I listen to podcasts. I watch videos. I watch podcasts of different languages. But more than anything I read and write. I practice languages. That’s just how I roll. And sometimes, my ramblings bring me as far as understanding English meaning of some specific kikuyu translation texts.
Frequently I want to save an audio snippet or video clip for future reference. Sure I could save the source media file, if I had unlimited disk space. But what I usually do is keep a link to the original source and text synopsis of the snippet. That both saves on storage and makes future searches for that particular item simpler.
If you’re like me, you really want the original text more than a synopsis. It take s a bit of extra effort, but I have a nice solution that uses only a Mac and open source software. Read below for instructions on converting an MP3 audio file to a text document.
The Best Free Transcription Software for Mac and PC 2021 This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info. In today’s post, I’ll be sharing my recommendations for the best free transcription software based on my experience as a professional audio transcriptionist. VoiceSys offers a free trial. VoiceSys is transcription software, and includes features such as archiving & retention, audio file management, audio transmission, transcription reporting, voice capture, and voice recognition. With regards to system requirements, VoiceSys is available as SaaS, Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android software. Upload audio files. Use VoiceboxMD's Medical Dictation Software on a Mac to upload your audio files and transcribe them into notes. A recorded conversation can be transcribed with-in minutes. TranscribeMe is an audio transcription software designed for the Mac platform and allows the user to enjoy simplicity when it comes to transcription of audio files. Essentially this software uses complex recognition softwares as well as human transcribers to bring quality transcriptions fast and at.
The Basics of Configuring Your Mac to Transcribe .MP3 Audio
Here’s what you need:
- The original media (.mp3 file, for example)
- Soundflower. Soundflower is an application that creates a virtual audio channel and directs audio input and output to physical or virtual devices.
- Audacity. Audacity is a free application for recording and editing sounds.
- TextEdit.app. TextEdit is the default text editor/word processor that is included in Mac OS X.
Follow the instructions on the developer websites to get all of the software installed and working on your system. Once you have the software installed, the next step is to configure your Mac to use Soundflower for dictation.
- Open System Preferences and click on “Dictation & Speech”
- Select the Dictation tab
- Select “Soundflower (2ch)” as the dictation input source
- Click Dictation to “On”
- Tick the “Use Enhanced Dictation” box
Your Mac is ready for dictation. When dictation is turned on in TextEdit (or a another word processing app), your Mac will transcribe sound from the Soundflower input source.
Getting Your Audio and Text Files Ready
Next, you need to queue up the audio file in Audacity and direct output to Soundflower. For those who are new to Audacity, this will be the trickiest step. But relax, you don’t need to learn much about Audacity beyond deciding what section of sound to play and how to select the audio output from the default speakers to Soundflower.
- Launch Audacity
- Import your audio file into audacity (File–> Import, or simply drag the file into the center of the Audacity screen.)
- Click the play button to give it a listen, then click stop once your confident you have the right sound clip/transcription area.
- Choose Audacity –> Preferences –> Devices. Under playback, choose “Soundflower (2ch)” to switch the output from the onboard speakers to Soundflower. Click “OK”
With Audacity and your sound file queued up, its time to turn your attention to TextEdit.
- Launch TextEdit
- Create a “New Document”
- You may want to add some meta data to the document, such as the podcast name, episode #, publish date and URL, to go along with the key transcript.
- Position the cursor in the file where you want the transcript to appear.
And … Action!
It’s time to start audio playback and dictation transcription. Here both sequence and timing are important:
- In Audacity, move the scrubber start location 10-15 seconds before the key transcription area.
- Press “Play.” The scrubber and meters will start moving, though you won’t hear any sound. The audio signal is going to Soundflower instead of to the speakers.
- Put focus on Text edit and position the cursor where you want the transcription to begin.
- Select Edit –> Start Dictation. (or use the hot key combination, Fn Fn). A microphone icon with a “Done” button will appear to the left of your document.
- Text will start appearing in the document. It will likely lag by about 3-5 seconds.
- After approximately 30 seconds press the “done” button. Transcription will continue until complete.
This is the fun part: watch as transcription happens in real time right in the document window. Look Ma, no hands!
And now you have the original text (and most likely a few errors) as text to save. In the future you can easily search and retrieve the information.
An Excellent Alternative: Google Docs Voice Typing
While the solution above works great for offline work, one alternative with a lot of promise is Google Docs. The Voice Typing feature work much like the dictation service in Mac OS. It has the crowdsourcing advantages and privacy disadvantages of other Google products. If you’re OK with that, I found Voice Typing to do an very good job with accuracy and it can go longer that Mac OS dictation.
