Tutorial for transcribing plurilingual and multimodal data: PREPARING FOR TRANSCRIPTION

Get to it!

Deciding what to transcribe

Get to it!

Annotating audio or video

Resources

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Synchronising audio and video

If you have used both an audio and a video recorder, you might find that the sound quality from the audio recorder is better than from the video recorder. In this case, before transcribing, it is highly recommended that you add the better audio to the video. In order to make this process easier, remember the recommendation from the RECORDING section about clapping your hands once whenever you have two or more recorders running. This is now our synchronisation point.

Remember never to delete your original files. You never know when you will need them.

GET TO IT: Synchronising audio and video

The process explained uses two very useful programs for researchers working with audio and video: Audacity (free) and QuickTime Pro (under €30 and well worth it). You should be able to carry out similar processes with other programs available.

Step 1: Cut the audio

NOTE: Often the sound files that audio recorders generate are not compatible with QuickTime Pro. If you are able to open your audio file withQuickTime Pro, you can cut it following the instructions for cutting video. If not, use Audacity to cut it and export it in a format that QuickTime will accept.

1. Open Audacity. Select file → open. Search for the audio file you would like to add to your video. The program imports the file and creates a soundwave.

2. We need to cut the audio so that it starts right on the clap of your hands. To do this, click the button that looks like a double sided T (circled in the image). Then, hold down the mouse button and drag it across the soundwave to select the part you want to eliminate (everything before the clap). You can zoom in to be more precise. Then, click edit → cut.

3. Once the soundwave starts and ends exactly where you want it to, select file → export (we recommend you export as .wav as this will be compatible with QuickTime Pro and most other video editing programs). Say where you want to save the cut audio.

Step 2: Cut the video

1.Open QuickTime Pro. Select file → open. Search for the video file you would like to add your audio to.

2. To cut part of the video, click your mouse and drag it along the time bar to select the part of the video that you want to delete. Then selectedit → cut.

3. Finally, click file → save and the program will create a .mov file where you tell it to.

Step 3: Add the audio to the video

1. Open the new audio file with QuickTime Pro.

2. Select all the audio by clicking edit → select all (ctrl-a) and copy it by clicking edit → copy (ctrl+c).

3. Now open the new video file with QuickTime Pro.

4. Place your cursor at the very beginning of the player bar. Select edit → add to movie (→+ctrl+v).By doing this, you have added your new soundtrack to the video.

5. Finally, you need to delete the old audio from the video. Select window → show movie properties (ctrl+j). Select soundtrack 1, and click delete.

6. Save the synchronised file, ready for transcribing.

DECIDING WHAT TO TRANSCRIBE

Although it might suit you to work through your audio or video files and take notes about interesting fragments using pen and paper, a word processor, etc., to later transcribe those fragments, it is recommendable to digitalise the process using specialised programs to help you find the fragments easily later on. The process that we will explain uses ELAN (free) to annotate your audio or video file.

GET TO IT: Annotating your audio or video

1. Open ELAN.

2. If it is the first time you are using ELAN, start by changing some of the program preferences. Select Edit → Preferences → Edit preferences → Editing. Click on all the options, then select Apply:

3. Click File → New. Find your audio or video file. Click on the arrow to it to your ELAN file, then ok. A window will open like the one below:

4. Save the ELAN (.eaf) file in the same place as your audio or video file.

5. Experiment with the buttons you have on the screen. What are they for?

6. Listen to/watch the audio/video. When you come to a fragment that could be interesting to transcribe later, select it by clicking your mouse and dragging it along the lower part of the screen. The part selected will be blue.

7. Click Annotation → New annotation here (alt+n). A box will open that we can write in. Take notes that will be useful later on to help you find the fragment and remember why you found it interesting during this first analysis.

8. Click enter and the comment will be saved.

9. Once you are done with this first analysis, you can export it, for example as a spreadsheet (e.g. Microsoft Excel) that will be useful as a data base. Select File → Export as → Tab-delimited text. The Output options that appear by default are fine. Click Ok and a .txt document will be created in the place indicated (this should be the same place as the .eaf, audio and video files).