FCPX transcription capabilities?

[Ben Balser]

I use Simon Says as an extension directly inside of FCPX. Very affordable, very fast, and allows for text based editing.

[Craig Seeman]

One key feature I’m looking for in Transcription software is the creative editing of the ensuingly generated Titles. I believe most, including Simonsays, come in as Basic Title which has limited animation functions.

Alex from Ulti.Media has said that their Transcriber will support using Titles other than Basic in a future update. I would love for Titles to come in as Custom for example which would allow very flexible animation.

As the professional demands for marketing and advertising on Instagram and TikTok increase, creative title editing will also increase. Consider what CapCut or Instagram’s built-in titling can do now.

BTW I do think the subscription services (Simonsays, Speedscriber, etc.) are going to have to focus on more value-added features as Transcriber and Captionator are based on Whisper so there’s no per word or duration cost (beyond the cost of the module).

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Craig,

I agree, and are already seeing most of those features happening in Premiere Pro, at no extra cost. Although not perfect, it is developing.

The next holy grail in transcription and subtitling, is translation, and text to voice audio replacement.
Again, not perfect, as you still need a native speaker to make sure that the language is right (Think subtle difference in the meaning between “Here” and “Hear”).

I use Nova A.I. https://wearenova.ai/

Should for transparency state that I am a customer, and have recently helped them with a video for Seedrs crowd-investment platform, where we did:
English -> Transcribe -> English subtitles -> Translate to Spanish -> Copy to “Text-to-Speech” -> insert Spanish voice on video -> Interviewee (investor) speaking in Spanish with English subtitles.

You can see the video here (shot on iPhone, with added elements from MotionArray):
https://www.seedrs.com/nova-ai

This is only a small peek into the near-future of what is to come in improved features (inside NLE software or as an external resource) that will help us in the editing process, making videos more inclusive for a wider audience.

Atb
Mads

[Joe Marler]

Kyrina, the 3rd-party MacWhisper utility can not only transcribe with high accuracy to an SRT file, but it can also translate at the same time. You can easily produce English and Spanish SRT files, import those to FCP via File>Import>Captions, and flip between them. Each one automatically becomes a separate audio role, visible in the timeline index. You switch subtitles by opening the Timeline Index (SHFT+CMD+2 toggles), then press “Roles”. The English and Spanish subtitles will have a separate button to enable or disable them. I’ve used MacWhisper extensively and it works well: https://goodsnooze.gumroad.com/l/macwhisper

The latest version has an optional translation feature using the DeepL AI tool. It supposedly produces higher-quality translations than the built-in MacWhisper translation. That is a paid upgrade but you get 500,000 words per year free.

I think the most recent update to MacWhisper requires Ventura.

Another item I recently found (but have not tested) is SRT Importer 2, which lets FCP import SRT captions as titles. That’s in case you want the flexibility of a subtitled presentation vs the more restrictive caption display options. In theory, if the SRT output of MacWhisper was good enough quality, you could then convert it from captions to subtitles. FCP SRT Importer 2: https://ulti.media/fcp-srt-importer-2/

There is a new plugin from FxFactory called “Transcriber”. It supposedly does AI-based translation and optional conversion to subtitle format (not just caption format). I have not tried this yet: https://fxfactory.com/info/transcriber/?fbclid=IwAR1hpl9FUI-boHmbpk4Ofqpd17c45TTlxrQZS8oER-2fy3bq8oQzT3nXa2Y

[Kyrina Bluerose]

Thank you so much for your thoughts AND for the links! It’s interesting to see the differences between all these programs. 🙂

[Craig Seeman]

ulti.media Transcriber is built on MacWhisper. I’ve also used MacWhisper. Transcriber uses the “Large” transcription model from Whisper (MacWhisper Pro) which improves transcription reliability and adds many Caption features. They’ll be adding even more caption features. BTW it’s also Adobe PremierePro compatible so I suspect they feel their offering is even better than Premiere’s built-in equivalent.

[Rikki Blow]

If you want to turn your srt into titles there’s also Caption Burner from FXFactory

https://fxfactory.com/info/captionburner/

I import my MacWhisper srt files into that and then mess around with all the setting s to make them look how I like. There’s quite a lot you can adjust to get them looking how you like.

fxfactory.com

Caption Burner for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, After Effects

Import and burn captions and subtitles from SRT, WebVTT, iTT. Plugins and effects for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro, After Effects.

[Simon Morice]

Trint.com is an AI-powered transcription service with useful capabilities. Amongst other things, you can do paper edits and string outs. I believe it will emit an xml you can load into several edit apps.