Speech Analysis

The last version of Premiere Pro with the Speech Analysis functionality was the October 2014 release of Premiere Pro CC 8.1.

Adobe Media Encoder and Adobe Prelude support the Speech Analysis functionality. Starting with the December 2014 release, Speech Analysis will no longer be supported in Adobe Media Encoder CC (8.2) and Adobe Prelude CC (3.2).

In Adobe Media Encoder CC 8.2, you can export speech XMP metadata for any clips that were previously analyzed using Premiere Pro CC 8.1 or earlier. Select Export Master Speech Track And Sequence Markers in the Preferences dialog to include the speech XMP metadata while exporting.

In Prelude CC 3.2, Speech Transcription markers are removed from the Marker Type panel. However, when you open a clip that has Speech Transcription markers created from a previous version of Prelude, the markers reappear.   

Adobe is currently exploring potential alternatives, however there are no plans or guidance to share at this time.

In Premiere Pro, Speech Analysis is available for clips when there is at least one component audio clip in the merged clip. You can choose to analyze all audio tracks in a merged clip, or a single one.

In the Speech Analysis section, do any of the following:

• To correct a word, click it, and type.
• To insert, delete, merge, cut, or copy words, right-click an existing word, and choose a command from the context menu.

In the Speech Analysis section, select the word. Timecode In and Duration indicate the precise location and length of your selection.

To hear the selection, click either Play or Loop. The Loop playback option repeatedly plays the selected word, with some preroll and postroll.

Accuracy of speech-to-text conversion depends on the clarity of the spoken words and the quality of the recorded dialog. Dialog recorded in a noisy environment or with poor microphone placement cannot produce highly accurate results even with a reference script. You can nevertheless use a reference script to improve speech analysis.

A reference script is a text document containing dialog similar to the dialog recorded in your assets. There are two types of reference scripts:

• A script that contains similar dialog, but was not necessarily written for the current project. For example, a series of medical training scripts for different products can be combined into a single text document. You can use this text document as a reference script. With this type of reference script, speech analysis produces results more accurate than it does when using only the default language models.
• A script that matches the recorded dialog. This type of reference script provides the highest accuracy possible. For example, you can use the script that the talent read during the shoot as a reference script. Alternatively, you could use a transcript typed from the assets for the purposes of close captioning.

Speech Analysis supports reference scripts only in the UTF-8 encoded text format, including Adobe Story scripts, which have the .astx filename extension.

1. In the Analyze Content dialog box, from the Reference Script menu, select Add.
2. Browse to the reference script text or .astx file, select it, and click Open.
3. In the Import Script dialog box, type a name for the reference script, and select the language of the script.

Note: You can view the text of the file in a scrolling window.

4. Select Script Text Matches Dialog only if the imported script covers the recorded dialog verbatim. For example, if the reference script is the script from which the talent read their lines, select Script Text Matches Dialog. Select this option even if the recorded dialog is shorter than what the script file covers.
5. Click OK.The Import Script dialog closes, and the reference script is selected in the Reference Script menu.
6. Click OK in the Analyze Content dialog.

Speech analysis is more accurate if Adobe Story script data is associated with a clip. Then, Adobe Premiere Pro automatically uses the Adobe Story script as a reference script.

When Adobe Premiere Pro finds enough matches with the embedded script, it replaces the analyzed speech text with the embedded script text. Adobe Premiere Pro carries over the correct spelling, proper names, and punctuation from the reference script, benefits that standard speech analysis cannot provide.

1. Select one or more clips in the Project panel, right-click, and choose Attach Script File or select File > Adobe Story > Attach Script File.

Note: An Adobe Story script cannot be attached to a Merged Clip. If, however, a Story script was attached to a component clip before the merge, the merged clip may be analyzed using the previously attached Story script.

2. In the Analyze Content dialog, under the Script section, select Use Embedded Adobe Story Script.

When a clip has a Story script attached to it, the script is displayed in the Embedded Adobe Story Script view in the Speech Analysis section of the Metadata panel. Compare the script displayed in this view to the results of the speech analysis displayed in the Analysis Text view below it.

Note: The Embedded Adobe Story Script view is read only. You can't perform editing operations in it.

You can add In and Out points to speech analysis text to select a portion of a master clip. You can insert or overwrite the selected portion directly from the Speech Analysis section of the Metadata panel.