Before anything else, we at FxSound want to acknowledge how important transcription is. The legal world is built on the assumption that transcriptionists will accurately record everything said. The corporate film world relies on transcriptionists to create perfect scripts after shooting has wrapped for the day. Major business meetings lean on them for bulletproof record keeping. The medical world would grind to a halt if no one could transcribe what was said. The pressure to perform is immense, and takes a unique set of skills to accomplish. There is also a high risk of hearing loss long term, something we at FxSound want to prevent for all audio professionals.
FxSound is currently used by hundreds of industry professionals for transcription, and has a proven record of being an extreme clarity and quality booster. But why exactly do working professionals swear by it, and how do you configure FxSound for your own industry needs?
For music, movies, podcasts, ect., FxSound’s results could be considered a bit subjective. Sure, it adheres to audio engineer standards, and offers you equalization, effects, compression, and other customization, but not everyone is passionate about their sound quality. Someone may even prefer their poor fidelity, terrible sounding audio, and they’re absolutely entitled to their opinion (even if it’s wrong).
But when it comes to understanding human voices in recordings, there are much more objective rules that apply. There are specific frequency, volume, and effect treatments that make it easier to understand what’s being said. Let’s delve a little bit into why recordings of voices have these rules, how FxSound can help, and why using FxSound can alleviate dangerous hearing loss.
Spoken languages almost always adhere to two types of sounds: Percussive and Tonal. Percussive sounds, like English’s consonants, don’t have their own actual sound. We often associate a sound with them to make it easier to describe, i.e. “‘D’ sounds like ‘duh’”. But when we say the word “d-o-g” we don’t say “duh-oh-guh”. We say “dog”. The sound created by the letter ‘D’ is almost silent, a subtle touch of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, followed by a release.
Tonal sounds, like English’s vowels, utilize our vocal chords. We vibrate them, producing a hum and tone, and move our mouth and throat to produce each unique sound. By pairing tonal sounds with percussive ones, we create spoken words.
We aren’t just giving you a language lesson for fun. These parameters mean that there are set ways to enhance a recording of voices. Percussive sounds live in the high-mid to high-end registers, and boosting these frequencies make it much easier to clearly hear what sounds are being made. The parts of tonal sounds that help you understand what’s being said occupy the mid-range. There are lots of low frequencies in tonal sounds as well, and while in normal listening these add body and volume, their overtones can actually reduce clarity and make the sound ‘muddy’.
When you go into the FxSound Presets menu, selecting the Transcription preset will immediately configure your program for optimal clarity. Unnecessary effects are switched off, and the whole balance is shifted to boost the high end dynamically, cut excess bass, and bring out the most fidelity possible.
When working in transcription, turning your volume up to understand audio increases your risk for hearing loss. There are many unnecessary frequencies that are brought up along with the vital audio information, and your levels are uncontrolled and can spike unexpectedly. Since hearing is one of the senses that is irreversibly damaged by excessive volume, a way to reduce this strain is vital. That’s where FxSound comes in.
By cutting out frequencies that don’t add to clarity, your ears encounter less overall volume. By boosting the key parts of the audio, you can reduce your PC volume even further. This means that without having to crank up your sound levels, with lower and safer amplitude, you’ll be able to hear and understand better than ever by using FxSound. The background compressor will help normalize any level spikes as you listen, to help reduce your risk even further. Work safer, faster, and easier than ever before with FxSound.