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Review: Get - Phonetic searching for Final Cut Pro

Can you totally trust a piece of software like Get?

Now the real question that kept cropping into my mind was just how accurate is Get? Without real human-transcribed transcriptions there was no real way for me to compare Get’s results to what I knew existed in the clips. For example, a search for the word “money” in my 2 hours of interviews at a > 50 accuracy score resulted in 37 hits in 11 clips. A scan through those hits revealed that Get was indeed hitting a lot of results that sounded like money: like somebody, nobody, many and even Germany to name a few. It also had quite a lot of hits from the Spanish speakers in the interview. But this was understandable when I stepped through the results and a lot of those words sounded close to money depending on the accent of the speaker and how fast they were talking. A score of > 95 resulted in zero hits even though I knew the word money was spoken. I found that a score right in the middle, around > 65, seemed to be the sweet spot for my particular speakers, right where I expected it to be. Occasionally I would jump over to Get and type in a search word and get zero results when I knew the word existed in the media. Even lowering the threshold score didn’t help. A restart of the application fixed that glitch.

When you begin to use Get you’ll probably want to experiment with the score setting to figure out just how comfortable you are with the results it will deliver and how much you want to trust it to deliver the results accurately. It’s accuracy will indeed depend on things like the quality of the audio recorded but also on the enunciation of the subjects and things like accents. That experimentation is going to be crucial in deciding how much to trust Get. Once you are comfortable with that then you can begin searching away. I settled in with a comfort level on this particular project mentioned above and Get indeed delivered a lot of valuable hits.

I don’t think that Get can be considered a substitute for a proper transcript. If I was offered either timecoded transcripts or access to Get for a job I would still choose the transcripts, especially if they were available in a searchable text document. But I would much rather have Get than nothing at all. And once you spend the $499 to purchase Get it’s available for use on all jobs. Now if you had both transcripts and as well as Get on say, a big documentary edit, then you would be all set and that editor’s life would be grand.

Get for Avid Media Composer? Please?

The other big feature on my own Get wishlist would be support for NLEs other than just Final Cut Pro. Avid Media Composer would be at the top of my list especially since most longform doc style projects I work on tend to be on Media Composer due to its much more robust overall handling of media. There might be technical reasons as to why it wouldn’t work since Get would have to be able index Avid .mxf files instead of QuickTime .movs. And Get moves between itself and FCP via XML so getting the results to Media Composer might not be as easy. (It’s very fast when moving those results to FCP btw) It may also be some type of legal or licensing issue since Avid already uses Nexidia technology in Script Sync. But as an application-ambidextrous editor I’m always wanting the really great tools available on both systems!

A workaround to using Get with other systems might be if Get would show the found clip’s timecode:

If you look at the image above you see the timeline of the Get preview window. There’s a running duration counter but no display of the clip’s actual timecode. If Get would display clip timecode then you could use Get to make timecode notes which would help locate hits in applications other than Final Cut Pro.

Get is $499 and available in the AV3 web store. Currently Get is available in three languages: North American English, United Kingdom English and Latin American Spanish. You can request and vote on additional languages at the AV3 support website. According to one of the FAQs “retail additional language packs will be available shortly on the store and will be priced at $350.00 each.  Language packs are add-ons to an original purchase of Get ($499 retail).” That answers a main question that many who work with international media might have. There’s also a 10 day trial available by adding the Free Trial to you cart on the AV3 web store.

Wrap

Overall the Get phonetic search tool is quite amazing and can be incredibly useful on the right job. It obviously won’t be of any use on music videos or concert edits but you might find it handy for the little backstage vignettes between songs, provided the audio is good enough for Get to index it well. While I mentioned it being useful for the long-form documentary editor (and it will be, immensely useful) it’s speed of searching and easy of use has found me jumping over to Get on a number of short form projects as well. It can really shine during those “I know that guy said something about (insert search term here) during the interview” moments when you want to find a specific sound bite. Use Get in that capacity a few times and you’ll be happy you spent the $499. While pricey, it’s one of those applications that just might get you home to your family a bit earlier in the day. Can you put a price on that?

Pros: Easy to use, fast to search, can save a lot of time looking for that elusive sound bite that you know exists.

Cons: Indexing times seemed to vary from folder to folder, no way to jump back from a marker hit in the Preview window, doesn’t display actual clip timecode in the Preview window.

Wish List: Avid Media Composer support would be tops on my wish list.

I’d download the free demo for Get and give it a try before spending the $499 as the price will be prohibitive for many. But if you have a longform project with hours and hours of media the time that Get can save when sorting, searching, logging and editing might very well be invaluable. While version 1.0 has a few quirks it’s only going to get better from here, and for a 1.0 release it seems pretty strong.

FTC Disclosure: Per the new FTC guidelines regarding bloggers and disclosure, I demoed Get at NAB 2010 and requested a copy of the software upon release for review. AV3 Software provided me with a copy of the software upon general release to the public.

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It is a nice little application and can be very handy in many ways. I think it’s going to get much better as it ages and upgrades.

Posted by Scott Simmons  on  09/03  at  08:36 PM

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BTW, We are releasing an update to Get shortly which will take care of moving your clip out of a bin when using the Export Markers function….as well as a few other fixes.

Posted by dhynes  on  09/08  at  06:46 AM

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