ProZ.com Translation Forums

Voice recognition tools | LilySpeech

Eric Le Carre — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:44:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Eric Le Carre
Post title: LilySpeech

Another option could be LilySpeech which comes in a free version and a paid premium version worth $29,99 a year.

It's available at: [url removed]

Hope it helps.

Éric

Voice recognition tools | Food for thought, thanks to all contributors

kevin furber — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 09:45:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: kevin furber
Post title: Food for thought, thanks to all contributors

All this information is really useful and exactly what I need. I can now weigh up all the possibilities and see which one suits my needs.
I'm not technical, but if I decided to go for Talon, I will make it work. I would like to try the voicenotebook Chrome extension first as this is a cheap solution and may work for me. Thanks for this Kurt.
I appreciate Dan's contribution regarding which versions of Dragon are on sale, and which are not and the prices. It just seems too expensive.
I do not have much sympathy for Dragon, as I think they have made millions on their software over the last decades and are still doing so. I have noticed that many medical specialists and even lawyers seem to be using Dragon in their daily business and I'm sure they have paid through the nose for the software. They have chosen to put the price up apparently and target the high end of the market.

Voice recognition tools | Voicenotebook and Braina

Recep Kurt — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:22:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Recep Kurt
Post title: Voicenotebook and Braina

I actively use [url removed]
You install a Chrome extension and also download and extract a folder to your computer (instructions provided at the site). For Windows, Linux, Android and iOS.
Only 16 bucks per year and you can dictate to wherever you put your mouse cursor to.

There is also Braina ( [url removed] ) that I bought with a lifetime license a few years ago, but it keeps mixing up the letters "ı" and "i" and doesn't work well for Turkish, so I haven't used it in a long time. But they seem to have added a lot of features, so it might be worth checking out.

Voice recognition tools | No easy answers

Dan Lucas — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 08:08:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: No easy answers

[quote]kevin furber wrote:
179 euros would be well worth it for me. But I saw another price of the professional version of 999 euros which is too pricey for me. What's the difference between the versions of Dragon. [/quote]
Gently, I think price and version differences are things you can research yourself.

However, as a kind of public service announcement I would point out that because Dragon 16 is now the latest version, Dragon 15 is no longer sold by Nuance/Microsoft. It may be that some retailers have physical stock of Dragon 15 with a DVD and so on, but I would imagine they would be hard to find.

For example, this page has Dragon 15:
[url removed]

But then it directs you to another page for the downloadable version:
[url removed]

...and that page says that the software is unavailable and you should buy Dragon 16 instead. A look at this page:
[url removed]

...reveals that Dragon Professional 16 costs a cool £619, and as far as I know there is no Home version. I have a license for Dragon 15, and there is very little in Dragon 16 that improves on the previous version (apparently there have been some technical changes under the surface). For that reason I did not think I could justify the upgrade and have stayed with Dragon 15, although I don't think I have run the software since the spring of last year.

Slightly less expensive would be Dragon 15 Professional Individual, but that would still be £418.80. Is also unclear to me as to whether they can actually ship/download this or not, because the site to which they ultimately link does not have any Dragon 15 software listed:
[url removed]

If you can find a genuine version (preferably in a box) that sells for 179 euros, as you say, that looks like a good deal to me. If it is downloadable that is potentially an issue because Nuance seems to have discontinued permission for such downloads (physical stock can of course continue to be sold). If someone is selling a downloadable version, where did they get it, do they have permission to sell it, and would it be supported?

I'm afraid it's just not easy. Voice recognition is one of those areas where there are few established suppliers with decent technology so there has not been much choice in "polished" software for many years. Moreover, it is not an area in which much active investment is taking place, because of competition from things like Talon, or Whisper, or from the operating system itself (Windows or macOS).

From the corporate perspective, what's the point in spending hundreds of thousands of dollars developing new software if nobody will buy it? Conversely, from the user perspective, what's the point in spending many hundreds of dollars for voice recognition when you have something in the operating system that may do a decent job for general speech?

If, like me, you really need to use voice recognition software due to pain in hands, arms or shoulders, and it needs to be genuinely capable, then you have little choice. You either need to pony up and buy Dragon (which may be the best option if your translation business generates thousands of euro every month), or you need to evolve away from a fixed mindset of "I'm not technical" and put some effort into learning Talon or a similar system. Both paths have their drawbacks.

Regards,
Dan

Voice recognition tools | Dragon with Déjà VY CAT tool / Price and version of Dragon

kevin furber — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 17:34:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: kevin furber
Post title: Dragon with Déjà VY CAT tool / Price and version of Dragon

Thanks Dan for your very helpful post. I agree regarding Trados that it only works for basic dictation, however with my main CAT tool, Déjà Vu, which is a very old version, Dragon worked really well in the past. I like the way you put the problem in perspective.
Can I justify the expense of Dragon? The answer could be yes but I'm getting various prices online Dragon Home 15 seems to sell for 179 euros. Is this version any good? I can't remember which version I had previously unfortunately.

