Recommended Speech-to-Text (STT) Windows freeware to transcribe a YouTube audio stream to text?

[Arlen Holder]

What is a recommended Windows freeware to transcribe audio to text?

1. Using Audacity or youtube-dl.exe freeware, I can easily get the audio:
o youtube-dl.exe -f 140 https://youtu.be/FY7DtKMBxBw

2. But what's an easy way to convert that audio to a text transcription?
o Convert that M4A audio to an ASCII text file transcription.txt?

3. On Android, I'd just run the freeware port of Google Recorder...
o Offline speech-to-text recorder/transcription unofficial Google Recorder APK port now available for many Android phones
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/_Amn35T16NA>

*But what do you use on Windows to convert speech audio streams to text?*

Googling, my first task is to see if there are any clear leaders
o Where the results below are in the search order found...

o The Best Free Transcription Software
<https://www.ai-media.tv/the-best-free-transcription-software/>
1. OTranscribe
2. Express Scribe
3. The FTW Transcriber
4. Inqscribe
5. Transcribe

[Now the goal will be to see if any of those show up often at the top.]

o 5 Best Transcription Software to Convert Voice, Audio, Video to Text
<https://www.technonutty.com/2016/02/best-free-transcription-software.html>
(1) Dragon NaturallySpeaking 13 Home $59.99
(2) Scribie Service $3 per minute
(3) DragonŽ NaturallySpeaking 13 Premium $129.99
(4) Seventh String Transcribe! $40
(5) Express Scribe Transcription Software $19.99 (Basic)

[How the heck did _that_ sneak into my "freeware" search results?]

o The Best 7 Free and Open Source Speech Recognition Software Solutions
<https://www.goodfirms.co/blog/best-free-open-source-speech-recognition-software>
1 Simon
2 Kaldi
3 CMUSphinx
4 Mozilla
5 Julius
6 Dictation Bridge
7 Mycroft

[Oh oh... This is bad. Not a _single_ app overlaps with the 1st hit.]

o Best speech to text software in 2020
<https://www.techradar.com/news/best-speech-to-text-app>
Best paid for speech to text apps
1. Dragon Professional
2. Dragon Anywhere
3. Otter
4. Verbit
5. Speechmatics
6. Braina Pro
7. Amazon Transcribe
8. Microsoft Azure Speech to Text
9. Watson Speech to Text
Best free speech to text apps
1. Google Gboard
2. Just Press Record
3. Speechnotes
4. Transcribe
5. Windows 10 Speech recognition

[Drat. Only one overlaps, and it was with the worst option.]

o Download the best transcription software for PC [2020 Guide]
<https://windowsreport.com/transcription-software-pc/>
1. Adobe Premiere Pro 5 Free version available
2. Express Scribe 4.5 Free version available
3. Dragon Naturally Speaking 5 Paid
4. InqScribe 4 Paid
5. Audiotranskription 5 Paid

[I suspect the first two are crippleware, so let's move on...]

o 5 free audio transcription software to transcribe audio files
<https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/27/windows/free-audio-transcription-software-transcribe-audio-files.html>
1. Easytranscript
2. TranscriberAG
3. Transcription Aid
4. Listen N Write
5. Transcriber

[The lack of overlap is looking bad... real bad...]

o 10 Best Transcription Software for Windows (Free+Paid)
<http://www.crunchytricks.com/2016/05/transcription-software-for-windows.html>
1. Listen N Write
2. Eurescribe
3. MAXQDA
4. Transcribe! - Seventh String
5. Enhilex Medical Transcription Software
6. Transcribe
7. Transcriber Pro
8. Transcription Helper
9. Voice Again
10. Microsoft Speech to Text Transcribe

[Bummer. Almost no overlap, even now, after about 50 programs listed.]

o How to Convert MP3 to Text with 12 Best Ways?
<https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/convert-mp3/mp3-to-text-converter.html>
Part 1. Top 8 Ways to Convert Audio to Text You Can Try
1. Watson Speech to Text
2. Sonix
3. Happy Scribe
4. Rev
5. AmberScript
6. Vocalmatic
7. Bear File Converter
8. 360Converter
Part 2. Top 3 Software to Transcribe MP3 to Text
1. Google Speech to Text
2. Inqscribe
3. HyperTranscribe
Part 3. MP3 Format to Text App for Chrome to Recommended
1. Chrome extension

[This is terrible. Even now, we're still not getting overlap.]

In summary, this problem set seems to have too many solutions, such that
nobody has the time & energy to test them all out just to get the job done
once or twice.

Hence I ask the freeware & Windows experts what freeware audio to text
transcription software you recommend, assuming this input audio stream?
o <https://youtu.be/FY7DtKMBxBw>
--
The high cost of freeware is in finding & testing for the best out there.

[Arlen Holder]

On Mon, 9 Nov 2020 20:53:22 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

> What do you use on Windows to convert speech audio streams to text?

The good news is my first speech-to-text attempt worked, kind of sort of.
o <https://i.postimg.cc/1XJwgxqs/sst01.jpg>

The bad news is that the quality of the output leaves a lot to be desired.
o Hence I ask those of you who _already_ solved this basic problem set.

