An Oral Bible Translation team is working on a translation project with the goal of producing an audio product. Perhaps they are working with the Render software. In this case SIL Transcriber can be used to convert the speech to text for the purpose of checking the quality and consistency of the translation work. This textual translation content can be synchronized automatically to a Paratext project for the language where the tools in Paratext can be used for checking. In some cases this will facilitate working with a consultant who prefers to work with text. It may also be desirable to transcribe a back translation if either the consultant doesn’t understand the language or if the language doesn’t have an established writing system.

OBT with Render

Render provides a guided process for producing an audio product using an audio process. A link to the software is provided under Other Resources.

OBT without Render

SIL Transcriber will be an even more important tool to use for Oral Bible Translation without Render because it helps to keep all your audio files and transcriptions organized and synchronized with Paratext.

For all OBT projects

If you haven’t done it already, you will want to sign up following the steps under Try It!. If multiple transcribers or a transcriber and an editor (two different people) will be working on the transcription, you will want to begin by setting up a team. Render projects will almost always have multiple audio files that will be synchronized to Paratext so you will want to setup a project.