Transcription Shootout: DaVinci Resolve, Descript, FCP, FlexClip, Premiere Pro

Several local programs and online services now offer transcription: one in English so far (Apple FCP) and several others offer it it multiple languages. One of them boasts a very enticing feature called a Transcription Glossary but sadly fails to fulfill in my experience. In this Transcription Shootout, we fed the same exact English dication WAV file to Adobe’s Premiere Pro, Apple’s FCP, Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve Studio and FlexClip. After that, I sent a Castilian (aka «Spanish») WAV to all of them except FCP since Apple says its transcription is still English-only, although it promises other languages soon. Even in the English recording, I intentionally included certain famous Castilian/Hispanic names and borrowed common Castilian terms used in English, including weather phenomana like el niño and la niña as well as the party container called piñata. Ahead, I’ll share the original audio file, the original script and the raw (uncorrected) transcript (without timecodes and without adding punctuation) from each to compare the quality. I’ll also credit the two friends who helped with the transcription where I didn’t have the software available and then make some conclusions.

Original US English script + recording

https://www.provideocoalition.com/wp-content/uploads/Transcription-test-English.wav?_=1

Above is the original English recording, which which is the same one we sent to each software. Below is the original English script:

This is a human test recording. I’m Allan Tépper. I’m making this human recording to test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services, to find out which one is the best in general, with brand names which include numbers, and some famous Castilian names. One of our tested services includes a Transcription Glossary which sadly rejects terms which include numbers. I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article.

This episode is not sponsored by 2 Wire, 3M, 7-Eleven, Forever 21, Capital One, 7Up, Six Flags, A1 Steak Sauce, Five Guys, Four Seasons, 23andMe, Cloud9, Four Peaks, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Formula One, Motel 6, Timbuk2 or WKRP in Cincinnati.

Some famous Castilian names and terms often mentioned in English include: Juliana Aidén, the last name Martinez, the last name Álvarez, Antonio Banderas, my podcast and radio show CapicúaFM, the last name Castillo, the last name Domínguez, the brand name Elgato, the last name Hernández, the weather phenomena El Niño and La Niña, the last name García, the last name Hernández, the last name Marín, Julio Iglesias, Alana De La Garza, Ricardo Montalbán, Cote de Pablo (who was actually born as María José de Pablo Fernández), the party container called piñata and Roselýn Sánchez.

Now let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcription. All of them will receive this same recording.

Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve raw English transcription (including native errors)

Here in ProVideo Coalition, we are only covering the results from the English one. To see the results from the Castilian version of this test, visit Competencia de transcriptores in Escuchalibros.

This is a human test recording. I’m Alan Tepper. I’m making this human recording to test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services to find out which one is the best in general, with brand names which include numbers, and some famous Castilian names. One of our tested services includes a transcription glossary, which sadly rejects terms which include numbers. I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article.

This episode is not sponsored by Two Wire, 3M, 711, Forever 21, Capital One, 7UP, Six Flags, A1 Steak Sauce, Five Guys, Four Seasons, 23andMe, Cloud9, Four Peaks, Big Five Sporting Goods, Formula One, Motel Six, Timbuktu, or WKRP in Cincinnati.(…) Some famous Castilian names and terms often mentioned in English include Juliana Aydin, the last name Martínez, the last name Alvaré, Antonio Banderas, my podcast and radio show Capico F.A.M.A., the last name Castillo, the last name Domingue, the brand name Elgato, the last name Hernandez, the weather phenomena El Nino and La Nina, the last name Garthia, the last name Hernandez, the last name Marín, Julio Iglesias, Alana de la Garza, Ricardo Montalban, Cote de Pablo, who was actually born as Maria Jose de Pablo Fernandez, the party container called Pinata and Rosalind Sanchez.(…) Now let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcription.

All of them will receive this same recording.