What Windows freeware do you recommend to convert audio dictation to text?

[Arlen Holder]

On Mon, 9 Nov 2020 21:51:49 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

> The good news is my first speech-to-text attempt worked, kind of sort of.

So others can reproduce, here's my ad hoc log file of the test process...
o <https://i.postimg.cc/1XJwgxqs/sst01.jpg>

1. I downloaded an M4A file of the YouTube link for the real-world test:

youtube-dl.exe -f 140 https://youtu.be/FY7DtKMBxBw

[youtube] FY7DtKMBxBw: Downloading webpage
[download] Destination: iPhone 12 Anti Repair Design - Teardown and Repair Assessment-FY7DtKMBxBw.m4a
[download] 100% of 15.16MiB in 00:58
[ffmpeg] Correcting container in "iPhone 12 Anti Repair Design - Teardown and Repair Assessment-FY7DtKMBxBw.m4a"
I copied that long file name to a shorter name:
copy "iPhone 12 Anti Repair Design - Teardown and Repair Assessment-FY7DtKMBxBw.m4a" foo.m4a

2. I then started the test on the 1st link found in the search results:
<https://www.ai-media.tv/the-best-free-transcription-software/>

3. I started with the 1st suggested reputed freeware in that 1st link:
<https://otranscribe.com/>

Hmm... it seems to require me to _manually_ do the transcription?
(If that's correct, why is it even _on_ that list in the first place?)
(All that 1st link is, I think, is software to "play" the file!)

4. I then moved on to the 2nd suggested freeware in that 1st link:
<https://www.nch.com.au/scribe/>
<https://www.nch.com.au/components/essetup.exe>

That saved the following installer, which I doubleclicked on to install:
Name: ExpressScribeTranscriptionSoftware.exe
Size: 1053304 bytes (1028 KiB)
CRC32: 690C2A7C
CRC64: 35DB1E4556205831
SHA256: A747C7B7EB6D9986AB0391A24D1599CCE7B92B29725B357F364B673E7D20EBB9
SHA1: A0442E05E892EF0AC0C1F2BFCE905181FFFE065E
BLAKE2sp: 892087759D93DE633259C017E78A0347A4A279220F42865AD21B5B2D87EFD4F8

5. It's horridly written software in that it doesn't ask where to install.
It went right into: "C:\Program Files (x86)\NCH Software\Scribe\"
The installer created a bunch of directories, some of which are:
C:\ProgramData\NCH Software\Scribe\Current
C:\Users\%username$\NCH Software Suite
C:\Users\%username$\AppData\Roaming\NCH Software\Scribe\Current
C:\Documents and Settings\%username$\Application Data\NCH Swift Sound\scribe\Current

6. The installer created two desktop shortcuts:
NCH Suite Properties.lnk
TARGET: "C:\Program Files (x86)\NCH Software\Scribe\scribe.exe" -suite
STARTIN: <blank>
COMMENT: Open the NCH Software Suite Quick Launcher

Express Scribe Transcription Software Properties.lnk
TARGET: "C:\Program Files (x86)\NCH Software\Scribe\scribe.exe"
STARTIN: <blank>
COMMENT: Launch Express Scribe Transcription Software

7. Each launches a different GUI but I think this is the GUI to start with:
Express Scribe Transcription Software Properties.lnk
Express Scribe Transcription Software Pro (Unlicensed) Non-commercial home use only

I checked the version so that I could log it just in case it matters:
ExpressScribe:Help > About (reported: Express Scribe v9.11)

8. I'm not sure which settings to use, but this seemed logical:
ExpressScribe:Options > Speech to Text
Change from: [_]Enable Speech recognition
Change to: [x]Enable Speech recognition

9. I'm not sure what comes next, but this seems to have loaded the file:
ExpressScribe:File > Load Dictation File(s) > C:\tmp\foo.m4a
Dictation Name = foo
Sender = Unknown
Date = 2020-10-28
Time = 01:50:21
Duration = 16.22
Priority = Normal

10. I'm not sure if this step is needed, but I ran it to completion anyway.
ExpressScribe:Control > Play

11. This seemed like a reasonable step to run (it took about a minute):
ExpressScribe:File > Run Speech to Text on Dictation

12. This also seemed like a reasonable step, although that's a binary file:
ExpressScribe:File > Save as DCT > foo.dct

The results are below... copied from the Express Scribe output window.
o <https://i.postimg.cc/1XJwgxqs/sst01.jpg>

