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Free WAV to Text

WAV to Text

Add a WAV and WAV to text reads the recording with nothing lost to compression, returning a transcript with each passage placed.

  • Reads uncompressed audio as it stands
  • Any sample rate the recorder chose
  • Multi-channel files kept in order
  • Plain text at the end of it
Add a WAV File

What WAV to Text Gets to Work With

Nothing has been thrown away yet. That is both the advantage and the cost.

Most audio arrives having already been squeezed. A WAV does not: it holds the samples as they were captured, which is why field recorders, studio desks and anything that cares about quality write in it. WAV to text therefore starts from the best version of the speech anyone is going to have. The tax is size. An uncompressed hour is a large file, and moving it around is the part that takes planning, rather than the transcription itself.

What WAV to Text Handles

Six things that follow from working with uncompressed audio.

Read the samples as they are

Nothing is decompressed on the way in, because a WAV has no lossy layer to undo before the words can be read.

Take the rate the recorder chose

Telephony rates and studio rates are both handled, without asking for the file to be resampled first.

Keep channels in order

A multi-track WAV is read with its channels intact, which is the arrangement that helps most later on.

Separate the speakers

Separate microphones per voice give WAV to text an easy job, and the transcript says who said what.

Place each passage

Every block is marked with where it occurs, so a claim can be opened in the file rather than found by ear.

Return plain text

What comes out is ordinary text, ready to be cut down, quoted, or handed to whoever asked for a transcript.

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This is the file before anything was thrown away

Lossy formats decide in advance which detail a listener will not miss. Uncompressed audio makes no such decision, so consonants, breath and the small differences between similar names are all still present when the file arrives. WAV to text gets the benefit of that, which is why a recording made well tends to come back with fewer doubtful lines than a compressed copy of the same conversation.
Transcribe a WAV
Uncompressed audio retaining full detail
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Broadcast Wave carries its own start time

A WAV written by production kit is often not plain at all: it holds a header naming the take and a starting timecode set when recording began. That value is how a sound recordist's file is matched to a camera hours later. Anyone transcribing material from a shoot should look for it before assuming the file begins at zero.
Transcribe a WAV
Start timecode stored in a file header
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A higher sample rate is not more accuracy

Recorders offer 44.1, 48, 96 kHz and beyond, and it is tempting to assume the largest number transcribes best. Speech occupies a narrow band, and once that band is captured with room to spare, extra samples add nothing a transcriber can use. WAV to text gains far more from a microphone placed properly than from a number in a settings menu.
Transcribe a WAV
Sample rates compared for speech
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Size is the practical tax

Uncompressed audio runs to hundreds of megabytes an hour, and moving that across a domestic connection is the slowest stage by a distance. WAV to text then processes the file in the time it always takes. Knowing this changes the planning: the upload is the step worth starting early, not the transcription. Starting the transfer earlier is the whole of the planning that is required.
Transcribe a WAV
A large file being uploaded
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Multiple channels make attribution easy

A WAV can hold more than two channels, and in an interview recorded that way each participant tends to own one. The voices never actually mix, so the question of who was speaking has an unambiguous answer. WAV to text on that kind of file produces the cleanest attribution any workflow is likely to see.
Transcribe a WAV
Separate channels holding separate voices
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Studio audio is not automatically clear audio

A well-produced recording can still be difficult: a voice close to the microphone with heavy processing, a music bed sitting underneath, or a speaker deliberately kept low under an interview. The file being uncompressed does not make those passages easier. WAV to text will place them correctly, and leave deciding what was actually said where it belongs.
Transcribe a WAV
Processed studio audio under a voice

How to Convert WAV to Text

Three steps, none of which involve compressing the file.

Step 1

Add the WAV

Send the file over as it was recorded; at this stage no resampling or encoding step is asked for.

Step 2

Let the speech be read

WAV to text works through the recording and marks the position of every spoken passage it writes down.

Step 3

Check and take it

Settle the terms and the names, then move the finished text into whatever needed a written version.

Who Sends a WAV to Text

Four situations where the recording was made without compromise.

RB

Roland Bauer

Location Sound Recordist

Interview rushes come off the recorder uncompressed. WAV to text on the raw files gives the production a searchable log before the edit begins.

DR

Delphine Roux

Studio Producer

Sessions get transcribed from the multitrack rather than the mix. WAV to text keeps the channels separate, so nothing has to be guessed at afterwards.

KM

Kofi Mensah

Conference Interpreter

Talks recorded at 48 kHz arrive as WAV and are long. Having WAV to text means I can check a phrase against the original rather than rely on memory.

SL

Sara Lindgren

Archive Engineer

Our holdings are uncompressed masters. WAV to text gave us a text layer over material that previously had none, without touching the originals.

Questions About WAV to Text

File size, sample rates, channels and the text that comes back.

Send a WAV to Text Next

The uncompressed master already holds everything the speech needs, and WAV to text is what turns it into a page anyone can read.

Transcribe a WAV
WAV to Text

Nothing Lost on the Way In

The file keeps every sample it was recorded with, and WAV to text turns that detail into a transcript with its places marked.