Player to set short-keys for 1-second ahead/back jump?

Question

I need to transcript to text some recordings and I need to jump back and forth, but sometimes 2-3 secs, sometimes 10, or more, or less. (On the long run these differences are not trivial in this type of work.)

I would like to be able to edit these settings, for example, to create a shortkey for a custom length of 1, 2 or 3 secs.

Is there a player with such settings?

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EDIT:

I guess it would be difficult to find one that allows a large scope of editing, so I will restrict the scope of the question: a player that would allow editable shortkeys for 1-second jump back/ahead.

Solution 1

Audacity

It not only has by default the left/right keys set for 1-second jump, but this and the other possible jumps are editable. Also, this is an audio editing program, with enhanced control and features needed for such activity as transcription (like removing background noise!)

By default the Space key is not set to pause, but to Stop/Play, so it restarts from initial point. Pause is P. But this is customizable.

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I looked up Foobar2000/Wine and it has the option of 1-sec key jump (but the Pause command is not set by default so it too has to be set manually.)

Solution 2

It looks like you have mplayer installed already. If you don't mind using that, you can add controls for seeking forward and back 1 second.

Edit/create either your global- or user- input config file: /etc/mplayer/input.conf or $HOME/.mplayer/input.conf. Then add these lines:

LEFT seek -1
RIGHT seek +1

You'd think that SMPlayer would also honour these controls or have an input.conf file of its own, but as far as I can tell, it does not.

Solution 3

Definitely VLC:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

you can advance speed of sound towards picture, subs etc

Using VLC you have the advantage of having a media player that opens a large number of media types and that of being able to use your preferred text editor, word processor or desktop publishing program.

You can assign "global shortcut keys" in VLC to control the media file while your text editor window is focused, even if the VLC window is under other windows of in a different workspace (VLC > Preferences > Show settings: simple > Hotkeys).

You have 4 types of jumps (very short, short, medium, long) to move backwards or forward along the timeline and you can set how many seconds each of this jump is long (VLC > Tools > Preferences > Show settings: all > Interface > Hotkeys settings).

You can also assign hotkeys to control the volume and the playback speed, as well as have a single shortcut key to play/pause or two separate, one for play and one for pause.

Solution 4

Playitslowly

This fine software does most you need for transcription of audio files to text. It has the following features:

• Plays every file gstreamer does (mp3, ogg vorbis, midi, even flv!)
• Can use alsa and jack
• Change speed and pitch
• Loop over certain parts
• Export to wav

Source: Developer's Blog

The following keyboard shortcuts will let you control playback:

Alt + P - Pause/Play
Alt + E - Rewind to zero
Ctrl + 0 - 9 - Rewind n seconds

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Comments

[Admin]

i have created a more general question on transcription. in case that is to be considered a duplicate of this one, please try to answer the other one, and then close this one as duplicate after a while if the case may be

[user288477]

i am not asking a question about 'good players' in general (that would duplicate this long community wiki question), but one about one that would allow that detailed editing, if there is such a player around

[Meintjes]

hmm I see... I will continue my quest and find you such a player :P

[user288477]

avidemux is a video editor, isn't it?

[Meintjes]

Well there you go :) I thought you will be needing a video player as well. Glad you found a solution.

[Meintjes]

Yes it is indeed. :)

[Admin]

the screenshot is fine. but the shortcut jump does not seem to work (except alt-p for pause). and there is no forward jump. the other specific features are on the other hand very interesting for transpription. i think i will create a transcription-specific general question and i hope to hear more on such applications. using them in parallel might be the best approach

[Takkat]

@cipricus: see edit for keys + shot.