This question of price was a major part of my original post. How much is Dragon now?

I agree with you I would be better with Dragon than Talon as I'm not very geeky. I like software to be easy to use and polished. 179 euros would be well worth it for me. But I saw another price of the professional version of 999 euros which is too pricey for me. What's the difference between the versions of Dragon.

Voice recognition tools | Limitations

Dan Lucas — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:22:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Dan Lucas
Post title: Limitations

[quote]kevin furber wrote:
When I was using Dragon, I used it seamlessly with the Déjà Vu CAT tool and sometimes a little less easily with Trados. Does Talon function with CAT tools? [/quote]
None of the advanced functionality in Dragon (editing commands and so on) ever worked within Trados, as far as I know. So simple dictation was fine, but even a minor mistake would require you to type. Of course, you can use DragonPad, although I found it slow and cumbersome. Maybe DragonPad is what you used before?

Like Michael I have moved to Talon, partly because Dragon doesn't seem to be actively developed any more, and partly because Talon is simply more powerful and extensible. It does take some getting used to, so I suspect from your comments above that you would not find it an easy journey.

If you can justify the expense, and you really need voice recognition, I would stick with Dragon.
If you can't justify the expense, and you really need voice recognition, I would try Talon.
If you can't justify the expense, and you don't really need voice recognition, I would forget about it.

I tried Windows voice recognition last year when I was having problems with Dragon, and it isn't close to either Talon or Dragon for professional work. Maybe it depends what you're using it for.

Regards,
Dan

Voice recognition tools | MacOS

Tom in London — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:15:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Tom in London
Post title: MacOS

The MacOS comes with a built-in speech recognition tool that I use all the time, not only for translation but within numerous other applications as well. It isn't perfect but then, none of them are. After you've been using it for a while, it learns. And of course there are no bugs because it is completely integrated into the operating system (and is included in the price)

[Edited at 2025-01-23 14:17 GMT]

Voice recognition tools | Which versons of Windows have speech recognition.

kevin furber — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 12:26:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: kevin furber
Post title: Which versons of Windows have speech recognition.

Hi Birte, thanks for this brilliant idea.
It did cross my mind to have a look for this function. My windows must be quite old now though. Where can I find the speech recognition function? I just looked in Accessories and can't find anything.

Voice recognition tools | Windows speech recognition

Birte Mirbach — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:18:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Birte Mirbach
Post title: Windows speech recognition

The newer Windows versions already have speech recognition on board, and as far as I know the same applies to mac computers. So I would try that first before spending a lot of money. At least for German texts it works quite okay.

Voice recognition tools | What do you means by Geeky? Can I use Talon with CAT tools?

kevin furber — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 07:55:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: kevin furber
Post title: What do you means by Geeky? Can I use Talon with CAT tools?

Thanks for your reply. It's very interesting that you have Dragon but prefer to use Talon. When you say geeky, do you mean it has a lot of complex functions?
I remember Dragon being relatively easy to understand and it took only two or three hours to get going. I'm tempted by Talon if it is cheaper, but I don't want to suffer too much getting going with speech recognition again.
When I was using Dragon, I used it seamlessly with the Déjà Vu CAT tool and sometimes a little less easily with Trados. Does Talon function with CAT tools?

Voice recognition tools | Talon Voice

Michael Beijer — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 22:34:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: Michael Beijer
Post title: Talon Voice

Even though I have an up-to-date licence for the latest version of Dragon, and have for the last 10 years or so, I use Talon in my daily work as a translator, both for dictation and for voice commands. It's a little geeky, but very much worth the effort to learn how to use it.

[url removed]

see also:
• [url removed] (my post)
• [url removed] (voice_command_and_dictation_software)
• [url removed] (warning: high level of geekiness; the guys on the knowbrainer.com forum are the most knowledgable people I have ever come across when it comes to speech recognition)

[Edited at 2025-01-22 22:40 GMT]

[Edited at 2025-01-22 22:40 GMT]

Voice recognition tools

kevin furber — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 14:23:00 +0000

Forum: Speech recognition
Topic: Voice recognition tools
Poster: kevin furber

I would like to know which is the best voice recognition software. I used to use Dragon naturally speaking about ten years ago and it was fantastic, but I just looked at the prices and unless I'm mistaken the price has gone up a lot. I remember paying about 100 or maximum 150 euros for this software, now it seems to be much more expensive. Are there any good cheaper alternatives?