Hey you guys, I was thinking I'd start this thread and then post here when I spot awesome new Express jobs up for CW. Please feel free to post here, too, if you see them first! I'll share about Expediteds, too, when I see them...but fair warning, I may pay less attention to those until my PPT gets high enough to pick them up. Anyway, right now, there's some very clear, beautiful express audio up. Nice selection, minimum PPT required is 88. Editing to keep this note at the top: All Express mentioned here requires a PPT of 88 or better. So, only if it requires a PPT of more than 88 will I mention that specifically.
So, this morning, there's a bunch more of Express, new since yesterday. Actually, it seems like this same event was up as regular transcription yesterday...and probably still here for good reason. The speaker has a heavy UK accent---Scottish, maybe, so not the more clipped British accent that I find more easy to understand. Since this thread was meant to be for awesome Express HITs, I won't post further about Express jobs that seem just okay to me...unless you guys just want to hear about any Express I see, in which case we can change the thread to that! So let me know.
Very nice---some radio (I think) interviews up now. A couple different ones, but the ones whose codes *start* with Denver sound especially nice. Some other Express to choose from, too, but be careful if you hate roundtables/conference calls. One of the sets is that type, although I should say that the audio for it is also really good quality and the participants seem great about talking only one at a time!
New interview audio! Again, very clear sound quality, though the interviewer and interviewee talk over each other a leetle bit in clips I've checked out. Not a lot, though; well worth the while! Only shorter clips left, it looked like: so, 3 min or less. By the way, all this stuff only requires PPT of 88; I figure I'll specify if that is not true of any Express work I post here.
Finally, a nice selection of new Express audio! One of the sets below is also partly posted as Expedited (PPT of 99 or above)---happily, it's the biology course! I didn't have time to do a more careful listen today, but of the Express that's up, there appears to be a roundtable done at least partly by conference call; an interview; and a recording of a biology course (cells). Interestingly, considering what the last recorded course/seminar was like that was available as Express, this time it's the course that has the best audio out of all the Express available, by far. (Some of the other stuff is a little quiet.) The course recording is loud, it's clear...it's yummy. Go get it!
Not much in Express this weekend---there was some that was good on Saturday morning, but in the 20 minutes between the time I saw it and the time I had a chance to post, so much of it was gone that I just didn't bother. But about a dozen and a half new clips have just gone up. Even though it's all the same series, some of it is PPT 88 and some is PPT 90. A bit mixed in quality, but there are some gems. Sounds like all of it is an MP3 of the guy playing his tape-recorded interviews into his computer microphone, so that's kinda funny. (I know because he actually turned the recorder off before turning off the mic in one clip I was listening to.)
Wow, those clips I mentioned in my last post have all been snapped up. Happily, there's a bunch more of Express now. I counted more than 2 dozen clips! Again, a mix of PPT 88 or PPT 90 required. If you transcribe Express much, you'll remember we just did financial analyst calls, and now we've got the UK and maybe India versions of those, it sounds like from the accents. The ones I found to have best quality audio and had the easiest accents for me to understand were the SSGA series...obviously, your mileage may vary. Have fun!
Almost 2 dozen Express clips just uploaded. All interviews with a single family. Select wisely if you don't like it when people talk over each other; that happens in some clips, because they're being pretty casual with each other and telling stories about their family history. But one nice feature is that some of the members talk slowly, with lots of pauses, giving you time to catch up if you need it! Audio volume on these is a little soft, but if you have a way to turn up the volume (such as Audacity---Google it for free download if you don't have it), the clarity is really just fine!
Wow, that last batch of Express was snapped up fast! Up just now, at least a couple dozen new Express files. Two different types, it sounds like, with two different audio qualities. One type is an older woman with what I think is a very comprehendable Eastern European accent, talking about her experiences during the Holocaust in front of a live studio audience. You'd think that'd be depressing, but her voice is strong and she's a confident speaker (and spirited!), and her stories aren't total downers. Really lovely audio here. Volume is great, sound quality is excellent (professionally recorded, after all). The other kind sounds like it's recordings of audience questions to that woman. Sound quality is much iffier. Enjoy!
Wow! Just...wow. I've never seen this much Express up at once, although admittedly I haven't been transcribing for CastingWords long! Deets on the Express There's probably 5 dozen clips available at the moment. Only about half a dozen are from the batch I mentioned just a few hours ago. The rest is all new. This new stuff is mostly financial analyst calls, and actually mostly the one we've been transcribing. So as usual, she sounds clear and easy to pick up, and whomever's on the other end of her line determines how easy the rest of the transcript is gonna be. Also new are a roundtable and another interview; each of those is also part of a series we've been working on for a bit now. Sound quality on the interview is very good, as usual; roundtables pain me, so I didn't listen at all to those. Sorry! Regular, Expedited, and editing-type jobs too... Also right now, there's bunches of regular transcription as well, although interestingly, there's almost no regular transcription that's paying premium. The deluge means there's also more than usual Improve and Grade and Approve jobs, should those be things you do as well! I keep seeing Expedited jobs pop up...and disappear, too. So it's just a big day all around in CW land!
