User Guide/SPExL/Transcription Script

The 'Transcription' script is a tool in STx specifically written for transcribing sound files. The idea is to make transcribing as simple and efficient as possible. In addition to using the mouse, you can do the transcribing with the keyboard alone. The hotkeys are user-definable.

You will find it in the bottom left-hand corner of the Workspace where it is called Transcription.

When starting the Transcription script, you must select the sound file in the Workspace you wish to transcribe. This is unlike the analysis profiles, which analyse a segment. The following dialog will then appear.

Spectrogram / Waveform Views

You can display either a spectrogram or a waveform of the sound file (or both). There three different combinations available:

Whole file as waveform, with section as spectrogram

This view displays a waveform of the whole file and a spectrogram of a section of that file. This means that you can see all the segments in the file in the waveform graph. Navigating around the file in the waveform, you can then view a section of it as a spectrogram (e.g. with the hotkey 'S'). When starting the transcription script, choose wave overview & spg. section.

Section of file as waveform

This is the fastest view, displaying a section of the sound file as a waveform. The whole of the file is available to scroll through. When starting the transcription script, choose wave only. The length of signal displayed is specified by the scrollbar Length value in the start-up dialog. You can then scroll through the sound file using, for example, the hotkeys 'M' (forwards) and 'N' (backwards).

Section of file as synchronised waveform and spectrogram

This view displays a section of the sound file as both a waveform and a spectrogram. The waveform and spectrogram are time-aligned. The initial length of analysed signal is determined by the Length value in the start-up dialog. You can zoom in and out of the signal as well as scroll through the whole sound file.

Note that the Fixed checkbox will mean you can zoom into a signal, but cannot zoom out to display more of the signal than the length specified by 'Length'.

Dialog Description

timebar

The timebar lets you scroll through the sound file.

• The |< button scrolls back to the beginning of the file.
• The < button scrolls back one step.
• The > button scrolls forward one step.
• The >| button scrolls to the end of the file.
• The Play button plays the whole signal currently loaded from disk.
• The <Seg and Seg> buttons scrolls to the previous and next segments outside of the current loaded signal. This can be useful, if you have a long file with few segments in it.

See Scrolling for further details.

spec.

The spec. area of the dialog is only enabled if the spectrogram graph (wave & spg. section or wave overview & spg. section view) is being used. Choose the 1st or 2nd frame settings specified in the Spectrogram Display and Parameter Setup.

Scrolling

Since displaying a long sound file can take a while, it can be useful to load only part of the sound file. This is achieved with scrolling in the wave only and wave & spg. section views. The lowest graph displays the section of the sound file which is loaded (purple) and visible (brown).

Note that the wave overview & spg. section view always loads the whole sound file.

F0 / Formant Extraction

You can display the F0 and formants in the spectrogram by pressing the button. The settings for extraction are in the F0 / Formant Extraction Settings dialog reached by pressing the 'f0/for' button .

Settings

There are many settings you can change via the Settings dialog reached by the 'main' button, or the 'settings->setup dialog' context menu.

Hotkeys

Many operations are available using hotkeys. As of version 1.1, these hotkeys can be changed by the user by modifying the 'spexl_segtrans.hotkeys' file. The default hotkeys are defined in the file 'spexl_segtrans.hotkeys.default'.

Note that unless otherwise specified (e.g. with 'Shift'), all hotkeys are lowercase.

Analyze Hotkeys

Ctrl+N	Select a viewer and profile to analyze the signal between the cursors with (opens new window).
Ctrl+A	Analyze the signal between the cursors with the viewer/profile which was used last.

Cursor Hotkeys

Key	Description
B	Move the cursors to the selected segment.
D	Move left cursor to the left.
F	Move left cursor to the right.
E	Move left cursor to the left in large steps.
R	Move left cursor to the right in large steps.
J	Move right cursor to the left.
K	Move right cursor to the right.
U	Move right cursor to left in large steps.
I	Move right cursor to right in large steps.
L	Flip left cursor around right cursor.
Shift + L	Flip right cursor around left cursor.
Ctrl + Y	Rotate through the available cursor styles.

Playback Hotkeys

Escape	Stops playback
Space	Play between the cursors
A	Play all of signal in waveform window
O	Play all of the signal from the right-hand cursor to end of waveform window
P	Play the selected segment
W	Play all of signal up to the left-hand cursor

Scrollbar Hotkeys

The length scrolled is defined when the transcription script starts up (Scrollbar Step (%)).

Ctrl + G	Jump top a position specified in seconds
M	Scroll forward
N	Scroll backwards

Segment Hotkeys

Shift + B	Move the selected segment to the cursor positions.
Enter	Create new segment between the cursors.

Segment List Hotkeys

Ctrl + R	Open the segment list sort order dialog.
Ctrl + Numpad Plus	Resize all columns to fit their content

Spectrogram Hotkeys

Shift + Add	Increase amplitude floor.
Shift + Subtract	Decrease amplitude floor.

Zoom Hotkeys

Y	Zoom in on the x axis around the mid point between the cursors.
Q	Zoom out on the x axis around the mid point between the cursors.
Ctrl + Add	Zoom in on the y axis around the active cursor
Ctrl + Subtract	Zoom out on the y axis around the active cursor
V	Zoom between cursors on the x axis
Shift + V	Zoom between cursors on the y axis. Note that this only works if the cursor style allows y axis positioning.
G	Zoom in around the left-hand cursor.
T	Zoom out around the left-hand cursor.
H	Zoom in around the right-hand cursor.
Z	Zoom out around the right-hand cursor.
X	Reset the zoom

Misc Hotkeys

Key	Description
S	Redraw the spectragraph graph showing the signal between the cursors in the waveform graph. This is only relevant for the waveform overview & spg. section view.
TAB	If a graph is currently active, move the focus to the next graph. If the dialog is active, move the focus to the next control.
Ctrl+TAB	Move the focus from the dialog to the graphs, or vica versa.

Versions

Note that versions > 1.0 require STx >= 4.4

1.1.7

• bugfix: the /U ASegTemplate flag is now respected, and, if used, the last entered value for a segment attribute is used as the default for the next new segment.

1.1.5

• bugfix: segment placement algorithm no longer drawing segments off screen.
• bugfix: moving scrollbar no longer generates an error message in the log window.

Download Transcription script downloads.