text.
It allows you to play back your transcripts when you're done transcribing. It also comes with foot pedal support to ease things for you. And apart from this, there are so many customization features available to fit each user needs.
It supports up to six speech profiles and guarantees accuracy to six different voices. It also allows transcription from audio recordings on Mac, iPhone, and other digital voice recorders. It doesn't require much time to be spent on training as it quickly adapts to different sounds. It is also sensitive towards 13 different English dialects.
So in such instances, the various transcription software available come to rescue. This software mainly performs speech to text conversion making your job a whole lot easier. Here are Top 10 Transcription Software for Mac.
1. Express Scribe
Express Scribe is designed considering the needs of Mac users. The user can control the audio playback using a transcription foot pedal or by using the keyboard. Express Scribe also offers many other functionalities such as variable speed playback, multi-channel control, playing video, file management, and much more.Using the free version, you can use the standard audio formats such as wav, mp3, wma, and dct. By upgrading to the professional version, you can get proprietary format support.
It supports both audio and video playback and plays formats including encrypted dictation files. You can also use professional USB foot pedals to control playback. This transcription software automatically receives and loads files by the internet (FTP), email or over a local computer network.
It also works with speech recognition software to automatically convert speech to text. Using the plug and play foot pedal, you can make your foot control the playback as you type, which can help you increase your typing speed. You can also load CD audio and start working as the audio loads.
Express Scribe Basic costs $29.99, and Professional version costs $34.99.
2. Inqscribe
You can download and install this transcription software for free, or register for a 14-day trial or get the paid version for lifetime use. You can play audio and video in almost all popular formats. Using USB foot pedal, the control playback is smoother.There are options to save the document and to insert shortcuts and snippets. Using snippets, you can add frequently used words in a single click. With Inqscribe, you can create a subtitled QuickTime movie or even print the transcripts. You can add time codes to jump to a particular point in the film clip.
The single license costs $99, but students and staff can get a maximum of up to $60 off on discounts.
3. Dragon
Dragon is designed specifically to help you create documents, spreadsheets or presentations faster. It is useful for sending emails and for filling out forms. The transcription by Dragon is very accurate.You can also customize words for the terms you use every day, insert text or graphics that are often used and create command shortcuts for repetitive tasks. You can also transcribe voice memos from your smartphone or portable voice recorder, podcasts or audio files of any single speaker’s voice to text quickly.
It is capable of advanced customization features so that it adapts well to even the most industry-specific terminology that you use every day. It can transcribe all commonly used formats like .mp3 aif, .aiff , .wav, .mp4, .m4a, .m4v. For accurate transcription, it can also capture notes.
4. VoxSigma Speech to Text
VoxSigma is equipped with extensive vocabulary multilingual speech-to-text capabilities. Keeping in mind the needs of professional users, it can transcribe even clips with slight noises. And it is useful in the text to speech conversion of large quantities of audio and video documents such as broadcast data, either in batch mode or in real-time.Data available from call centers can be analyzed using these. First, the audio segments that contain the speech are identified followed by the language. Then, the text to speech conversion is done.
It has adaptive features that can distinguish voices even if some background music is playing and is capable of converting them into text. VoxSigma outputs an XML document with annotations including speech and non-speech segments, speaker labels, and words with time codes, high-quality confidence scores, and punctuation. This XML file can be converted into plain text.
5. Transcriva
The biggest charm of Transcriva is its usability. You can organize your transcripts all in one place. It also adjusts itself with variable speed audios for accurate transcription. You can further print your transcripts or export them as RTF or Word documents for editing, sharing, and publication.It allows you to play back your transcripts when you're done transcribing. It also comes with foot pedal support to ease things for you. And apart from this, there are so many customization features available to fit each user needs.
6. ATMac
ATMac can be used to write your emails, for chatting and for other text to speech needs. It is capable of identifying many English dialects and accents including American, Northern Ireland, Southern, Australian, British, Indian and much more.7. iSay
iSay has a clean interface to give the users a positive transcription experience. You can use them for emails and other notes. And there are hotkeys to speed up transcription process. It was also compatible with cell phones.8. Mac Speech Scribe
Mac Speech Scribe gives excellent accuracy in converting audio files. It avoids typos and misspelled words. Simply open the file and click on the Transcribe button. Your work is done!It supports up to six speech profiles and guarantees accuracy to six different voices. It also allows transcription from audio recordings on Mac, iPhone, and other digital voice recorders. It doesn't require much time to be spent on training as it quickly adapts to different sounds. It is also sensitive towards 13 different English dialects.