To use Google Voice Typing, follow all of the steps above with Soundflower, Dictation preferences and configuring Audacity. Instead of using TextEdit, you’ll want to start the Chrome browser and create a Google Doc. Once you are in document, Select Tools –> Voice typing
The user interface and process of starting and stopping transcription is the same as with TextEdit.
Dictation and Transcription Limitations
This process sets you well on you way to the goal of a high fidelity audio transcription. But it will be short of perfect. Here’s what you can do to go from good to perfect:
- Understand that Mac OS dictation transcription works for a maximum of 30 seconds at a time. If you need longer, you may want to use an alternate technology such as Dragon.
- Audio playback needs to start before dictation/transcription begins in TextEdit. TextEdit needs to be in focus for dictation to work. If you set the Audacity scrubber a few seconds ahead of target snippet, you’ll be fine.
- Transcription cannot intuit punctuation. You’ll need to add that after the fact.
- If you have multiple speakers or a noisy background, you may need to complete one additional step of creating a pristine audio file to work from. This can be done by listening to the sound through headphones and speaking the text into an audio recorder. Use the recording of your voice to drive the transcription.
As is known to all, sound quality depends on how you record the audio, relating to the audio sample rate, sample format, bit depth, etc. It seems hard to save a flawed audio file without high-end recorders. But there is a trick for us to enjoy better audio even without recording it perfectly nor playing it with expensive headphones. We can boost sound quality by removing background noise, raising the volume, tweaking the audio fidelity, adding surround effects, etc. That is exactly where the audio enhancement software comes to help.
At the very beginning, we should make it clear that audio enhancement software is different from audio editing software. It doesn't export any edited audio. Instead, it works only when you are playing the audio on your device. Thus, it puts less burden on your computer specs. Today, we rounded up the top 11 audio enhancer software for Windows and Mac. As for the most concerning issues – price and operating system, we will mark them out for you. Check them now.
1. VideoProc Vlogger – Free Audio Enhancer for PC
Supported OS: Windows 11/10/8/7, Mac
Price: Free
Best for: Users of all levels
VideoProc Vlogger is a video editor designed for both video and audio editing. It has a powerful built-in audio editor regarded as an alternative to many professional audio editing programs.
The Audio Editor of VideoProc Vloggers provides multiple solutions to improve sound quality – boosting audio sound, enabling equalizer , applying audio filters, removing background noise, and add effects like BS2B, Echo, Reverb, and MVEffect. So regardless of problems in your audio file, you can fix them in a few clicks.
Pros:
- Self-explaining and beginner-friendly UI.
- Feature both presets and customizable settings for audio enhancement.
- Real-time preview of the audio editing outcomes.
- Fast and smooth performance on all recent computers.
- Export enhanced audio files in a lossless way.
- Support a wide array of audio formats: MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC, OGG, AC3, etc.
Cons:
- Not a real-time audio enhancer.
2. FxSound - Best Audio Enhancement Software for Windows 10
Supported OS: Windows 10, 7
Price: free for 1 hour per day; $29.99 for the full version
Best for: beginners and semi-pros on a budget
FxSound is formerly known as DFX Audio Enhancer. After a big reversion, it promises abilities to boost the video quality, clarity, volume, and bass whether you're listening on cheap plastic headphones or high-end audio gear. With FxSound, you can gain a better audial experience and clearer audio for transcription, etc.
It enhances the sound quality while you are playing a piece of music, video games, movies, or any audio from your PC. After installing it on your PC, you can adjust audio fidelity, ambiance, 3D surround effect, bass, and boost dynamic effect according to your taste.
Pros:
- Powerful DFX audio engine yields pro-level products.
- Equalizer for 9 frequency bands.
- Varied presets for every possible sound situation: streaming video, music, and gaming.
- It can save your changes as a cab file and apply them easily next time.
Cons:
- Only available on Windows.
- Can't save the enhanced audio to your computer.
- Limited customizable parameters.
3. Fidelizer - Free Audio Enhancement Software for PC
Supported OS: Windows 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista
Price: free; 39.95 for Fidelizer Plus; $69.95 for Fidelizer Pro
Best for: semi-pros
Fidelizer audio enhancer optimizes Windows audio applications, including Windows Media Player, and streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, and others. It targets certain applications that you should set when you launch Fidelizer, and then it will keep running in the background to maintain optimization until you restart the whole system.
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This audio enhancement software improves audio performance by giving audio tasks more priority, which mainly solves issues like latency, accuracy of clock resolution. More importantly, it auto adjusts system services based on the audio profile to maintain the required network and remote control on demand.
Pros:
- Flexible settings for users of different levels and with different configurations.
