Buzz: Transcribe & Translate Audio Offline

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Buzz: Private AI Transcription

Transcription services often charge by the minute and require uploading your sensitive audio files to the cloud. For interviews, meetings, or personal notes, this isn’t always ideal.

Buzz brings the power of OpenAI’s Whisper model directly to your Mac. It runs entirely offline, costs nothing to use, and delivers industry-leading accuracy.

Key Features

🔒 Privacy First (Offline)

Buzz downloads the Whisper models to your machine and runs them locally. Your audio data never leaves your computer. This makes it perfect for sensitive or confidential recordings.

🎙️ Live & File Transcription

  • Import Files: Drag and drop audio or video files (MP3, WAV, MP4, etc.) to generate transcripts.
  • Live Recording: Transcribe and translate audio in real-time from your microphone (great for dictation).

📝 Export Capabilities

Once your audio is processed, you can export the results in multiple formats:

  • TXT: Plain text.
  • SRT / VTT: Subtitles for video workflows.
  • JSON: For developers or structured data needs.

Tech Under the Hood

Buzz is a GUI wrapper around OpenAI’s Whisper. You can choose different model sizes based on your hardware:

  • Tiny/Base: Fast, low resource usage.
  • Small/Medium: Balanced accuracy and speed.
  • Large: Maximum accuracy (requires more RAM/Apple Silicon).

Get Started

You can install Buzz via Homebrew or download it directly.

Homebrew:

brew install --cask buzz

Direct Download:

🔗 GitHub Releases: chidiwilliams/buzz

Why This Tool Rocks

  • No Subscriptions: Say goodbye to monthly fees for transcription.
  • Mac-Native Feel: A clean, simple interface that fits right into macOS.
  • High Quality: Whisper is arguably the best open-source transcription model available today.

Crepi il lupo! 🐺