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Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 30, 2023
Open for Voting

Audio Track Selection for Source Media Transcription

  • May 30, 2023
  • 74 replies
  • 10320 views

Edit 12/15/24: Update on Multichannel Audio Transcription Support. Tests on PR Release 25.0.0 confirm that this is working for mono and stereo, and that the problem with Sony FX MXF files was fixed. Users experiencing problems should start a new thread and ask for assistance. Include information about the files used and process for transcribing.


PR Release version 24.0.0 added transcription of multiple audio channels for source media for mono, and stereo was added in Release Version 24.1.0.

 

Manual transcription occurs when right-clicking the source in the Project Panel, or using the 3 dot menu in the Text Panel.
If PR recognizes the file as having multiple channels, it adds "Channel Selection" to the options in the "Create Transcription for Source Media" dialogue. If it does not see multiple channels, you do not see that option.

 

Automatic transcription occurs when you set preferences to transcribe files when they are imported to the project or added to a sequence. It also occurs when untranscribed sources are in a sequence, and the Transcribe button is clicked in the Text Panel.


Auto-transcription uses a mix of the audio tracks. This works well as long as there is little overlap of dialogue on multiple channels.

 

An earlier post in this thread provides more detail:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-ideas/audio-track-selection-for-source-media-transcription/idc-p/14284739#M12271


Edit 10/30/23: Update on Multichannel Audio Transcription Support. PR Release version 24.0.0 added transcription of multiple audio channels for source media, but only for mono. Stereo has been added in the Beta version, and is in active development.

 

Auto-transcription still looks only at audio track one.

 

If PR recognizes the file as having multiple channels, it adds "Channel Selection" to the options in the "Create Transcription for Source Media" dialogue. If it does not see multiple channels, you do not see that option.

 

Some MXF files with multiple mono channels are not yet working correctly.

 

See these posts from staff:

 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-beta-bugs/text-based-editing-doesn-t-work-with-multiple-audio-channels/idc-p/14155069#M1380

 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-ideas/audio-track-selection-for-source-media-transcription/idc-p/14113645#M11053

 

https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro-ideas/audio-track-selection-for-source-media-transcription/idc-p/14132036#M11257

 

Original Post: Text-Based Editing/Source Media Transcription as rolled out in Releaase 23.4.0 does not allow for the selection of which audio track to transcribe, but transcribes only track 1. From forum posts, users often appear to have multiple audio tracks per file, including microphone, camera(s), sound board input, etc. The workarounds quickly become onerous.

 

I recognize the difficulty, which is encountered when using nesting workaround. Instead of one transcription per clip, you must have multiple transcriptions per clip. In my experiments, the audio track picked currently for transcription is not changed by mapping audio channels etc. So any method using multiple audio tracks/transcriptions would need to name them in a way that the user could understand and track.

 

Workarounds:

 

  1. Modify the source file so the desired clip is audio track 1.
  2. Place the clip in a sequence, create a static transcription (which allows audio track selection), and then nest that sequence. That nested sequence carries the transcription and behaves like a source transcription.
  3. Select the multitrack file in the Project Panel and Clip -> Audio Options -> Extract Audio. This creates as many files as there are audio tracks, named [Filename] + Extracted.wav, [Filename] + Extracted_1.wav, etc. Note that the numbers are in revers order to the audio tracks in a sequence. For example, if there are 2 audio tracks, the file named ...Extracted_1.wav will be audio track one and the file named without the _1 will be track two.

 

Note that anytime transcribed clips are on different tracks in a timeline, the higher-ranking track (e.g. audio track 1 is higher than audio track 2) will be active.

 

If you are upvoting this idea, be sure to click the numbering box in the upper left of the thread, not just individual posts.

 

Stan

 

 

74 replies

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 29, 2023

@Elements Headshots,

 

Your posts are fine. What helps the most is a screenshot that shows the timeline, text panel, and project panel together, like your first screenshot.

 

FYI, if you add an untranscribed source file to a sequence, it shows "[clip] is untranscribed" and gives a "transcribe" button. If you use that button, it does not open the "Create transcript for source media" dialogue, and you don't get the option to select an audio channel. Even though it is not what is set as "auto-transcription," it fits that exception to setting an audio channel.

 

Stan

 

Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

Build 35 is the latest available on Mac.

Doesn't really matter anyway.  Transcribing a single track doesn't solve the issue.  What's really weird is that when you transcribe a multichannel source, Premiere analyzes all of the audio tracks. It then ignores everything but the first one.

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 29, 2023

@Gerald21842482fek3, This was a problem in build 35 that is fixed in build 37.

 

Stan

 

Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

I updated to Build 35 on iMac M1.  When trying to transcribe an AVC Intra 50 file with 8 tracks of 24bit audio I get an error: TypeError: l.getClipCount is not a function

Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

I thought I posted my screenshots as a reply to Kerstin Ebert's message, but maybe I replied in the wrong place. Posted 3 screenshots.

Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

 

Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

 

Stan Jones
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 29, 2023

@Kerstin Ebert,

 

Build 37 fixed the new issues in Build 35, so I am back in business.

 

Filler words now show. It is possible I did not have a current transcription when I was testing. And short transcriptions may not have any filler words.

 

I was confused about filler words. I mis-read Teresa's post to say you could select filler words transcribing. And I was expecting a filler word section in the transcription dialogue. I'm clear on that now.

 

Multi-channel transcription option shows for a multichannel sample. It did not before for one file I tried in Build 32. It does not show for a regular stereo file.

 

A 4 mono channel audio-only file appears to work but only transcribes channel 1 no matter which channel is selected ("Captain Imad" lol). It does this whether picking it from the Project Panel -> Right-click Transcribe, or opening in the Source Monitor, and Text Panel/transcribe.

 

Dragging it to the New icon creates a four track mono sequence. Doing a static transcript and selecting various channels creates the correct channel for the transcript.

 

Re-transcribing multichannel audio source overwrites the previous transcription. I'm sure users are going to want to keep multiple transcriptions. For example, one of the workflows described was a file with 4 channels, ambient, lav on speaker 1, lav on speaker 2, and interviewer, etc.

 

Keep up the good work! Kudos to the team.

 

Stan

 

Edited to clarify that my comment about retranscription applied to the multichannel audio source.

Kerstin Ebert
Adobe Employee
Adobe Employee
September 29, 2023

Are you using a multi channel mono file? Or a stereo file? Could you please share a screenshot of the dialogue you're seeing?

 

Thanks,

Kerstin

Xzault
Participating Frequently
September 29, 2023

I have auto transcribe turned off, it does not give me that option to choose my audio channel, it only wants me to chose language and speaker labeling options. MAybe im missing something ?