How to Use Speech to Text Converter

Vovsoft Speech to Text Converter requires IBM Cloud Speech to Text API which can convert up to 500 minutes per month for free.

How to get API Key and API URL

In order to get your API key and API URL, please follow these steps:

1. Go to https://cloud.ibm.com/registration and create your IBM Cloud account for free.
   Please Note: If you get this error message "Your account cannot be created at this time", use your Gmail email address. It seems like IBM Watson doesn't like some email providers. So, if you have any such problems, just use another email address.
    
2. Go to https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog/services/speech-to-text and create your Speech to Text Lite Plan instance.
    
3. Go to https://cloud.ibm.com/resources; under Services and software tab, click on your Speech to Text instance. Your credentials (API key and URL) will be displayed in Manage or Service credentials page.

Enter your API key and URL into the Settings panel inside "Vovsoft Speech to Text Converter". The software is now ready to convert audio to text.

Languages and Models

English, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hindi (Indian), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian) and Spanish are supported.

For most languages, the IBM Cloud service supports broadband, narrowband, telephony and multimedia models:

• Broadband models are for audio that is sampled at greater than or equal to 16 kHz.
• Narrowband models are for audio that is sampled at 8 kHz. Use narrowband models for offline decoding of telephone speech, which is the typical use for this sampling rate.
• Telephony models are intended specifically for audio that is communicated over a telephone. Like previous-generation narrowband models, telephony models are intended for audio that has a minimum sampling rate of 8 kHz.
• Multimedia models are intended for audio that is extracted from sources with a higher sampling rate, such as video. Use a multimedia model for any audio other than telephonic audio. Like previous-generation broadband models, multimedia models are intended for audio that has a minimum sampling rate of 16 kHz.

Choosing the correct model is important. Use the model that matches the sampling rate (and language) of your audio. The service automatically adjusts the sampling rate of your audio to match the model that you specify.

Approximate Conversion Time

Conversion times are listed in the table below. Please note that the specified times vary depending on the content of the file, its quality, language model, load of the AI servers and your computer's upload speed.

Common Errors

HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable

Your URL is wrong. Please enter the exact "API Key" and "API URL" that was supplied for you by IBM Cloud.

Error reading data: (12152)

Your audio is too long. Please try to convert a shorter audio.

"Please wait" hangs, nothing happens

The file size of your audio is too large. Please try to upload a smaller file. Converting stereo to mono may help.