1. I separately fed my DaVinci Resolve Studio version 20.3 build 10 with the English WAV audio file.
2. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed my first name (Allan) as well known alternate (Alan). This was identical with all of the other programs.
3. Premiere Pro transcribed by last name (Tépper) but without including the accent mark.
4. Beyond the missing uppercase/lowercase, DaVinci Resolve Studio did a very good job with nearly all of the brand-names except for Timbuk2. With this section and in general, DaVinci Resolve did an impecable job with punctuation compared with the others.
5. DaVinci Resolve Studio botched Juliana Aidén’s last name as did all of the others.
6. DaVinci Resolve Studio was the only one of the others (in English) to transcribe that last name Martínez with its proper accent mark. (Perhaps there is a Martínez on the DaVinci team who made that happen.)
7. DaVinci Resolve Studio misinterpreted the last name Álvarez as «Alvaré», removing the final z and moving the accent mark to a different syllable.
8. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed Antonio Banderas’s first and last name perfectly.
9. DaVinci Resolve Studio misinterpreted my radio and podcast CapicúaFM name as «Capico F.A.M.A.»
10. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed the last name Castillo perfectly.
11. DaVinci Resolve studio misinterpreted the last name Domínguez as «Domingue» and omitted the accent mark.
12. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed the brand name Elgato perfectly.
13. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed the last name Hernández but omitted the accent mark.
14. DaVinci Resolve Studio substituted a bare n instead of the sacred ñ when transcribing the weather phenomena El Niño and La Niña.
15. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed the last name García as «Garthía».
16. As it did with Martínez, DaVinci Resolve Studio was the only one of all of the others (in English) to transcribe the last name Marín perfectly with its accent mark. (Perhaps there’s a Marín on the DaVinci team who made sure that would be correct.)
17. DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed Julio Iglesia’s first and last name perfectly, as did all of the others.
18. DaVinci Resolve Studio was only two programs which properly transcribed Alana de la Garza with all of its proper letters. The other three botched her last name. Maybe there is someone with that last name on the DaVinci team who made sure this would be correct.
19. Like all of the others, DaVinci Resolve Studio transcribed Ricardo Montalbán’s first and last name with the proper letters, but omitted the accent mark on his last name.
20. DaVinci Resolve transcribed Cote de Pablo’s stage name perfectly, but omitted the accent marks on her birth name María José de Pablo Fernández.
21. DaVinci Resolve Studio sadly substituted a naked n instead of the sacred ñ in piñata.

Adobe’s Premiere Pro raw US English transcription (including native errors)

We separately fed Premiere Pro with the English audio file and the Castilian audio file. Here in ProVideo Coalition, we are only covering the results from the English one. To see the results from the Castilian version of this test, visit Competencia de transcriptores in Escuchalibros.

This is a human test recording. I’m Alan Tepper. I’m making this human recording. To test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services. To find out which one is the best in general. With brand names, which include numbers and some famous Castilian names. One of our tested services includes a transcription glossary, which sadly rejects terms which include numbers. I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article. This episode is not sponsored by two wire. 3M7 11. Forever 21. Capital one seven up. Six flags A1, steak sauce. Five guys, four. Seasons 23 and me. Cloud nine. Four peaks. Big five. Sporting goods. Formula one. Motel six. Timbuktu. Or WKRp in Cincinnati. Some famous Castilian names and terms often mentioned in English include Juliana Athing, the last name Martinez. The last name Alvaro Antonio Banderas. My podcast and radio show. Capital FM. The last name Castillo. The last name Dominguez. The brand name El Gato. The last name Hernandez. The weather phenomena. El Nino and La Nina. The last name Garcia. The last name Hernandez. The last name Marine Julio Iglesias Alana de la Agartha Ricardo Montalban. Quote the day Pablo, who was actually born as Maria Jose Pablo Fernandez, the party container called Pineda and Roselyn Sanchez.

Now let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcript. All of them will receive this same recording.

