FAQ | MacOS App and Simon Says Extension for Final Cut Pro X
2. Walkthrough demo (video):
3. About
Simon Says Extension: the latest product from the swift and accurate auto-transcription/translation tool Simon Says. Simon Says originated as a website for those in media and production and has added features and products that integrate deeper into post production workflows to speed up editing.
The Simon Says Extension integrates into FCP X and allows you to import FCP events with clips or projects for transcription. You’ll quickly receive the results you can drag back into your workflow.
4. Minimum requirements:
Mac OS X running FCP X 10.4.4+ as support for Extensions were introduced in FCP X 10.4.4.
5. Currently supported imports (we are adding support for additional types frequently):
To export FCP X ranges/markers, you can import:
- FCP X events with asset-clip | clip | multicam clip | synced clip
- FCP X events with projects → sequence → spine with asset-clip | clip | multicam clip | synced clip
- Asset clips
- Audio/video files
To export FCP X captions, you can import:
- FCP X projects → sequence → spine with asset-clips | clips
- FCP X events → project → sequence → spine with asset-clips | clips
- Audio/video files
6. Getting started:
- Download and install the Simon Says Extension from the Mac App Store.
- Then run FCP and you should see the Simon Says extension like below:
- If you don’t see it, run the Simon Says application from the Applications folder and login. Restart FCP X and you should see the Simon Says extension now there.
Additional help: https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.4.4/#/ver7e3767356
7. What you can do in the Extension:
- transcribe FCP clips contained inside events and export back ranges with speaker names and transcribed dialog as notes (via drag and drop)
- transcribe simplified* FCP projects and export back captions (via drag and drop) (see note below on the limitations). Simplified FCP Projects: Apple intends captioning to be done on finished material. Currently an edit must be exported/shared into a single file, then that single file added to a new FCP Project. We are working with Apple for a better solution to this process.
- transcribe in English (Global), Spanish, French, German, Italian, and many other languages (see the app/extension for full list)
8. Issues & Feature Requests
- If you encounter an issue, please email us the details with screenshots (if relevant): Contact
- Send feature requests via a contact channel listed at the above link.
9. Future Roadmap:
- Edit transcripts in the extension itself(you can currently edit transcripts via the website)
- Captions for FCP projects. (It works but it is not optimal at the moment as most projects will have multiple audio tracks and layers, most which are not dialogue and non-dialogue tracks are problematic for speech recognition. The way to caption projects is to export the dialogue track to a single file and then import that into a new project and transcribe that.)
- Transcribe in additional languages
For more information: https://www.simonsays.ai
Can I try Simon Says for free?
Yes. New users receive 15 mins of free transcription credit.
How long does transcription take?
Transcription depends on the length of your file but it usually completes within minutes.
How accurate is it?
Simon is about 90%-95% accurate and many users have written to us claiming it is near perfection.
The greatest determinate on accuracy is the quality of the recording. If your audio was recorded with little/no background noise and directional / lapel mics, it will be have better accuracy.
See here for our guide to get accurate transcripts.
Are there refunds?
Sorry, there are no refunds. We provide free credit to new users so you can test your file and see if our system works for you. While our system uses advanced AI, it does not work well for all situations, such as on poorly recorded audio. See here for our guide to get accurate transcripts.
How much does it cost?
We have Pay As You Go and subscription plans. The minimum charge is $2.00.
See the plan options here.
Do you do auto-translations?
Yes we do and in 50+ languages. First you need to transcribe your project. Then make any edits and, from the website, click Export and select Translate and the desired language to translate your project into.
Translation is billed at the same per minute rate as transcription for your respective plan.
Translated projects maintain timecode per word, bookmarks, and annotations, and are editable. They can be exported to the range of formats we support.
Projects are translated using AI. There will be errors. The more accurate your transcript, the more accurate your translation.
More info: Simon Says now auto-translates your video too
Is Simon available as a pet parrot or for speaking engagements?
Not at this time, sorry.