-- Speech to Text --
DOS south at hi guys welcome back to the huge every speedier in this figure
of any tearing down Apple's new-12 to see how are a parable that if I see
is Apple's been done in the pasta lockdown pots inside the devices to
prevent said body repair according to apple their offices stores and auto
center is one of 100% renewable energy and by twenties any apple is aiming
for a zero climate impact to demand that says that if I should be able to
be repaid when the time comes to prevent it from becoming the lights to
test the sound of badges to-twelves which are going to be swapping into
changing pots on to say taking the blue I find 12 out of the box fast you
can say including whether it was a USB C2 a lightening cable waste and
archived at the apple says safer method charge and had finds to cut waste
or sliced adding that it was already two billion apple had that is in the
weld not including fed Connie charges the problem with all my squirrel of
those charges is if they have a different light on the end of them meaning
you can't connect the U.S. PC cable thing you need to go out and buy the
apple had at the lyceum a third party won tonight that left apple has a new
recently switched to the U.S. PC Power adapter with a fresh eating with
the-11 how that many people are going to be upgrading from all the fines
and a charges when a little wet with its cable bowl apple likely switch to
a U.S. PC cables that connect to their computers which don't have a regular
U.S. people are aware that we announced that would ease on a situation with
notepad at the poll had finds included all it really comes with a fine is
some paperwork and one apple stakeout I can remove the protective film from
the display panel Hackett made across to ask second-12 that's right I had
to buy two of them to the FBI has these fines + you that there isn't any
pots available on the market to get some pasta test on this fine I have to
use any time done a fine which is brand new design includes the exact same
accessories as the blue line we previously on boxed we spied on finds out
of the box we can take a quick look at them thankfully down at the bottom I
can see two screws which to get us into the five pillars wandering the
state finds out by 64 key units before I can open them up on the to set up
85 and ensure its working from a factory site week by fines fully
functioning it's time to crack the market permitting the two security
council unscrews I can he get a fine using his Mac I used to 80° setting
for this proceeding I then tried to separate the display using this high
slack have I was having a lot of difficulty in opening this fine apple has
increased water resistant writing Sunday he said used must be stronger than
the full I even tried a single suction cup apply as much out would force as
I possibly could and that's still didn't lack I repeated the heating
process a few times and even broke my tool once luckily the date it just
screwed right back together and finally I was able to get a stunning peek
under the display from him getting this playoff is a pretty straightforward
process again simply run the picks up the signs and around the top of the
fine until it on latches then I can simply lift up the display to the left
hand side of the slide this year the icons logical what is on the opposite
side getting a first look at the internals we 582000815 million out battery
which is much smaller than many of the fines and what are we the blues on
open its time to crack open the red-12 leaving those employed screws and
repeating the same being processed at this time I hear the 5 to 5 minutes
of 120° this time around the display practically popped runoff of the fine
ball and not sure how to project are my heat man is this definitely works
much better than the 80° and I tried previously with by fines are then we
can finally stop messing around with the internals to see how terrible this
new finance to go to test changing every pot inside these fine easily ought
to swap the logic bullets between the two sides I will stop by removing the
original are they display panel one possible repair mistake I see people
doing is breaking this in a stable given at a flex cables fall that I can
say getting rich very easy to avoid causing any damage to the internal
components of office disconnect the battery before moving to display cables
after which I can remove TR that display panel from the fine next is time
to get a little bit deeper inside this fine a stoplight disconnecting all
the flights cables and I can say connecting to this logic: there's quite a
number of days and some of them on actually populated I believe this is for
the U.S.-12 which has an extra five G and 10 on the side of the fine and
other potential repair mistake is ripping this flick's cable which is
hidden from beneath the stakeout down at the lower portion of logical and
there's also has some shielding which on the term is to be on the access
table flex cables after disconnecting guys I can remove the full screws all
be in place a logical for the-12 years also once protect into the camera
simply which only to remove I thought I'd remove the scene can't mechanism
to be added to get more clearance to remove the logical and however of one
of the spurs with 40 rounded from the factory semi screwdriver would
prepare for the delay also to get the logical that without the need to
remove the scene, mechanism that is not one sign of the way it's time to be
across trial red-12:00 PM dinner repeat the exact same price as the second
time around it's much easier as I know where all the screws up the need to
be removed and the flex cables that only to disconnect lifting off the
display although we need to take out now is the logical if SCI Fi I have to
say this fine is quite modular with mice components and I can say things
easy to access and remove we have seen this in the pasta however apple has
been paring components are even with the eye for his great module Eric T he
still can't replace the pockets of as the screws SCI Fi would come across
10 to live Phillips filing and the standoff it took quite a lot of
screwdrivers to keep track of when you're performing a repair on this
device with a logical eardrum is to begin see parts of a-12 have been
disassembled Scott way also what the doing a complete tear down of the
device and testing it repair ability sire and on a swap the-12 logic board
from Everett fine into this blue line while this doesn't sound like a gun a
whole lot here Apple's ninth repairing everything inside the fines start if
my fear is correct this fine isn't going to be very happy when I reconnect
everything back up and carry on after reinstalling the logic board all
connect up the display cables and any other flights table supply pressing
and holding the Talbott and nothing happened so I lifted up the display
panel and receded like connections for the display after which I could
present all the power button and I still got nothing out of planning and a
charge of the fine for divide up straight out I was bombarded with
notification SCI Fi City could be activated and that there was an important
display and battery message as you can say you might have one is
functioning so I'm not quite sure why the fine would turn on earlier
defined what we do anything fancy chapel and more here tells you cannot
verify the display and battery is genuine navigating into the battery