1. Thanks to our friend and renowned documentarian Rubén Abruña for his assistance with Premiere Pro. He used Premiere Pro version 25.2.0 build 147 in a iMac Pro 2017 running Ventura 13.7.4. In this case, he chose US English as the transcription language, since Premiere Pro asks for that.
2. Premiere Pro transcribed my first name (Allan) as well known alternate (Alan).
3. Premiere Pro transcribed by last name (Tépper) but without including the accent mark.
4. Beyond the missing uppercase/lowercase and punctuation errors, Premiere Pro did a very good job with nearly all of the brand-names except for Timbuk2.
5. Adobe Premiere botched Juliana Aidén’s last name as did all of the others.
6. Adobe Premiere transcribed the last name Martínez without the accent mark, but DaVinci Resolve did include the accent mark.
7. Premiere Pro botched my radio and podcast name CapicúaFM.
8. Premiere Pro properly transcribed the last name Castillo.
9. Premiere Pro transcribed the last name Domínguez although it omitted the accent mark.
10. Premiere Pro transcribed the brand name Elgato as two separate words.
11. Premiere Pro transcribed the last name Hernández although it omitted the accent mark. I had properly pronounced it with a silent H and Premiere Pro fortunately knew to include the H in the transcription.
12. Premiere Pro misinterpreted the last name Marín as Marine. They indeed sound nearly identical except for the Castilian r in Marín.
13. Premiere Pro properly translated Julio Iglesia’s first and last name.
14. Premiere Pro botched Alana De La Garza’s last name.
15. Premiere Pro transcribed Ricardon Montalbán’s last name without the accent mark.
16. Premiere Pro humorosly botched Cote de Pablo’s stage name as «Quote the day Pablo» even though the competitors got it correctly. Premiere Pro transcribed her birth name with the proper letters, but without the accent marks.
17. Premiere Pro transcribed the container piñata without the ñ character. It substited the sacred ñ character for a bare n. FCP got the ñ character properly.
18. Premiere Pro transcribed Roselýn Sánchez’s first and last name with the proper letters, but omitted the accent mark. Premiere Pro is the only one to transcribe her first name with the proper letters for her.

Apple’s FCP (Final Cut Pro) raw English transcription (including native errors)

FCP is the only one were we only tested the English audio file (since that’s its only capability as of publication time), although we did include famous Castilian/Hispanic names terms used in English. The below transcription derived from from FCP is derived from the ITT file (iTunes Timed Text) without correcting any transcription errors:

This is a human test recording. I’m Alan Tpper. I’m making this human recording to test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services to find out which one is the best in general, with brand names which include numbers and some famous Castilian names.

One of our tested services includes a transcription glossary, which sadly rejects terms which include numbers I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article. This episode is not sponsored by 2Wire, 3M, 7-Eleven, Forever 21, 7up, six flags, A1 steak sauce, five guys, four seasonasons, 23 and me, Cloud 9, four peaks, big five sporting Goods, Formula One, Motel 6, Timbuctu, for WKRP in Cincinnati.

Some famous Castians names and terms often mentioned in English include Juliana, the last name Martinez, the last name Alvaret, Antonio Bandas podcast and radio show Capico F FM the last name Castillo, the last name Doming, the brand name Elgato, the last name ernandez, the weather phenomena El Ni Niñ. The last name Garia. The last name ernandez. The last name Mari, Julio Iglesias, Alana Villa Garta, Rardo Montalban, Cote de Pablo, who was actually born as Maria Jose de Pablo Fernandez, the party container called Piñata and Roselline Sanchez. Now, let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcription. All of them will receive this same recording.

Comments about the FCP transcription:

1. Thanks to our friend and Emmy award winning producer/editor Jeff Taylor of Beaker Films for his assistance with FCP. He used FCP version 11.1 running on Sequoia 15.4.1.
2. FCP transcribed my first name (Allan) as well-known alternate (Alan).
3. FCP botched my last name (Tépper) by completely removing the second letter.
4. Beyond the missing uppercase, FCP did a very good job with nearly all of the brand-names except for Four Seasons and Timbuk2.
5. FCP misinterpreted the preposition OR before WKRP as «for»
6. FCP mistranscribed the word Castilian as «Castians».
7. FCP completely omitted Juliana Aidén’s last name as did all of the others.
8. FCP transcribed the last name Martínez but without the accent mark.
9. FCP botched the last name Álvarez.
10. FCP botched the podcast name CapicúaFM.
11. FCP properly transcribed the last name Castillo.
12. FCP botched the last name Domínguez.
13. FCP successfully transcribed the brand name Elgato as it should, without a space.
14. FCP omitted the silent H last name Hernández and omitted the accent mark.
15. FCP eliminated the second syllable in the word niño within El Niño.
16. FCP miraculously include the sacred ñ character within La Niña but omitted the final letter A.
17. FCP omitted the letter c in the last name García in addition to omitting the accent mark.
18. FCP omitted the accent mark and the final letter in the last name Marín.
19. FCP transcribed Julio Iglesias’s first and last name perfectly.
20. FCP botched Alana De La Garza’s last name as it did with mine.
21. FCP botched Ricardo Montalbán’s first name and omitted the accent mark in his last name.
22. FCP properly transcribed Cote de Pablo’s stage name, but omitted the accent marks in her birth name María José de Pablo Fernández.
23. FCP miraculously included the sacred ñ character in the word Piñata.
24. FCP transcribed Roselýn Sánchez with an alternate spelling of her first name and omitted the accent mark in her last name.