Hey, everyone! Whew, I hope you all got your fill of the bounty from the last day or so. But if not, after a dry spell late last night and this morning, they've now posted a whole bunch more, with lots of financial analyst calls; those are of their usual decent sound quality. All of it that I checked out was PPT 88 or better!
Hi, all. I've been out most of the day, but for those of you who will have any time this evening, there is some lovely Express at the moment. All of the "Module" series (there are many) and the "Common Causes" ones are superclear, and the narrator (the only speaker in the clips I took a quick listen to...YMMV!) is not a fast speaker. Woot! Enjoy, and I hope your weekends are kicking off well.
Howdy to everyone... What a day! For that matter, these last few days have been something. Endless postings of Express, plus today I saw the largest set of available Expedited I'd ever seen, in my very short tenure so far at CW. Snapped up fast, of course. But do note that some of it could be accepted with a PPT of just 95, compared with the usual 99. Woohoo! Anyway, I'm out for the night, and I regret to say that I haven't listened to most of the Express that's up now. But it looks like what keeps refreshing the offerings is a steady stream of financial analyst calls. So if you've got, or are starting to get, that vocabulary down, you should be set. The analyst calls are pretty much always for PPT of 88 or better. Enjoy, all!
Hey, folks! As you know, usually I post about Express audio that I think has pretty good sound quality and speaking clarity, so this post...is an exception. There really isn't any new Express up right now compared with yesterday. But what's interesting is that most of what's there (the dregs, really) has been sitting around long enough that apparently, CW is needing it to get done. So the pay rate on them has become pretty good. Every single Express job posted right now is paying better than 20 cents/audio minute. Every one. And that's before quality bonuses---which everyone who works on Express always gets, right? So multiply that by whatever you usually get, and they're good-money jobs. Just let me say again that I do not endorse that this Express audio is of good quality. Overall, it's not gonna be a fun batch. But it'll pay pretty decently!
I'm just going to bump this. There's some audio up that's clear and easy to transcribe that's open to everyone with PPT of 80 or higher. It may not be the best pay, but the clear audio will improve your chances of getting the higher PPT which leads to the better-paying HITs.
Thanks, Whimsy. I'm coming back to this thread after a while away, and it's nice to see that even if one person posted who clearly misses the point of it, someone else does get it! OK, folks...so, we've been stuffed with Express edits lately. When I started this thread, I was new to transcribing for CastingWords, so I didn't realize that they go through busy periods where there's more than enough Express for everyone! Now that I'm back and they're busier, I'll keep posting for a couple more weeks if I see Express stuff posted that's especially desirable. EDIT: Actually, I won't. I'm sorry about this. I just have a lot going on and notice that I keep forgetting to, so it's best that I not commit!
And here we go...the good Express that's newly posted today is all interviews. There are good student interviews and faculty interviews, plus one with a name that starts with "C". The volume may be a leetle bit low on a few, but that should be all that's wrong with it, qualitywise. No static or hums. Careful of the ones currently up with "group" in their names. They are, indeed, multiple speakers who seem to have no problem talking right over each other!
Hey, all, As I edited to indicate above, turns out that I probably won't have the time to keep updating this thread. But as long as I'm here, today I'd recommend the Easy Lincoln Boston series, the Easy John Chicago ones, and the Denver Roger Chicago ones. IMO, all the ones you can view (when you're logged in) with titles that say "interview" and a single letter...those are not good. Pretty soft! Good luck, all.
Oh, hey---thank you, whoever voted the thread up. I actually just noticed that! Gosh, now I feel badly that I don't really have time to keep up with it as much. But in appreciation of your kindness in voting, I'm here today and I just took a quick listen. Please note that everything I mention below has a PPT requirement of 90 or better. And come to look at it, most of the stuff I mentioned yesterday does, too. So if you're at 88, your best bet today might be to search MTurk directly, clicking the box for only HITs you qualify for, using the term "castingwords express". (Unfortunately, I don't have a good way to test that out for you -- my PPT is higher, so what I would pull up would include other stuff. But that should work to pull up anything you can take!) My top list: The X-ray series (yes, just one word) is an interview (one interviewer and one interviewee) with very good audio for both parties. The Easy Peter X-ray series has great interview audio (one of each again). The Chicago Boston Roger series has really excellent audio and well-spoken main speakers on each. However, if someone else makes comments, that's muffled. Some do just have a main speaker, so it's worth looking through them to see. There are at least two types and there may be more; there were too many for me to look through all! One is a "Summit" and the other is named with individual dates and times. My comments apply equally to both. Not on my top list, but the Denver Lincoln Peter series actually has *some* workable stuff. It's a small meeting (like, in a conference room), with multiple speakers, but they do not typically talk all at once and the sound quality is good on certain audios, depending on who's talking. Helpful: some of the speakers talk especially slowly and pause a lot! So that can make the work go faster. I advise listening carefully to those clips before you accept, to check the overall mix you'll be getting. Be careful of these: The International Affairs series has multiple speakers and is a little bit muffled. PPT is still 90 or better, but if that's you, you've got much better choices above.