section that says the device needs to be said is and disables the battery
capacity reading that in one more thing to Apple's web site in full menu of
the message and that you can define said Mr. Apple one amazing thing I
found his apple telling you not to replace a battery itself trying to login
with Faye site day you can say it just times out and replies a pas what if
I try to reset the face ID and set up again with the French fries you can
say that it says it's not a viable and to try setting up later but we've
seen this in the pasta you on fines what changes now is the camera has been
affected is completely unstable and broken with the camera freezing and fun
in mind when switched to the 0.5 eighths and in Vi marred by scammers and
zoom works fine after returning to find a nerd from CTI the 0.5 X's and now
functions however half to change in the camera two staunch and spun out
completely unusable porch of my eye in the works for the fight camera with
the back line and the flashing still images and a black screen as you can
see the camera at tends to lock out relaunching it you can see power on the
school site at work when using the 0.5 eggs in a loving you can still see
the cameras were confined in the small viewfinder but is blocked and one
actually take a panorama I tested this with bars of these fines and they
have the exact same symptoms when the Rea camera has been swapped I thought
maybe this is just a softer issue sell a fact rate reset one of the devices
three settings and as you can say it's still complaining that face ID
cannot be activated and is still display messages to display and battery on
a genuine after I can get pa stores messages and launched into the camera
at you can see the issue is still there are also tried restoring the other
hand I chanced just to check if it connected with apple said is that
somehow made this issue elway Beverly can say it with the red-12 forget the
exact same issues as the other-low level eight NFS one to discover this
issue I don't believe it's a softly about is the exact same camera which is
from another brand new a-12 these issues would likely mean that some form
of paring see realization old bond with the original camera while this
isn't an fed by apple camera placement on the-12 are currently not possible
as in the display battery messages I understand the benefits to days as a
conforming use it if someone has sold a refurbished finance music that
apple is taken a step further by disabling of the features of the result of
the pot including tree time which just disappears from the fine without
warning and the battery of reading which is disabled for any battery other
than the original factory pot with any apple having the tools to pare the
new epoch and the scan the issue is taking it to another level even face ID
and apples touch idea behind bonds is also paid to the device as I've not
heard of anybody that has run into this issue given this fine is only a
couple of days all I wanted to be 100% certain that I didn't just damage
the Cameron stalling and messing around inside the fine so what I'm going
to do is slow the original bullets back into the correct housings to
everything will be factory and original that means it'll have the original
battery camera face ID and other aspects of the fine after reconnecting all
of the flex cables I will leave the screws on attached in case I need to do
any further work to this fine on reconnect our original display panel to
the blue sign and we contested at going into the camera we can say
straightaway a camera is a lot more responsive and everything is working as
it should switching of that the panorama you can see it's also working on
the 0.5 Nixon or that battery warning display warnings and face ID messages
have disappeared to return has reappeared as well as a battery health is
back at 100% to ensure that nothing inside of the find was conflict in with
the camera after we replaced absolutely everything by simply swapping the
logical between the two fines I'm gonna be swapping the cameras between the
two sides to everything inside this blue-and bread-and going to be
absolutely original except the cameras which only swapping out between the
two sides it's hard to believe even using genuine pots from two blenders
finds courses so are many issues without cameras swapped a cross between
the two devices and then to reassemble the fine and say whether this fixes
the issue yet again I ran into the issue with a fine would turn on with the
papon and I had to use to charge of its illness like it knows about been
messing around the inside so it refuses to turn on using the charge of the
raid five white backup into action and you can see the portrait mine is now
just like it was the full completely unusable site nothing else is
affecting that camera it's purely just not compatible between different on
fines ideal answer a factory and reset using iTunes the windows and you can
say the same issue of kai's I think by now you get the point that the
camera doesn't work when you replace it and I don't believe that this is a
software on the glove the apple locking down more components inside and a
fine I can't confirm that as apple hasn't publicly stated anything about it
but for now it's time to reassemble the so-with its original pots and
hopefully we haven't damaged anything between the two fines in all that is
messing around and we'll still have two working-twelves by the end of it
reconnecting out front are led display panel and battery I can reinstall
the two metal brackets which cover the many flights cables underneath using
a modified the cloth was some hope of a woman I can clean away any of the
dust or fingerprints that have left inside the device all that's left to do
is to reassemble the red-12 in a similar fashion to what we just did with
the blue line finally I can close out the display attaching it to the
frying ID lead one to replace the water resistant seals however this none
of those available on the market just get so I won't be doing after
reinstalling the headlights crews went on sale this is a Apple's latest-12
by fines if I'm just fine with all features working correctly again what
we've learned is that this-is more locked down than ever that full if you
wanna keep full functionality of this device you basically have no choice
but to take it to apple for repair despite having to pay whatever apple is
charging for a pair if they even offer for the issued a device might have
what happens when they stopped servicing a device in a few yeas no one will
be able to fix it apple was doing some things to reduce emissions and
healthy environment show all but remember they're one of the biggest
companies will be against right to repair even though I spent almost $3000
on these two fines I don't even have the ability to fix them recycling
shouldn't be the first tool are in the option repair and reuse is most
important and on that note this has been a huge every speedier if you like
which is so hit that subscribe on its a checking out the fine restoration
plan is to form or videos just like this one and even looking for any tips:
tools are used to repay devices be sure to check out my website need for
which he's down the description that's over this video panel catchy guys
next time
-- Speech to Text --
--
The high cost of freeware is in the effort required to test only the best.