- Multiple options for audio quality: real-time, high, above normal, normal, etc.
- Improve audio qualitywithout affecting system performance.
- The free version can be used without time limits.
Cons:
- Only increase audio quality from limited media players.
- Complicated installation settings for beginners.
- No options for audio effects and equalizer.
4. Boom 3D - Audio Enhancer for Android and Computer
Supported OS: Windows 10, Mac, iOS, Android
Price: 30-day free trial; $19.99 for Mac; $14.99 for Windows
Best for: users of all levels
Boom 3D is an award-winning and cross-platform audio enhancer. As the name hints, it brings immersive virtual surround sound for movies, music, and games by its innovative 3D surround effect that works perfectly on any headphones. It also ships with a dotingly-crafted equalizer with a bunch of presets and magical audio effects for an all-round acoustic experience.
For geeks who prefer tune audio on their own, Boom 3D gives them control over the whole set of parameters – volume, pitch, fidelity, ambiance, spatial, and so on. Besides, it functions as an advanced audio player. You can use it to play local songs and access to 20k radio stations.
Pros:
- Intuitive and modern UI.
- 30+ equalizer bands for different music genres.
- Compatible with both computers and mobile devices.
- Frequently updated for new features.
- Manage audio volumes of each app individually.
Cons:
- Not supported on Windows 7, 8, 8.1.
5. Realtek Audio Manager - Free Audio Enhancer for Windows 10
Supported OS: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista
Price: free
Best for: beginners on a budget
If you are using Windows PCs, then you are lucky to enhance optimize the audio quality at the cost of nothing. Realtek HD Audio Manager is a free sound driver generally regarded as a free audio equalizer for Windows 10. You can easily activate it by double-clicking on the speaker icon. There are mainly three ways to configure how the sound is played on your PC – choosing speaker configuration, adding sound effect, adjusting room correction, and default format.
If your audio hasn't been largely damaged, Realtek HD Audio Manager is capable of backing them back to life. You can also use its equalizer and the voice cancellation feature to set the sound effect per your comfort. In the default format tab, you can select the default sound quality in terms of sample rate and bit depth.
Pros:
- Easy and free to use.
- Many environmental options to try: living rooms, forest, underwater, and so on.
- 10-band equalizer with frequency raging from 31dB to 16kdB.
Cons:
- Windows only.
- Cannot control the audio of apps separately.
- You can't find this equalizer for Windows 10 without the correct audio driver.
6. Bongiovi DPS - Best Alternative to FX Sound
Supported OS: Windows 10/8/7, macOS X 10.13 or later
Price 30-day free trial; $2.99/month
Best for: most users
Bongiovi DPS (Digital Power Station), the most intelligent audio enhancement software in our list, claims that it explores simple ways to give computers sound new depth with its patented formula. It is packed with multiple profiles serving for different audio devices or playback situations.
Once installed, it automatically corrects, improves, and optimizes the sound of your device. The process includes enhancing depth, bass definition, clarity, volume, etc. It is constantly adapting the incoming audio signal to match the capabilities of your audio system, and thus it is capable of improving audio from video games, applications, music, movies, and video conferences.
Pros:
- System-wide and powerful.
- Beginner-friendly with its audio setup wizard.
- Auto detect and optimize audio files.
- Process different audio signals from videos and music.
- Intelligently keep the volume to a safe listening level.
Cons:
- Cannot activate it without the internet connection.
- The current Bongiovi DPS only supports stereo audio.
7. jetAudio Basic - Free Audio Enhancer Software for Windows 10
Supported OS: Windows, iOS, Android
Price: free
Best for: novices with fewer professional requirements
Strictly speaking, jetAudio is not an audio enhancer for Windows 10. It is an HD music player that supports MP3, FLAC, OGG, and WAV files. At the same time, you can use it to optimize the audio you just drop it into the app. JetAudio has a tool called Sound/Visualization which can be used as a free sound booster, and to add effects like reverb, bass, surround, and different pitches.
Since it coordinated with AM3D (world-class audio processing software), jetAudio for Android is paralleled with decent free audio enhancers by its enriched virtual surrounded sound, natural timbre, crisp treble, and intense bass.
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Pros:
- Free to use its built-in audio equalizer and sound effects.
- Multiple presets for varied music genres.
- Visualize the audio spectrum and lyrics.
- Play both locally stored audio files and online audio via a URL.
- Bonus features: record audio, play HD music, convert audio formats, etc.
Cons:
- No Mac version.
- Limited customizable settings.