Descript raw transcript (including native errors)

 This is a human test recording. I’m Alan Tepper. I’m making this human recording to test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services to find out which one is the best in general with brand names, which include numbers and some famous custodian names.

One of our tested services includes a transcription glossary, which sadly rejects terms which include numbers. I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article. This episode is not sponsored by two wire 3M seven 11. Forever 21, capital One, seven Up Six Flags, a one Steak sauce, five Guys, four Seasons, 23 and Me Cloud nine Four Peaks, big Five Sporting Goods, formula One, motel six, Timbuk two, or WKRP in Cincinnati.

Some famous Castilian names in terms often mentioned in English include Juliana IDing, the last name, Martin, the last name, Alvarez, Antonio Banderas. My podcast and radio show, cap A. The last name Castillo, the last name Dominguez , the brand name, El Gato.

The last name Hernandez. The weather phenomena. El Nino and La Nina. The last name Garcia, the last name Hernandez, the last name, Marine. Julio Iia Alana De Lata. Ricardo Montalban. Cote De Pablo , who was actually born as Maria. Jose De Pablo Fernandez. The party container called Pinata and Rosaline Sanchez.

Now let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcription. All of them will receive this same recording.

Comments about the Descipt transcripton:

1. I used my own Descript subscription.
2. Descript transcribed my first name (Allan) as well-known alternate (Alan) and transcribed my last name (Tépper) without the accent mark. (I covered this situation in Descript Transcription Glossary: 3 failures in October 2024. There has still been no improvement in the Descript Transcription Glossary since then.) This happened even though my version of the name (Allan) was in the Transcription Glossary. The Transcription Glossary is a great idea but doesn’t seem to be functioning at all in my tests and usage, not even with simple names which don’t include numerals or accent marks.
3. Beyond the missing uppercase and switching of numerals for words (or words for numerals), Descript did a very good job of nearly all of the brand-names including the ones that include numbers.
4. Descript fortunately transcribed the word «Castilian» properly.
5. Like FCP, Descript botched Juliana Aidén’s last name as did all of the other competitors.
6. Descript transcribed the last name Álvarez without the accent mark.
7. Descript mistranscribed the last name Martínez as Martín and also omitted the accent mark.
8. Descript transcribed the last name Álvarez without the accent mark.
9. Descript properly transcribed Antonio Banderas’s first and last name.
10. Descript botched the podcast name CapicúaFM.
11. Descript properly transcribed the last name Castillo.
12. Descript transcribed the last name Domínguez without the accent mark.
13. Descript transcribed the brand name Elgato but added a space, treating it as two separate words.
14. Descript transcribed the last name Hernández but without the accent mark. I properly pronounced it with the silent H and Descript fortunately knew to include the H in the transcription.
15. Descript completely omitted Julio Iglesias’s last name.
16. Descript botched Alana De La Garza’s last name.
17. Descript transcribed Ricardo Montalbán’s last name without the accent mark.
18. Descript properly transcribed Cote de Pablo’s stage name, but omitted the accent marks in her birth name María José de Pablo Fernández.
19. Descript omitted the sacred ñ character in the word piñata, while FCP got it correctly.
20. Descript transcribed Roselýn Sánchez with an alternate spelling of her first name and omitted the accent mark in her last name.

