AWS Transcribe Setup

Enterprise-grade transcription. Requires an AWS account. Uses pay-per-use pricing.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Download the CloudFormation Template

We provide a CloudFormation template that creates all required AWS resources automatically:

Download aws-cloudformation.yaml

Step 2: Open CloudFormation

  1. Go to AWS CloudFormation Console
  2. Click "Create stack" → "With new resources (standard)"

Step 3: Upload Template

  1. Select "Upload a template file"
  2. Click "Choose file" and select the downloaded aws-cloudformation.yaml
  3. Click "Next"

Step 4: Stack Details

  1. Stack name: voicepad-transcribe
  2. Parameters (leave defaults or customize):
    • EnableVocabularyManagement: false
    • UserName: voicepad-transcribe-user
  3. Click "Next"

Step 5: Configure Options

  1. Leave everything as default
  2. Click "Next"

Step 6: Review and Create

  1. Scroll to the bottom
  2. Check: "I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources with custom names"
  3. Click "Submit"

Wait for status: CREATE_COMPLETE (~1-2 minutes)

Step 7: Activate AWS Transcribe (Required!)

This step is required the first time you use AWS Transcribe.

  1. In the stack "Outputs" tab, click the A1ActivateTranscribe link
  2. This opens the AWS Transcribe Console
  3. If prompted, click "Get started" to accept the service terms
  4. You only need to do this once per AWS account

Step 8: Get Your Credentials

In the stack "Outputs" tab, copy these values:

Key Description
B2AccessKeyId Your access key ID
C3SecretAccessKey Your secret key (save this!)
D4Region Region to use

Step 9: Configure Voicepad Pro

  1. Click the Voicepad Pro icon in Chrome
  2. Click the Settings (gear) icon
  3. Select "AWS Transcribe" as the provider
  4. Enter your credentials:
    • Access Key ID: (from B2AccessKeyId)
    • Secret Access Key: (from C3SecretAccessKey)
    • Region: (from D4Region)
  5. Click "Save"

Supported Regions

us-east-1 N. Virginia
us-east-2 Ohio
us-west-2 Oregon
eu-west-1 Ireland
eu-west-2 London
eu-central-1 Frankfurt
ap-northeast-1 Tokyo
ap-northeast-2 Seoul
ap-southeast-1 Singapore
ap-southeast-2 Sydney
ca-central-1 Canada
sa-east-1 São Paulo

Choose the region closest to you for lowest latency.

Cleanup

To remove all AWS resources when you're done:

  1. Go to CloudFormation Console
  2. Select voicepad-transcribe stack
  3. Click "Delete"
  4. Confirm deletion

Troubleshooting

"SubscriptionRequiredException" error

You haven't activated AWS Transcribe yet. Go back to Step 7 and click the activation link.

"Access Denied" error

Verify Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are correct. Check that the IAM user has the policy attached.

"InvalidSignatureException" error

Check that your system clock is accurate. Verify the region matches what you configured.

"Invalid region" error

Use a supported region from the table above. Format: us-east-1 (lowercase with hyphens).