[Arlen Holder]

UPDATE:

Starting with this link, reputedly of five free transcription tools:

o The Best Free Transcription Software
<https://www.ai-media.tv/the-best-free-transcription-software/>

We tested these three already:
1. OTranscribe (manual)
2. Express Scribe (automatic)
3. The FTW Transcriber (manual)

Which leaves these remaining two:
4. Inqscribe
5. Transcribe

The Inqscribe description appears to be to a "14-day trial" license, but
worse, it's apparently a manual tool (what good is typing the text?)

The last link was to "Transcribe" but the description says:
"To transcribe from a file with audio, you will need to listen to the
audio and repeat what you hear into the microphone", which, with the
loopback tricks we learned in this thread, might not be deadly:
o Tutorial using Audacity 2.4.2 to record Windows web browser streaming audio to MP3
<https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.microsoft.windows/c/looV9kcLG_U>

But... this line for "Transcribe" _is_ deadly:
"Transcribe only offers one week free use of its software"

That leaves the first summary of the first suggested five tools as:
1. OTranscribe (worthless)
2. Express Scribe (barely works)
3. The FTW Transcriber (worthless)
4. Inqscribe (worthless)
5. Transcribe (worthless)

These test results, if correct, indicate why it's so very important to ask
on this newsgroup for advice from those who have already done the tasks.
--
The high cost of freeware is mostly in finding those that work best.

[Arlen Holder]

Update...
Hitting the next reference in the lineup...

o The Best 7 Free and Open Source Speech Recognition Software Solutions
<https://www.goodfirms.co/blog/best-free-open-source-speech-recognition-software>
1 Simon
2 Kaldi
3 CMUSphinx
4 Mozilla
5 Julius
6 Dictation Bridge
7 Mycroft

Simon is free & open source, but it seems to be focused on voice commands.
o <https://simon.kde.org>
o <https://youtu.be/ghfMMYNOwXo>
o <https://simon.kde.org/download>

Kaldi is also free & open source, but the web site seems to be kaput.
o <https://kaldi-asr.org>

CMUSphinx is confusing what it is as it seems to be more of a toolkit.
o <https://cmusphinx.github.io>

Mozilla has an "open source voice recognition tool" which is for
"developers" to "plug into their projects", and as such, is another kit.
o <https://voice.mozilla.org/en>
o <https://commonvoice.mozilla.org/en>

Julius is another developer tool, apparently for researchers.
o <http://julius.osdn.jp/en_index.php>

Dictation Bridge seems to be a screen reader for blind people
o <https://dictationbridge.com>

Mycroft seems to be a "voice assistant" but it seems to require a
"home.mycroft.ai" account,.
o <https://dictationbridge.com>

Well, that was a bust.
--
Freeware is something that you only understand when everyone pitches in.

[Arlen Holder]

Moving on to the next set...

o Best speech to text software in 2020
<https://www.techradar.com/news/best-speech-to-text-app>

Best free speech to text apps
1. Google Gboard
2. Just Press Record
3. Speechnotes
4. Transcribe
5. Windows 10 Speech recognition

The first hit is "Google Gboard", which I already extensively use:
o <https://i.postimg.cc/vZ4Vt9DW/gboard01.jpg> tap once for microphone
o <https://i.postimg.cc/50SY2SkM/gboard03.jpg> tap again for punctuation
o <https://i.postimg.cc/dVgTH1Tg/gboard02.jpg> but why switch Y with Z?
o <https://i.postimg.cc/qMP1nkvM/gboard04.jpg> virtual keyboard choice
Where it's nice, but it's an Android app - not a Windows program.
o <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin>

The second hit is "Just Press Record", a "cloud-based transcription tool"
which is an iOS app, and not a Windows app (and it's not free).
o <https://www.openplanetsoftware.com/just-press-record/>
o <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/just-press-record-icloud-voice/id1033342465>

Third hit is "Speechnotes", which, well, it seems interesting, but weird.
o <https://speechnotes.co/>
It seems to transcribe files and URLs like YouTube links at this location:
o <https://speechnotes.co/files/>
But that costs 10 cents a minute (apparently).

Fourth hit is "Transcribe", which is iOS 15-minute trialware:
o <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/transcribe-speech-to-text/id1241342461>

Fifth hit is "Windows 10 Speech Recognition", which, I guess, is already
built into Windows 10, where I'm gonna have to take a look at settings:
o Win+R > ms-settings:speech
o Win+R > ms-settings:privacy-speech
o Win+R > ms-settings:privacy-speechtyping
o Win+R > ms-settings:easeofaccess-speechrecognition
o Win+R > control /name Microsoft.TextToSpeech
o Win+R > control /name Microsoft.SpeechRecognition
o Win+R > ms-settings:privacy-voiceactivation
etc.

