Convert Voice, Audio, and Video to Text for Free | Speech to Text Tutorial

Here is a writeup of the Speech to Text Converter software software on our website.
https://onlinecomputertips.com/support-categories/software/convert-voice-audio-video-to-text/

Need to transcribe a voice recording, an audio file, or even a video into text without paying for an expensive service? In this tutorial, we show you how to use a free Speech to Text converter that works with your microphone and existing media files. We explore both the installable and portable versions of the tool and demonstrate how to get the best accuracy when recording your own voice. There are also options for speech engines such as IBM Cloud API, Azure API, OpenAI API and Deepgram API.

We also cover how to leverage Windows' built-in continuous dictation (Win + H) within the app to add punctuation like periods and question marks in real-time. Whether you're transcribing a lecture, an interview, or just dictating notes, this guide provides the tips you need, including how to avoid cutting off your recordings and how to handle running sentences.

0:00 Introduction: Free Speech to Text Options
0:35 Standalone vs. Installable Versions (Portable Guide)
1:00 Navigating the "Nag Screen" and Licensing
1:25 Offline vs. Subscription API Options (OpenAI, Deepgram)
1:50 Tips for Recording: Speaking Slowly and Using Pauses
2:10 Live Demo: Recording and Converting Your Voice
2:50 Troubleshooting: How to Prevent Audio Cut-offs
3:40 Transcribing Video Files (MP4) to Text
4:20 Transcribing Audio Files (MP3) to Text
4:50 Using Windows Continuous Dictation (Win + H) with Punctuation
5:50 Saving Your Transcriptions as Text Files
6:30 Summary and Final Transcription Tips

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1 - Download the Tool: Choose between the Installable version or the Standalone (Portable) version. The portable version is great for testing as it doesn't require a full installation.
2 - Record Your Voice: Go to the Offline tab and click the Record button. Speak clearly and slowly, making sure to pause for a second between sentences to help the software separate them.
3 - Stop and Convert: Wait 2-3 seconds after you finish speaking before clicking Stop. This ensures the end of your recording isn't cut off. Click Convert to generate the text.
4 - Transcribe Existing Files: Click the Folder icon to load an MP3, WAV, or MP4 file. Once loaded, click Convert to see the transcription in the main text box.
5 - Use Continuous Dictation: For real-time typing with punctuation, click inside the text box and press Windows Key + H. Speak naturally and say "period" or "question mark" to add punctuation.
6 - Edit and Proofread: Free transcription tools are rarely 100% accurate. Always review the generated text to fix any misheard words or formatting issues.
7 - Save Your Work: Use the Save icon at the top or bottom of the window to export your transcription as a .txt file, or simply copy and paste the text into Word or Notepad.

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Closed Caption:

[Music]
hi in this video we're going to show you
a free tool you could use to convert
speech and also audio and video
recordings into text so it's called
Speech to Text converter so there are
two versions there's the free version
and then there's also a pay for version
if you don't want to see the nag screen
and you want to get updates and that
type of thing and there's also two ways
to use it there is an installable
version that you install like any other
type of program or there's a standalone
version where you just download the zip
file and extract it and run the
executable and that's what I'm going to
be using here so open it
up so here's the nag scen you're going
to have to look
at so the more times you open it in one
day or in a short period of time uh
you're going to have that countdown
otherwise you just have to click on the
continue button here and then you could
buy it from here and enter your key if
you do buy it all right so it's broken
down into to these tabs here so here's
the offline version where you could use
just your microphone and we have these
other options here so these are going to
be more of a subscription account so
you're going to need to have an account
with these and able to use these
different search engines you know even
open Ai and deep gr API and then this is
part of Windows here so you can actually
use this as well which we'll get to in a
second all right so you could record
audio so when you record the audio it'll
automatically save it as a audio file
and then you could convert it from here
or you could load your audio file later
and then convert it so when speaking
into this um it's not like on your
smartphone where it's going to do
punctuation or you could say you know
period or question mark and I'll
actually put that in it's just basic
text and what I've noticed too is that
you need to speak slowly and clearly and
then pause between sentences and then
it'll put them on a separate line
otherwise you might run into a problem
of um sentences that are just running
together all right so let's just check
out the record option here first then
we'll load some files and have it
translated for
us I am now recording my voice and I
will pause after each
sentence now I'm going to start a new
sentence and then I'm going to finish
with a third and final
sentence so you can see it makes the
audio file here which you could actually
play I am now recording my voice and I
will pause after each and then it
automatically loads it here and then you
could click on the convert
button and you can see here one problem
I've noticed too is you need to kind of
let it record after you stop your last
sentence to let it finish so if you if
you're done speaking then you press stop
right away it might cut it off
right so let's try a new one here I am
going to record my voice for the second
time
here I am now going to speak my second
sentence I will now speak my third
sentence and then pause before I click
on
stop all right let's try it
out all right so you can see worked much
better there and actually kept all of
the uh audio that I recorded and didn't
cut it
off okay so now let's um try a couple
files here so I have this video file
here of a
speech Just clear this out
here load this file
here play it real quick just for a
second themselves to criticism of the
way other
okay let's convert it
here all right so it did a pretty good
job there of course you'll have to proof
it to make sure everything was
translated
correctly let's clear this out now we'll
load the audio file the MP3
file so it's the same thing it's just
just in an audio format instead of a
video format so we'll convert
it all right so you can see that worked
pretty good
too C this out again all right now let's
try the continuous dictation so the
first time you do this uh Windows might
ask you to set up the speech recognition
on your computer so if you haven't done
that already you might have to go
through
that and so if that record button
doesn't show up on top here you could
close and reopen it or you should be
able to press Windows key H to bring up
the microphone click in the Box press
record
here okay so now it is listening to my
voice and hopefully it will type it in
the box when everything is
done you can see there's a little delay
there
let's see if punctuation works
period does everything look good
question
mark so you could see this way you could
actually add your punctuation
period if we want to save this we could
do this save it as a text file let's
call this test
just like that and of course you could
just copy and paste it into whatever you
like and then up here you have a couple
options to load and save same thing you
could do from
here record and
convert for some reason the settings
doesn't seem to do anything at least for
me options and then
help all right so as you can see it
works pretty well uh like I said before
the only iffy part is when you're just
doing the recording from here just make
sure you speak slowly and clearly and
pause between each sentence and then
click on stop you know a few seconds
after you stop talking to make sure
everything works correctly all right
I'll put a link in the description where
you can download speech to text
converter and then you can try it
yourself all right thanks for watching
and be sure to subscribe
[Music]