Working with videos in Transcribe!

In this post, I'll show you how to set up Transcribe! with Apple's Quick Time and use it to transcribe music from video found on the web (under Microsoft Windows). All of this information is available in the Transcribe! documentation, but it took me a little digging, so I'm doing a step-by-step here.

Requirements:

• Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7 (this procedure was tested on Windows XP)
• Transcribe! from Seventh String Software
• Quick Time from Apple
• Mozilla Firefox web browser (for downloading video from “tube” sites).

First, download and install the latest Quick Time from Apple. If you have iTunes, then you probably have Quick Time installed on your computer already. Next, download and install the latest version of Transcribe! from Seventh String Software. Now, get the latest Firefox from Mozilla, if you don't already have it. Finally, get the Video Downloader from ffpimp.com: While viewing this post in Firefox, click this link to go to the download page. Click on the green “Add to Firefox” button. In the resulting dialog, click the “Install Now” button to install the Video Downloader.(Ctrl.+click images to view them at larger resolution in a new tab or window.)

Firefox will prompt you that it needs to be restarted to finish the installation. Go ahead and click the “Restart Now” button to restart Firefox (your session will be saved and any pages you were browsing will reappear when Firefox is finished restarting).

Now we're ready to go to YouTube and get a music video to work on. Point Firefox to YouTube and search for a music video.

Now, YouTube shows videos using the Adobe Flash plugin. But for Transcribe!+Quick Time, we need video that's in Quick Time format. Fortunately, most of the videos on YouTube are available in Quick Time format as an alternate. To get the alternate format, you have to alter the url in the address bar by adding "&fmt=18" (without the quotes) to the very end and pressing “Enter” on your keyboard. The browser window will now refresh, loading the Quick Time version of the video.

Now that we have the right format, download a copy of the video using the Video Downloader. On a toolbar above your browser tab, notice the colored “filmstrip” icon with the words “Save Video” to the right. Click this icon. If you're given a choice among different titles, choose the one that matches the title of the desired video and also has the extension *.mp4, which is the extension for Apple Quick Time format.

Choose a convenient location to save the file. If Firefox downloads it to a default location, and you don't know where that is, open the “Downloads” window (Tools: Downloads or Ctrl.+J), right click on the file from the list and choose “Open Containing Folder.”

Now you can close Firefox and open Transcribe! Once Transcribe! is up, click the “Open” icon and browse to the location you saved the video file. Select the file and click “Open.” Transcribe! opens, along with a Transcribe! video window. You can now listen to and view the video, and harness the tuning and speed control features of Transcribe!

Open-Source Applications for Music Education - Launching

Update: In the wake of Examiner.com's ill-fated "upgrade" to Drupal 7 (and subsequent loss of essential publishing features), I've migrated my work in this area to it's own self-contained blog on Blogger.

In the coming weeks I will begin writing tutorial articles for Examiner.com on open-source programs of use to Music Educators. My goal is to raise awareness of open-source solutions among educators generally and Music Educators specifically. Especially as educational institutions begin trending back toward open-source technology (and away from expensive licenses), I'm anticipating a vacuum of sorts for music teachers in particular. Many of the free alternatives to software music teachers (and musicians generally) rely upon are almost unknown to them. I hope to use Examiner to gain visibility for these applications and maybe generate some buzz about my own work in this area.

As I've set out to start this task, I've set some limitations and guidelines for myself and for the project:

• Software demonstrated must be available on all three popular platforms: Windows®, Mac OS and GNU/Linux
  
• Each concise article will demonstrate a specific application's features and their use for a specific purpose. Each article will be a self-contained project that will be immediately useful to music teachers.
  
• New or derivative works created for the purpose of demonstrating the applications (a new work for strings, for example) will be licensed under a Creative Commons license.
  
• Articles will be accessible to those with basic computer skills (that is, they don't have to be computer whizzes). To achieve this, I'm going to include helpful screenshots that are pertinent to the procedures outlined in the articles, interleaved with the text.
  

Bearing in mind that any screenshots of programs running under a GNU/Linux platform are a tacit advertisement for open-source operating systems, I've set about cobbling together some desktop art and interfaces on which to demonstrate the software. I spent some time searching the web for some really top-notch desktop wallpapers and GNOME themes to make the desktops as efficient and attractive as possible. I set out to make these desktop environments as clean and inviting as I could, so I'll leave you with shots of those desktops, with captions detailing a little of what's under the hood. Throughout the post, you can click on images to view them at larger resolution.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with the “Ambiance” theme and Avant Window Navigator (the dock). An Emacs buffer is open and I'm using the “Slick Workspace Switcher” applet to view the available virtual desktops.

With a Terminal window open.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with the “Human” them and DockbarX along the bottom.

With a Terminal window open.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS with the “Human” theme and Avant Window Navigator. I'm using the AWN Main Menu applet to view the different categories of applications and utilities.

Using the “Slick Workspace Switcher.”

In the coming days, I plan to post some more shots of desktops in Linux Mint, Ubuntu Studio and maybe the new OpenSUSE. Stay tuned...

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