As a bonus of sorts, the article covered a few more speech apps:
o SpeechTexter - Speech to Text
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speechtexter.speechtexter>
It's a free voice-to-text app for Android, which works offline or online.

o VoiceNotes
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gawk.voicenotes>
It's a free voice-to-text app for Android that seems to only work online.

o ListNote Speech-to-Text Notes seems to be similar to the above.
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.khymaera.android.listnotefree>

o iTranslate is iOS payware so it doesn't matter what it does.
<https://apps.apple.com/us/app/itranslate-translator/id288113403>

Well, overall that was "almost" a bust.
It seems that I need to do some homework to get Windows speech recognition
to work offline to transcribe an audio stream to text. But how?
--
The problem with freeware is that just finding one that works is difficult.

[Arlen Holder]

Update...

Lesson learned....
o What others mean by "transcribe" isn't what I had thought it meant!

Transcribe means, apparently, you M-A-N-U-A-L-L-Y type the words!
o (Which, IMHO, is utterly useless for my stated purpose.)

I didn't learn that's what they meant by transcribe until I
delved more deeply into this, the next "top free" programs review.

o 5 free audio transcription software to transcribe audio files
<https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/27/windows/free-audio-transcription-software-transcribe-audio-files.html>
1. Easytranscript
2. TranscriberAG
3. Transcription Aid
4. Listen N Write
5. Transcriber

I installed EasyTranscript and got it working just fine (it needs Java RTE)
o But then I realized _all_ of these are simply audio players + text editors

What good is that?
o I can do that _without_ any of this free software!
(Yes, I know, they have bells & whistles like timestamps.)
(But then again, they don't have VIM which is the best editor, IMHO.)

Anyway, here's the syslog for installing the first prog for those who care.
o Note the Windows msi error which I had to google to work around.

Easytranscript
o <https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/23/windows/free-transcription-software-transcribe-audio-video-files.html>
o <https://e-werkzeug.eu/index.php/en/downloads>
o <https://e-werkzeug.eu/index.php/en/products/easytranscript>
o Requires Java JRE 7 or later (JRE 8 recommended)
Win+R > cmd > java -version
'java' is not recognized as an internal or external command
o <https://e-werkzeug.eu/counter/count.php?id=win>
o <https://e-werkzeug.eu/index.php/en/products/index.php>
X:\installer\editor\audio\easytranscript\easytranscript.msi
Name: easytranscript.msi
Size: 60525568 bytes (57 MiB)
CRC32: A7CC1344
CRC64: 8DE3F74360DC437A
SHA256: 8029E852B5C7650FAD5BEF93B0C219277804EBA47562A7ABC48C89821103D32E
SHA1: B30ACE22032FAE26963EC00ECE4F029D9F53C4FF
BLAKE2sp: 62E02CA62849EE52D1C1C761C3C0C10C2777967EA98825C27CB2E47A71728BE6

C:\Program Files (x86)\e-werkzeug\easytranscript\
C:\app\editor\audio\easytranscript\
Installer Information: Called RunScript when not marked in progress.
Installer Information: Called InstallFinalize when no install in progress.
At the finish, nothing seemed to be installed.
Tried after creating the directory -> same error.
Tried with the default directory -> same error.

Then I googled and found it's a very common error dating back to Win8 days.
o Win+R > cmd {control+shift+enter}
X:\installer\editor\audio\easytranscript\easytranscript.msi

That worked (go figure).
o This creates (among other files):
C:\app\editor\audio\easytranscript\easytranscript.exe
Name: easytranscript.exe
Size: 95744 bytes (93 KiB)
SHA256: 9CEBDD3C58AFC93222E066D2A064BB845C0D34FA3365EFA6C9A0A21252E452A0

Doubleclick on "easytranscript.exe"
Says: This application requires a Java Runtime Environment 1.8.0
Pops up a web page: <https://java.com/en/download/>
Download Java for Windows
Recommended Version 8 Update 271 (filesize: 1.98 MB)
Release date October 20, 2020
This opens up the Java web site & allows you to download.
Saved to:
X:\installer\os\runtime\java\jre-8u271-windows-x64.exe
Name: jre-8u271-windows-x64.exe
Size: 83364488 bytes (79 MiB)
CRC32: 0D83A1B0
CRC64: 54DBA5BD7BB7EAFB
SHA256: 6210A4CDFC5C67D34027224DFADF48798BF3508E5DB6EF268BB93F0FB7D697D5
SHA1: FB704922C7C26FBCC6A34183059830CFF1B18623
BLAKE2sp: 05150F0810586D56B466A9D09E8B2CDCE51B49F2E0980306AD800BAEF016A243

Run jre-8u271-windows-x64.exe
Welcome to Java (1.8.0_40 installation)
[x]Change destination folder
FROM: C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_271
TO: C:\app\os\runtime\java

This creates a bunch of shortcuts, most importantly:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Java\Configure Java.lnk
TARGET C:\app\os\runtime\java\bin\javacpl.exe
Comment: View or change Java settings.
(Turn off auto update.)
<https://java.com/autoupdate>
<https://java.com/en/download/help/java_update.html>

o Win+R > cmd > java -version
java -version
java version "1.8.0_271"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_271-b09)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.271-b09, mixed mode)

EasyTranscript:File > Create project
Defaults to %userhome%\easytranscript\Projects

Open the software, create a new project.
c:\tmp\easytranscript\Projects\proj1
Transcript is going to be saved in project folder: No
Location of Transcript: C:\tmp\easytranscript\Projects\proj1.etp
Create a new Document: Yes
Name of document: proj1.rtf
Location of media file: C:\tmp\foo.m4a
Create a Copy of media file: No
Monitor working time: Yes

At this point, I belatedly realized _all_ the
freeware programs in this list are simply an audio player
with an integrated text editor 9with a few bells & whistles).