8. SOUND FORGE Audio Cleaning Lab 2 - Best Sound Booster
Supported OS: Windows 10, 8, 7 (64-bit)
Price: : $99.99
Best for: professionals and audio enthusiasts
SOUND FORGE is a pioneer in the field of digital audio production. As one member of the famous brand, Audio Cleaning Lab 2's main mission is to digitalize, clean, and restore audio files. For anyone who wants more than audio enhancement, it offers 8 audio tracks to make audio montages.
And its spectral display lets you see the sound in your videos by generating a visual representation of all the different frequencies so you can quickly identify noise and remove it, which is also a vital feature for precise audio editing.
Pros:
- High-quality restoration tools and outputs.
- Flexible optimization settings for pros to fix the flawed audio as they wish.
- Program wizard and 360+ presets to boost sound quality with one click.
- Multiple audio tracks to mix audio.
- Digitalize analog audio from records and tapes easily.
Cons:
- Not supported on Mac.
- Not a real time audio enhancer.
9. Breakaway Audio Enhancer - Best Volume Booster
Supported OS: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista
Price: $29.95
Best for: semi-pros and music enthusiasts
Breakaway Audio Enhancer offers real time audio enhancement services for all Windows compatible players, web browsers, videos, and games. It comes to revolutionize the listening experience with a higher level of quality, depth, and consistency. Multi-band audio modification will bring out the punch and balance in all of your audio files, while detailed and authentic metering let you see it in action. You can easily control the audio at a proper volume. Other features include a fully sizable interface and setup wizards to squeeze the top performance from your PC.
Pros:
- Real time control on volume, speed, bass boost, and bass shape.
- Auto adjustment of volume dynamics and spectral balancing.
- 2-channel stereo audio processing and song-to-song volume shifts.
- Multiple look-ahead peak limiters distortion-free transient control.
Cons:
- Windows only.
- No official website to download it.
- Hasn't been updated since 2016.
10. AudioRetoucher - Free Sound Booster for Winodows 10
Supported OS: Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista
Price: free-trial; $39.95
Best for: vocalists and instrumentalists
AudioRetoucher, the best audio enhencer software for Windows 10, specializes in fine-tuning the sound pitch and tempo. After loading an audio file to it, you just need to drag the bar to adjust audio speed, tempo, volume, treble, bass, and volume. Besides, it supports a wide arrange of popular audio formats, for instance, MP3, M4A, FLAC, WAV, etc. After processing, the files can be saved in MP3 or WAV format.
It is preferred by many singers and instrumentalists when they need to deal with different keys. And DJs can use it to create seamless harmonic mixes by boosting the volume of certian audio tracks, and adjusting the bass and treble.
Pros:
- Easy workflow and intuitive interface.
- Save the modified audio as MP3, FLAC, and WAV.
- Also capable of converting audio file formats.
- Synchronize music and lyrics of CDG files for karaoke.
Cons:
- Cannot optimize audio from videos, games, nor websites.
11. DeskFX Audio Enhancer - Sound Booster for Laptop
Supported OS: Windows 7 and later (64-bit), macOS X 10.0 and later
Price: $12.99
Best for: semi-pros and pros
DeskFX Audio Enhancer is one of the rich-feature audio enhancement software for Windows 10 and Mac in our picks. It lets you add effects in real time to audio played via headphones or speakers on the computer. To enhance the audio more accurately, it sets low and high pass filters for users to suppress noises at different frequencies.
Besides, you can add unlimited audio effects including reverb, amplify, equalize, vibrate, tremolo, etc. It has given the maximum power to manipulate the audio on speakers. If you want professional listening experience, this software would help you a lot.
Pros:
- Works with YouTube, Spotify, and streaming videos.
- System-wide equalizer with up to 20 bands.
- Multiple enhancing modes: visual, graphic, and parametric equalizer.
- Free version for non-commercial use.
Cons:
- Unfriendly to beginners.
- Space-consuming.
Sum-up
Most audio enhancers can auto boost sound or let you customize the audio in real time. But they do not perform the same to each. We finally draw a conclusion in terms of different needs, skills, devices, and budget.
Free audio enhancer: VideoProc Vlogger, Realtek HD Audio Manager, jetAudio
Best audio enhancer for Windows 10: FxSound, Boom3D, Fidelizer
Free Transcription Software For Windows
Best audio enhancer for Mac: Bongiovi DPS, Boom3D, DeskFX
Best audio enhancer for Android: Boom3D, jetAudio
Best Free Voice Dictation Software
Easy audio enhancer: AudioRetoucher, FxSound, Boom3D, Breakaway Audio Enhancer
Best audio enhancer for pros: Bongiovi DPS, SOUND FORGE Audio Cleaning Lab 2, DeskFX