The Basics of Typing in Transcribe!
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Transcribe! is a great program for anyone that loves to transcribe music from home recordings. Although Transcribe! makes it a lot easier, it still is pretty hard work; if you've never transcended to transcribe music from home recordings then it might be a good idea just to begin with using more conventional methods - utilizing a perfectly normal music software for the first transcriptions.
When typing in music it is important to find a nice balance between speed and pitch, which is easier said than done. When typing in music with the fast key-switch method the result will often be garbled messes of letters and symbols that mean nothing together whatsoever. However, when you are used to typing in the key-switch method, the key-switch technique allows for very fast typing and also results in the separation of words that may not be instantly obvious to the naked eye (and some keys may not seem quite appropriate to press depending on what you're attempting to transcribe). The best way to practice typing in this manner is to simply type as fast as you can in an attempt to get some kind of standardization. The key to making standardization possible is to learn how to recognize certain words when typing them, and again it helps to be able to recognize those words when they are repeated within your own music. Once you have developed a habit of typing in this manner then you can really work at improving your typing speed, which is the real key to becoming an effective transcriber.
When you begin typing in Transcribe! you will want to make sure to use a program or application that provides a range of key shortcuts. For example, rather than typing it, which usually signifies key-finger up-and-down, simply type c, which will indicate that you want to highlight (increase) the current key on the keyboard. Along the same lines, rather than just hitting the Enter key when you wish to repeat a character, type the letters in reversed order so that you see the letter all the way down (thus, esc instead of es).