Sigh.

Sadly, I'm becoming, slowly, very slowly, the "expert",
where if I know more than you do about this, that's just sad.
--
The high cost of freeware is in finding something that does the job.

[Arlen Holder]

On Wed, 11 Nov 2020 06:56:04 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

> Transcribe means, apparently, you M-A-N-U-A-L-L-Y type the words!
> o (Which, IMHO, is utterly useless for my stated purpose.)

With this new knowledge in mind, I looked more closely at the next list!

o 10 Best Transcription Software for Windows (Free+Paid)
<http://www.crunchytricks.com/2016/05/transcription-software-for-windows.html>
1. Listen N Write

<http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/33733-listen_n_write>
2. Eurescribe
<http://eurescribe.en.softonic.com/>
3. MAXQDA
<http://www.maxqda.com/products/maxqda>

4. Transcribe! - Seventh String

<http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/download_windows.html>

5. Enhilex Medical Transcription Software

<http://enhilex.com/medical-transcription-software.html>
6. Transcribe
<https://transcribe.wreally.com/>
7. Transcriber Pro
<http://transcriber-pro.com/en>
8. Transcription Helper
<http://transcription-helper.soft112.com/>
9. Voice Again
<http://voice-again.en.softonic.com/>

10. Microsoft Speech to Text Transcribe

<https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transcribe-your-recordings-7fc2efec-245e-45f0-b053-2a97531ecf57>

Listen N Write
o Apparently this is nothing more than a media player + text editor

Eurescribe
o Yet another worthless (for our purpose) player plus integrated editor.

MAXQDA
o Just a player (with foot pedal control) plus editor.

Transcribe! - Seventh String
o Just a player (with foot pedal control) plus editor.

Enhilex Medical Transcription Software
o It's a one-month trial version; hence utterly worthless.

Transcribe
o This one claims "automatic" transcription, so it's worth a check
<https://transcribe.wreally.com>

Transcriber Pro
o It's hard to tell but it seems like just a player plus editor.

Transcription Helper
o Appears to be just a player with an integrated editor.

Voice Again
o Same as the rest, but this one can slow down well, they say.

Microsoft Speech to Text Transcribe

o We covered this already, where this "might" work for our purpose.

In summary of this review, only one tool "appears" (at first glance)
to be an "automatic transcription" tool, which is "Transcribe"
o <https://transcribe.wreally.com>
--
Finding the best freeware often entails finding someone who has used it.

[Arlen Holder]

On Wed, 11 Nov 2020 07:23:18 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

> Transcribe

> o This one claims "automatic" transcription, so it's worth a check
> <https://transcribe.wreally.com>

On Transcribe, I was wrong (again)....
o Sigh...

Transcribe
o <https://transcribe.wreally.com>

Drat.
o It's an _online_ transcription tool.

Nonetheless, it's an "automatic transcription" tool.
o Woo hoo!

So let's move forward...

Press the "Start Transcribing Now" button:
o <https://transcribe.wreally.com/signup>
"We offer a free 1-week preview."
"If you don't have the money, we can work out a deal."

Drat.
o I hate programs masquerading as "freeware" that simply aren't.

Transcribe is yet another bust
--
Finding good freeware entails finding someone who knows something about it.

[Arlen Holder]

UPDATE

I just now tackled the last reference found in the original search effort:

o How to Convert MP3 to Text with 12 Best Ways?
<https://videoconverter.wondershare.com/convert-mp3/mp3-to-text-converter.html>

Note the article lacks useful links, so I googled for the canonical links.
o I had to visit each of the web sites to figure out what the tools did.
(i.e., the review essentially sucked)

Part 1. Top 8 Ways to Convert Audio to Text You Can Try
1. Watson Speech to Text

<https://www.ibm.com/cloud/watson-speech-to-text>
It has a "get started" for free button, but then you have to create
an account, and it smelled suspiciously like payware so I dropped it.

2. Sonix
<https://sonix.ai>
(Apparently it's an automatic transcriber, but it's a 30-minute trial.)

3. Happy Scribe
<https://www.happyscribe.com>
(Apparently it's an automatic transcriber, but it's 12 Euros an hour.)

4. Rev
<https://www.rev.com>
(Apparently it's a human transcriber, at cost.)

5. AmberScript
<https://www.amberscript.com/en/speech-to-text>
(Apparently it's an automatic transcriber, but it's a 30-minute trial.)

6. Vocalmatic
<https://vocalmatic.com/auto-transcribe/mp3-to-text>
(Apparently it's an automatic transcriber, but it's a 30-minute trial.)

