TranscriptionTips.com

Equipment

The basic equipment you need for transcription (besides your computer) is a foot pedal and a headset.

The purpose of the foot pedal is to play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward the audio files, because it is usually not possible to type at the speed someone is talking.

You can do the tests for most companies without the foot pedal by using keyboard commands to play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward the audio files. But if you are accepted by a company, you would probably find it much easier to play the audio using a foot pedal. Not everyone uses a foot pedal, but most people do.

The type of foot pedal you will usually need to get is an Infinity USB foot pedal. Note, though, that you should verify whether the company with which you are applying needs you to get another type.

Infinity USB foot pedals are usually around $70 retail, and cheaper, of course, from eBay.

One place you can get a new foot pedal from is http://www.tvps.com.

The purpose of the headset is to allow you to hear the audio more clearly.

You can do the tests also without a headset as long as you can hear well through your speakers. But you can almost always hear better through a headset.

You can get headsets at Best Buy, Radio Shack or anywhere like that. It’s extremely important to try them out, whenever possible, so that you can see which is most comfortable for you. It may be trial and error over time to see which work the best for you.

In addition to music headphones, or headphones for VoIP, there are transcription headphones. One type is Spectra under-the-chin headphones that are made for transcription through the computer. They connect via USB port and have audio control on the cord (and a shirt clip so the audio control device doesn't pull the headphones out of your ears).