Convert speech to text metadata

Adobe Premiere Pro and Soundbooth let you convert spoken words into text transcripts, which you edit and search just like other metadata properties. This powerful technology lets you navigate to time locations at which specific words are spoken, helping you better align edits, advertising, and subtitles.

For a video about searching speech to speed up editing, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4070_pr

Note: Accurate speech transcripts require good audio quality. Background noise significantly reduces accuracy. To remove such noise, use the tools and processes in Soundbooth.

Transcribe spoken words

In the workspace, select a file or clip.
At the bottom of the Metadata panel, click Transcribe.
Set the Language and Quality options, and select Identify Speakers if you want to create separate transcripts for each person.
Click OK.

The spoken words appear in the Speech Transcript section. Processing time roughly equals clip length. If a clip is one minute long, for example, the transcript will appear after roughly one minute.
(Required) Save the project to retain the transcript.

If you import files with a speech transcript into After Effects, each word appears as a layer marker in compositions.

Navigate to a specific word in a transcript

In the Speech Transcript section, select the word.

Timecode In and Duration indicate the precise location and length of your selection.
To hear the selection, click either Play or Loop Playback. (The latter option repeatedly plays the selected word, with some preroll and postroll.)

Edit a transcript

In the Speech Transcript section, do any of the following:

To correct a word, click it, and type.
To insert, delete, merge, cut, or copy words, right-click an existing word, and choose a command from the context menu.

Copy a complete transcript to the clipboard

You can copy a complete transcript to the clipboard for use in text-editing applications.

Right-click the transcript, and choose Copy All.

Note: Because transcripts are associated with specific timecode, you cannot paste an edited transcript from another application into the Metadata panel.