7. Bear File Converter
<https://www.ofoct.com/audio-converter/audio-to-text.html>
Apparentlky it's an online free automatic speech-to-text transcriber.
File size limit is 3MB (mp3,wav,ogg,wma).
I used Audacity 2.4.2 to truncate foo.m4a to less than 3MB chunks.
I had to add FFmpeg into Audacity to read the M4A file though.
The 16-minute YouTube extracted foo.m4a file was 15MB.
That's about a MB per minute.
So I cut it to the first 3 minutes using Audacity.
original 16-minute foo.m4a 15,511 KB
3-min-foo.mp3 3,231 KB (Bear File Converter wouldn't take this)
3-min-foo.wav 31,413 KB (Bear File Converter wouldn't take this)
3-min-foo.ogg 2,557 KB (Bear File Converter took this file)
But then Bear File Converter said "Convert failed!"
There was no explaination as to why it failed.
I tried both the Baidu & CMU Sphinx speech recognition engines.

So I made it only 2 minutes long:
2-min-foo.mp3 2,201 KB (Bear File Converter said "Convert failed!")
2-min-foo.wav 21,540 KB (Bear File Converter wouldn't take this)
2-min-foo.ogg 1,748 KB (Bear File Converter said "Convert failed!")
Again I tried both Baidu & CMU Sphinx speech recognition algorithms.
So, while it seemed like a good idea, Bear is a bust.

8. 360Converter
<https://www.360converter.com/conversion/video2TextConversion>
Apparentlky it's an online free automatic speech-to-text transcriber.
Apparently it's limited to 300 seconds at a time.
I gave it the 2-minute mp3 file where it said:
"Your request has been put in queue, 54 request(s) before yours."
It's nice that it counts down in the queue so you know your position.
Here is the result...
[UH] ~~~~~~~

?0.07 - 4.4
hey guys well come back to know the huge effort is video in this video i'm
going to be tearing down apples and new i found twelve to see how
repairable that devices

?4.4 - 13.01
that was be known in the past to look down parts inside the devices to

?13.01 - 16.86
even third party repair according to apple the offices stores and data
centers for one on one hundred percent renewable

?16.86 - 23.3
our energy and by two thousand thirty apples aiming for a zero climate
impacts so to me that says

?23.3 - 29.13
the vice should be able to be repaired when the time comes to prevent it
from becoming a waste to test this out of purchase to i find twelve which
i'm going to be swapping and into changing parts on to say taking

?29.13 - 41.73
the blue i find twelve out of the box first you can see included with it
was a us the key to lightning cable with

?41.73 - 49.83
now repair adapt up apple says they've move the challenge and head finds to
cut waste also stating that there was already two billion apple pair
adapters in the world not including third party charges the problem with
almost all of

?49.83 - 63.57
those charges is that they have a different plug on the end of them i
meaning you can't connect the species cabled so you'll need

?63.57 - 70.54
go out and by the apple pair and after a similar third party one to make
that work

?70.54 - 76.14
people has only recently switched to the peak pair adapt with it first
shipping with the iphone eleven

?76.14 - 81.94
however many people are going to be upgrading from older phones and their
challenges well no longer work with this cable well apple like

?81.94 - 88.59
really switched to speak cables so to connect to their computers which
don't have a regular us

?88.59 - 93.43
put however we an air stuck with this situation with no paradox

?93.43 - 99.03
now our head finds included all that really comes with the fine is some
paperwork and one apple

?99.03 - 105.11
back up i could remove the protective film from the display panel and i can
meet across to house second i find twelve that's right i had to bite

?105.11 - 114.1
of them for this video and as these farms so new

?114.1 - 117.53
that there isn't any parts available on the market

?117.53 - 120.04

Part 2. Top 3 Software to Transcribe MP3 to Text

Note: For reasons stated below, I didn't test any of these.

1. Google Speech to Text

<https://cloud.google.com/speech-to-text/>
It can only work in real-time and not with prerecorded files.
So I didn't test it with the YouTube ripped foo.m4a file.

2. Inqscribe
<https://www.inqscribe.com>
Apparently it's an automatic speech to text file converter.
(It doesn't accept mic input, but the goal was a ripped M4a file.)
(I don't even have a mic anyway.)

3. HyperTranscribe
<http://www.researchware.com/products/hypertranscribe.html>
It's hard to tell if this is an automatic converter or not.

Part 3. MP3 Format to Text App for Chrome to Recommended

1. Various Chrome extensions

<https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/transcribe-transcribe-aud/ogokenmicnjdfhmhocanoemnddmpcjjm>
That is just a browser hijack to <https://transcribe.wreally.com>
which we already covered.

<https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/voice-to-text/jdcdafhjjjfnkoeilnjmnadadaoehgdc>
Yet another browser hijack; this one to <https://www.speechtexter.com>

<https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speech-to-text-voice-reco/kcgloaobfaiejoiahlhnfaolfcifjjho>
One more Chrome browser hijack; this one to Keller.

There are tons of these Chrome browser hijacks, apparently:
<https://techtippr.com/voice-typing-chrome-extensions/>

In summary, only one of the methods worked above, and even that method was
online, and even then, it was limited to 300-second audio snippets.
--
Figuring out freeware often entails finding someone who has used it before.