FlexClip raw US English transcription (including native errors)

This is a human test recording

I’m Ellen Tepper

I’m making this human recording to test the transcription quality of a few programs and online software services to find out which one is the best

in general, with brand names which include numbers and some famous custodian names

One of our tested services includes A transcription glossary which sadly rejects terms which include numbers

I’ll clarify that in the accompanying article

This episode is not sponsored by Two-wire Three M 711 forever 21 Capital One seven up Six Flags A1 steak sauce five guys Four Seasons 23andMe cloud 9 four peaks big 5 sporting goods Formula One, motel 6 Timbuktu or WKRP inCincinnati

Some famous castilian names and terms often mentioned in English include Juliana aiding The last name Martinez

The last name Alvarez

Antonio Banderas

My podcast and radio show

Capico fame

The last name Castillo

The last name Dominguez

The brand name Elgato

The last name Hernandez

The weather phenomena El Nino and La Nina

The last name Garcia

The last name Hernandez

The last name Marin Julio Iglesias

Alana de la Garza

Ricardo Montalban

Cote de Pablo, who was actually born as Maria Jose

de Pablo Fernandez

the party container called Pinata and Rossellin

Sanchez

Now let’s see how well or how poorly each program or service performs with this transcription All of them will receive this same recording

1. I used my own FlexClip subscription and selected US English as the transcription language, since FlexClip asks for that information.
2. FlexClip transcribed my first name (Allan) as Ellen. FlexClip is the only one to make that mistake of all of the competitors.
3. FlexClip transcribed my first name (Tépper) with the proper letters but without the accent mark.
4. The first time, FlexClip mistranscribed Castilian as «custodian» but got it correctly the second time.
5. Beyond the missing uppercase and switching of numerals for words (or words for numerals), FlexClip did a very good job with nearly all of the brand-names including the ones that include numbers except for Timbuk2.
6. FlexClip botched Juliana Aidén’s last name as did all of the others.
7. FlexClip transcribed the last names Álvarez, Domínguez and Martínez without the accent marks.
8. FlexClip transcribed Antonio Banderas’s and Julio Iglesias’s first and last names perfectly.
9. FlexClip’s transcription botched the name of CapicúaFM.
10. FlexClip is among only two programs of the group to transcribe Alana de la Garza’s first and last name perfectly. DaVinci Resolve Studio was the other one to transcribe her last name perfectly.
11. FlexClip transcribed Cote de Pablo stage name perfectly, although it omitted the accent marks on her birth name María José de Pablo Fernández.
12. FlexClip transcribed the word piñata but sadly substituted the bare n character instead of the sacred ñ.
13. FlexClip transcribed Roselýn Sánchez with an alternate spelling of her first name and omitted the accent mark in her last name.

General conclusions + a plea for a working Transcription Glossary

None of these five tested transcription services is close to being perfect. If you read each transcription and the comments below, you know that each one has advantages and disadvantages. All of them are desperately in need of a properly working Transcription Glossary. Currently, the Transcription Glossary included in Descript is what we might call a non-functioning prototype, as I covered in Descript Transcription Glossary: 3 failures in October 2024.

Although it’s though not a competitor in this field of audio/video editing, the built-in glossary in DeepL Translator works impeccably well in my personal experience. I frequently use DeepL Translator as a first step before having a human certified translator (myself or one of my colleagues) proofread and polish it when doing translations between Castilian (aka «Spanish»), English and Italian. DeepL Translator is a neural machine translation service that was launched in August 2017 and is owned by Cologne, Germany-based DeepL SE. The translating system was first developed within Linguee and launched as entity DeepL. It initially offered translations between seven European languages and has since gradually expanded to support 37 languages (81 languages in ßeta). The reason to have a glossary (be it for translation or in transcription) is to preset common issues to avoid so much repetitive human work when polishing an automated translation or transcription, especially for serious creators who produce many works. Even though DeepL does not currently offer any transcription service directly to us, the consumers of transcription software, DeepL does offer it via its Voice API, so if any of the five competing software services covered in this article (DaVinci Resolve Pro, Descript, FCP, FlexClip, Premiere Pro) is incapable of developing a working Transcription Glossary internally, please contact consider contacting DeepL SE to license the DeepL Voice API for use inside your software, in order to supercharge its transcription capabilities.

If any reader knows of a better transcription software service built-into an audio or audio-video editor which has a built-in Translation Glossary that actually works well, please comment below.

Lee el estudio hecho en buen castellano

Competencia de transcriptores: DaVinci Resolve, Descript, FlexClip, Premiere Pro (sin FCP)