How to: Record Transcriptions

Article
08/18/2014

This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

Use the Recording Tool in Speech Prompt Editor to record prompt transcriptions as .wav files and store them in a Speech Server prompt database.

Opening the Recording Tool

To open the Recording Tool

Open Speech Prompt Editor, and then add transcriptions.
On the Prompt menu, click Recording Tool.

Recording Transcriptions

To record transcriptions

Open the Recording Tool, and then click Record.
Speak the transcription into the microphone, and then click Stop.
Click Play to review the recording, click Record to re-record the transcription, or click Next to select the next unrecorded transcription for recording.

Speech Prompt Editor automatically generates alignments when it records the file.

Note

Authors should add at least 40 milliseconds of silence at the end of recordings. If Speech Server plays audio that does not have any silence at the end, it stretches the audio, resulting in unpleasant sounds.

To re-record transcriptions

In Speech Prompt Editor, open an existing prompt database.

For more information, see How to: Open a Prompt Database.
On the Speech Prompt Editor toolbar, click Recording Tool.
Click the appropriate transcription, and then click Record.
Speak the transcription into the microphone, and then click Stop.

Changing Recording Options

The Options dialog box for Speech Prompt Editor contains important settings that control how the Recording Tool records .wav files.

To open the Options dialog box for Speech Prompt Editor

Open a prompt project.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
In the tree view pane, expand the Speech Application SDK node, and then click Prompt Editor.

Note

Use volume normalization to make recordings sound more natural when they are made at different volumes and then concatenated. Open the project properties dialog box by right-clicking the prompt project in Solution Explorer and clicking Properties. The available options are to either maximize the peak for each wave or adjust the average energy in each wave to match a specific recording. To match a recording, select Match to promptdb recording, browse to a .promptdb file, and then enter the name of a .wav audio file within the prompt file. Note that .wav file names are visible in Speech Prompt Editor. The next time the project is built, the volume of the audio in the output .prompts file is normalized based on the selected .wav file.

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