Foot Pedals for Transcribe! version 7.3 and later

Transcribe! can be controlled (start and stop playback, etc) by various kinds of pedals, which can be convenient if you have an instrument in your hands while you transcribe, or pencil and paper. Pedals are also useful for controlling Transcribe! while a different application is in the foreground - perhaps a music notation package.

Pedals intended for transcription use are really aimed at speech transcription, but are just as useful for music. They usually have three pedals : a large Play pedal in the middle, with smaller Rewind and Forwards pedals at either side.

Here are some notes about pedal compatibility. If you have a pedal already then please try it with Transcribe!. If it isn't listed here then please let me know what the pedal is and where you got it. If it doesn't work then I might be able to help. And if it does then I can list it here.

Note that I cannot guarantee compatibility of a pedal you buy, with Transcribe!. All I can tell you is what I've tried, and what works for me and for other people who tell me of their experiences.

MIDI Pedals

MIDI pedals - or indeed any kind of MIDI controller - should work fine with Transcribe! on Windows, Mac and Linux. As a musician, you might already have some MIDI pedals. If you want to buy pedals specifically for controlling Transcribe! then you might do better with one of the transcription pedals listed below. But if you want a MIDI pedal for the purpose, then you can get three-pedal units intended for use with pianos, for instance if you Google for "fatar pedal" then you will find units with 1, 2, or 3 pedals. Of course you also need a MIDI interface for your computer.

The rest of this page refers to non-MIDI pedals, newly supported by Transcribe! 7.3

IMPORTANT NOTE

Transcribe! talks directly to these pedals, which means you can just plug the pedal in and Transcribe! should see it right away. This means you should not install any software that comes with the pedal. It isn't needed, and may cause conflicts with Transcribe! and the other software both trying to read from the pedal at the same time.

Once you have plugged the pedal in, run Transcribe!'s "Foot Pedals" command on the File menu. Make sure "Respond to pedals" is turned on, and program the responses as you wish. Click the Help button in this dialog for more info.

VEC Pedals

VEC make a three-pedal unit, the "Infinity IN-USB-1", which is compatible with Transcribe! for Windows, Mac and Linux. It can be obtained from various distributors, although they don't always say it's a VEC. You need the USB version for use with Transcribe!

Places to get them:
The above pedal came from LE Technologies.
There is a similar looking one at Executive Communication Systems. I've not tried it myself but I've been told it works with Transcribe! on Intel Mac, and may well work on other systems too - let me know if you try it.

VPE VPedal

Some pedals present themselves as being joystick / game controller devices and Transcribe! should be able to use these on Windows, Mac and Linux. Of course, these pedals aren't really intended for games, it's just that they use the same interface. The picture above is the VPE VPedal, but in fact any joystick / game controller should work, even those which aren't pedals at all.

On Windows, any controller which Windows recognises as a Joystick should be ok with Transcribe!, whether USB or serial or gameport connector. On Mac or Linux you will need a USB model.

Get it from V PEDAL themselves.

P.I. Engineering Pedals

P.I. Engineering make a three-pedal unit, the "XF-10-US-R", which is compatible with Transcribe! for Windows and Mac. For me it doesn't work on Linux but it might for you. You need the USB version for use with Transcribe!

Get it from P.I. Engineering themselves.

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