Inserting pauses to aid transcription.

This is a simple effect that inserts silences at regular intervals into a track.

The controls are described in the included help screen:

Transcription Pauses:

This effect inserts silences at regular intervals into
the selected audio.

CONTROLS:

Interval: Silence will be inserted after each interval.

Pause for: How much silence will be inserted each time.

Overlap: When set greater than 0 seconds, the audio will
resume after each silence taking a starting point from
before the end of the previous section. Thus the end of
one audio section will be repeated at the start of the
next audio section. ‘Overlap’ sets how much audio to
repeat.

transcription-pauses.ny (2.82 KB)
To install the plug-in, place the transcription-pauses.ny file in the Plug-Ins folder inside the Audacity installation folder.

  • On Windows computers, this is usually at C:Program FilesAudacity. On 64-bit Windows this directory will be “Program Files (x86)” then as appropriate.
  • On Mac OS X, it is usually under /Applications.
  • On Linux this is usually /usr/share/audacity/ if you installed a repository package of Audacity or /usr/local/share/audacity if you compiled Audacity. Note: You must log in as root to access /usr. Repository packages of Audacity may overwrite this folder. An easier alternative may be to create ~/.audacity-files/plug-ins/ in your home folder (the “.” in the path means it is a hidden folder).

Restart Audacity, then the plug-ins will appear as "Transcription Pauses…" underneath the divider in the “Effect” menus.

Caution:
This plug-in loads the entire selected audio into memory. If the computer does not have sufficient free RAM, then Audacity could crash or freeze. I would advise ensuring that you have a current backup of all work before running this effect.

Wasn’t there something similar to this you already wrote that inserted silences? Or was that for expanding an existing silence (the opposite of Truncate Silence)?

Sorry I don’t follow the Nyquist board, so I don’t know.

David Sky’s Audio Chunker did something similar to this (attached). We ought to go through his plug-in packs sometime then upload the best of the remaining contents to Nyquist Plug-in Packs and Legacy Plug-ins .


Gale
CHUNKER.NY (2.93 KB)

I wrote something for expanding silences.

Yes, similar type of effect, but different application.

Are there more?

Perhaps those two could be combined if we ever get a more flexible Nyquist plug-in interface? Aren’t the use cases similar (transcription or language learning)?

I only seem to have one pack which includes effects and generators.


Gale

Hi Steve, I tried this plugin several times, but each time when remaining time is down to zero, runtime continues and basically no pauses have been inserted. I do have plenty of RAM available.
Has anyone else experienced this?

I also tried the chunker listed further below but that plugin only allows to input how many chunks we want, while I need sth that simply pauses the replay at sec intervals I determine.

In short, I haven’t yet found how to do this successfully in Audacity. Would you or anyone know?

Cheers, David

How long is the track? Try operating on the track in sections.

What happens if you press the Debug button? If that Debug window has any output, please post it.


Gale

Thank you, yes, that is the error. Seemingly the plugin cannot work on a gigabyte file. Once I only worked on sections of it, it worked. :slight_smile:
Thank you again!

I found out: The transcription pauses plugin may actually be able to deal with large files too, the problem however is:
It shows time passed and remaining time to work on the file, but even when remainin time shows 00:00 for ages already, the plugin is still processing.

I noticed, because this happens with smaller files too, only that the processing box then fairly soon disappears. While with a large file of course, it may stay there for hours, and the user thinks “damn, it crashed!”.

Suggestion: Why not a) show ACTUAL remaining time, or if too difficult to implement, b) DON’T show the wrong remaining time at all. Just show “Processing” - until finished :mrgreen:

Other than that: The Transcription Pauses plugin works well!
However, another suggestion (I have loads I know :mrgreen: ):
Wouldn’t it be technically possible to have the plugin offer (another?) option to insert pauses AT SENSIBLE SPEAKER’s PAUSES?

Say, the plugin would detect “huuh, the guy stopped talking, he’s breathing now” [no sound other than background noise]
Then it insert the pause [ie makes the quiet just longer]

This would allow for a much more natural transcription process, having pauses not in the middle of a spoken word. Good idea?

It is mainly a interface problem between the plug-in and Audacity.
The progress bar is based on how many samples from the original track are processed. Since there is a lot of new Audio inserted, the past and remaining time won’t fit.

Try this plug-in: Extend Silences

Just to flesh out Robert’s (correct) explanation; Nyquist plug-ins all share the same code for generating the user interface. In most Nyquist plug-ins the progress bar gives a reasonable indication of the processing progress (based on the number or samples processed) so we probably don’t want to eliminate the progress bar from all Nyquist plug-ins.

Note for Robert J.H.
I’ve sent you a private message (not about this topic).
Steve

However, another suggestion (I have loads I know > :mrgreen: > ):
Wouldn’t it be technically possible to have the plugin offer (another?) option to insert pauses AT SENSIBLE SPEAKER’s PAUSES?

Say, the plugin would detect “huuh, the guy stopped talking, he’s breathing now” [no sound other than background noise]
Then it insert the pause [ie makes the quiet just longer]

This would be soooo good, it would have a number of uses in transcription and language learning (word lists with definitions for example, adding a 5 second silence for the learner to try to answer on his or her own)

Thanks, it’s working fine. Very handy for listening and repeating practice.