Teach Yourself Tape Transcription for Beginners: Tips and Services

I want to teach myself tape transcription! How should I learn it?

This article explains how to teach yourself tape transcription, which means writing out audio from meetings, interviews, and similar recordings as text.

• I want to transcribe my own meetings and interviews
• I want to teach myself tape transcription and start a side job

For people like you, this article introduces the basics of tape transcription and recommended tools.

It also explains AI tools that can transcribe audio into text automatically.

Why not use this article as a guide and teach yourself tape transcription?

A Recommended AI Transcription Service for Meetings and Interviews

If you plan to transcribe meetings or interviews yourself, there is a service I recommend!

It is the AI transcription service “Mr. Transcription”.

“Mr. Transcription” is a web service that uses the latest speech recognition AI to transcribe audio files and videos quickly and accurately.

The AI transcribes automatically, so you can transcribe easily without teaching yourself tape transcription.

It can also turn audio with many speakers, such as meetings, into text smoothly.

It is also a good choice if you use it only for verbatim transcription (suokoshi) and do the rest of the editing yourself.

On top of that, “Mr. Transcription” is free!

Free members can transcribe up to 10 minutes per day, so if you are thinking of teaching yourself tape transcription, why not try “Mr. Transcription” first?

Basics for Teaching Yourself Tape Transcription

First, let us go over the basics you should know when you teach yourself tape transcription.

What Is Tape Transcription?

Tape transcription means turning recorded audio into written text, such as meetings, interviews, lectures, speeches, medical examinations, and counseling sessions.

You cannot check the contents of an audio file by looking at it as it is.

It is also very inconvenient to look for the content you need.

By writing the content out as text, you can keep it as a record, use it as a database, and make it more convenient to use.

For example, if you create meeting minutes from a recording of a meeting, you can check what was discussed more easily.

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Tape Transcription, Moji-okoshi, and Kaki-okoshi

Why is it called “tape transcription”?

Turning recorded audio into text is called “tape transcription” (tepu-okoshi) because people used to record on tapes such as cassette tapes.

Today we use smartphones and IC recorders instead of tapes, but the name remains in common use as a remnant of the old days.

Turning recorded audio into text is also called “moji-okoshi” or “kaki-okoshi”.

• Tape transcription (tepu-okoshi)
• Moji-okoshi
• Kaki-okoshi

You can consider these to be words with the same meaning.

Types of Tape Transcription

Tape transcription falls into three main types.

• Verbatim transcription (suokoshi)
• Clean verbatim transcription (kebatori)
• Edited transcription (seibun)

This is knowledge you should definitely remember, especially if you are teaching yourself tape transcription for a side job.

* This article also explains them in detail.

What Are the Differences Between Suokoshi, Kebatori, and Seibun? A Full Guide to the 3 Transcription Styles

A thorough guide to the differences between suokoshi, kebatori, and seibun. Choose the right transcription style to work efficiently, cut work time with AI, and find the best method for each purpose.

1. Verbatim Transcription (Suokoshi)

Verbatim transcription (suokoshi) means transcribing everything in the audio file, including parts not directly related to its actual content, such as slips of the tongue and moments when the speaker got stuck.

For example:

Um, let's start the meeting. Well, about today's agenda, Mr. Tanaka, do you have the materials? Oh, yes. Here they are. Today, after you report on the sales of last month's new product, yes, we plan to talk about, um, how to promote it effectively online.

As in this example, you transcribe everything, including meaningless words such as “um,” “well,” and “yes.”

* Meaningless words like these are also called “fillers.”

At first glance this may look wasteful, but because the transcriber's own subjective judgment does not enter the text, it is a very important task when you want to record the content exactly.

AI transcription services are very good at this verbatim transcription.

When you want to transcribe efficiently, you can also use an AI transcription service for verbatim transcription only and do the “clean verbatim” and “edited transcription” steps explained next by hand.

2. Clean Verbatim Transcription (Kebatori)

Clean verbatim transcription (kebatori) means removing meaningless words from a transcribed text to tidy it up in a simple way.

Let's start the meeting. About today's agenda, Mr. Tanaka, do you have the materials? Here they are. Today, after you report on the sales of last month's new product, we plan to talk about how to promote it effectively online.

As in this example, meaningless words (fillers) such as “um,” “well,” and “yes” are gone, which makes the text easier to read.

Because it produces easy-to-read text while keeping the flow of the recorded content, it is a method that is used very often in tape transcription.

3. Edited Transcription (Seibun)

Edited transcription (seibun) means rewriting and editing the content of a transcribed text into easier-to-read expressions without changing its meaning.

