Transcribe a video on your Mac

The transcript is what you edit in Rooster, so every project starts with one. Rooster writes it on your Mac: with the standard engine, your audio is not uploaded anywhere.

When Rooster transcribes

You usually do nothing. Rooster starts transcribing when:

• you stop a recording, or
• you import a video or audio file, or
• you add the first recording to an empty project.

While it works, the script pane shows its progress and a Stop button. Stopping loses nothing the project already had.

A take that becomes a new project, and a file imported as a new project, are transcribed only while Transcribe when recording ends is on in the recorder's settings - which it is unless you turned it off. A take recorded into a project you have open, and the first file added to an empty project, are always transcribed.

The first transcription downloads the speech model

The first time you transcribe, Rooster downloads its speech model, once. The welcome screen and the progress line both say how large it is. After that it is stored on your Mac, transcription works with no internet connection, and the model updates when Rooster does.

If the download fails, Rooster says so; check your connection and press Try again.

Transcribe a project that has no script

If a project has a recording but no transcript - because automatic transcription was off, or you stopped it - the script pane shows No transcript yet. Press Transcribe video.

Start typing, beside it, lets you type or paste a script instead. Typed text carries no timings, so cuts and captions need the video transcribed.

Choose the language and engine

Open Settings from the Rooster menu, or with the gear at the bottom of the sidebar, and choose Transcription.

• Language is Auto-detect unless you choose one.
• Transcription provider is Local Parakeet, the standard engine. It keeps filler words like "um" and "uh" in the transcript so you can cut them. Local Whisper also runs on your Mac and covers more languages, but needs a Whisper model file you download yourself. Cloud API sends prepared audio to an OpenAI-compatible service, using your own key.

The languages each engine covers are listed on the transcription feature page.

Transcribe again

To start a project's transcript over - after changing the language, say - press the circular-arrow button in the script header, Transcribe again. If that would lose corrections you made or a script you typed, Rooster says what will be lost and asks first.

If nothing comes back

• No speech found means the engine heard nothing to write down. Check the recording captured the right microphone.
• Transcription didn’t finish shows the reason underneath. Press Try again, or Start typing to write the script yourself.