For example:

Let's start the meeting. Mr. Tanaka, do you have the materials? Here they are. The agenda for today is a report on the sales of last month's new product and effective ways to promote it online.

As in this example, the recorded content is the same, but the text is converted into a polite style and unnecessary parts are removed, so that it becomes an even easier-to-read text.

In some cases, a text transcribed all the way to the edited stage is kept as the final record.

How Can You Teach Yourself Tape Transcription?

I want to know specific self-study methods!

Here are the recommended ways to teach yourself tape transcription!

1. Build Your Typing Skills

To transcribe smoothly, typing speed and accuracy are very important.

If you are not confident in your typing, start by building your typing skills.

We recommend practicing until you can touch type, which means typing on the keyboard without looking at your hands.

There are also free typing games on the internet, so please try them.

How to Practice Efficient Transcription (Tape Transcription) [Recommended Exercises Included]

For people who want to improve their transcription skills, this article introduces efficient practice methods and recommended texts and courses. It also summarizes sites where you can get audio material for practice and typing training tools.

2. Practice While Listening to Audio

Once your typing skills are good enough, start practicing tape transcription by typing on the keyboard while listening to actual audio.

Practice is the only way to improve at tape transcription.

The more you practice, the faster and more accurate your tape transcription becomes.

As study material for teaching yourself tape transcription, YouTube videos on a subject that interests you are ideal.

We recommend starting with verbatim transcription (suokoshi), in which you also transcribe meaningless words such as “um” and “uh.”

3. If Transcription Does Not Go Well, Try Lowering the Playback Speed

If you cannot keep up with typing while listening to the audio, try lowering the playback speed.

We recommend studying at a slow speed at first, putting priority on transcribing accurately.

Lowering the playback speed is a technique that is also often used when transcribing in actual work.

4. Practice Clean Verbatim Transcription (Kebatori) Too

If you are going to teach yourself tape transcription from now on, we recommend studying not only verbatim transcription but also clean verbatim transcription.

AI transcription services are already being used more and more for verbatim transcription.

By teaching yourself the know-how of clean verbatim transcription as well, you can acquire a skill with added value that goes beyond simply writing out the contents of a tape as it is.

5. Reading Every Day Is Important for Teaching Yourself Edited Transcription (Seibun)

If you teach yourself tape transcription, it is of course best to be able to do edited transcription as well.

However, unlike verbatim and clean verbatim transcription, edited transcription requires the skill of writing text yourself.

To teach yourself edited transcription, it is not enough to type out recorded audio on the keyboard; it is important to read a wide variety of texts and broaden your stock of expressions.

For example, if you are teaching yourself business-related tape transcription, we recommend reading economics magazines, newspapers, and websites, as well as news releases and press releases from various companies.

Copying out a text by hand while looking at it is also good training for improving your writing skills on your own.

6. Look into Tools That Make Tape Transcription More Convenient

Alongside teaching yourself how to transcribe by typing on the keyboard, we also recommend gathering information about tools that make tape transcription more convenient and faster.

For example, with the latest AI transcription service “Mr. Transcription”, you can transcribe a long audio file in about one minute.

The purpose of tape transcription is not to turn audio into text, but to make the content of the audio usable as data.

By learning about related tools and jobs, you can step up from being “a person who transcribes” to an even more valuable professional such as “a person who turns interviews into articles” or “a person who edits meeting minutes”!

A Recommended AI Transcription Tool That Is Essential for Tape Transcription from Now On

“Mr. Transcription” is an AI transcription tool we especially want people who are teaching themselves tape transcription to check out!

“Mr. Transcription” uses the latest AI to transcribe audio files with high accuracy in a short time.

Even long files can be transcribed at super high speed in only about one minute, so tape transcription work that used to take hours becomes many times faster!

If you want to turn meetings or interviews into text, we recommend using “Mr. Transcription” from now on.

You can try it free for up to 3 minutes per day without registering, and free members can transcribe up to 10 minutes per day, so why not try free AI tape transcription with “Mr. Transcription” first?

If You Teach Yourself Tape Transcription, Learning About AI Tools Is Also Recommended!

Summarizing meeting minutes and interviews in text is a skill that will continue to be widely in demand.

However, by learning not only to write out audio but also how to organize it into useful “information”, you can increase your own value and take on a wider range of side jobs.

For tape transcription from now on, we recommend using AI transcription tools.

If you are thinking of teaching yourself tape transcription, why not also learn how to use AI transcription tools?