Feedback: speech-to-text-pre-recorded-audio-speech-threshold

Documentation Feedback

Original URL: https://assemblyai.com/docs/speech-to-text/pre-recorded-audio/speech-threshold
Category: speech-to-text
Generated: 05/08/2025, 4:24:08 pm

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Claude Sonnet 4 Feedback

Generated: 05/08/2025, 4:24:07 pm

Technical Documentation Analysis: Speech Threshold

Overall Assessment

This documentation covers the basic functionality but has several areas needing improvement for better user experience and clarity. Here’s my detailed analysis:

🔴 Critical Issues

1. Missing Core Information

• No definition of what “speech threshold” actually means - users need to understand this is the minimum percentage of speech required
• Missing response structure documentation - users don’t know what the full response looks like
• No explanation of how speech percentage is calculated
• Missing information about billing implications when threshold isn’t met

2. Incomplete Error Handling

• Only shows one error scenario in plain text
• No HTTP status codes provided
• Missing structured error response format

🟡 Clarity and Structure Issues

3. Confusing Examples and Explanations

Current problematic text:

“To only transcribe files that contain at least a specified percentage of spoken audio”

Suggested improvement:

“The speech_threshold parameter allows you to skip transcription of audio files that don’t contain enough speech content. Set a value between 0.0 (no speech required) and 1.0 (100% speech required). If the detected speech percentage falls below your threshold, transcription is skipped.”

4. Better Structure Needed

# Suggested Structure:
1. What is Speech Threshold? (definition + use cases)
2. How it Works (calculation method)
3. Configuration (parameter details)
4. Response Handling (success + failure cases)
5. Code Examples
6. Best Practices & Limitations

🟠 Missing Information

5. Parameter Documentation

Add a proper parameter table:

| Parameter | Type | Range | Required | Description |
|-----------|------|-------|----------|-------------|
| `speech_threshold` | float | 0.0 - 1.0 | No | Minimum percentage of speech required (0.5 = 50%) |

6. Response Documentation

## Response Format

### Success Response
When speech threshold is met, you'll receive a standard transcription response.

### Threshold Not Met Response
```json
{
  "id": "transcript_id",
  "status": "completed",
  "text": null,
  "error": "Audio speech threshold 0.4523 is below the requested speech threshold value 0.5"
}

7. Use Cases Section

Add practical scenarios:

## Common Use Cases
- **Screening voicemails**: Skip transcribing mostly silent recordings
- **Meeting analysis**: Only process meetings with substantial discussion
- **Quality control**: Filter out low-content audio files
- **Cost optimization**: Avoid charges for non-speech audio

🔧 Code Example Improvements

8. Add Practical Examples

# Add this practical example
import assemblyai as aai

# Example: Only transcribe if 70% or more is speech
config = aai.TranscriptionConfig(speech_threshold=0.7)
transcript = aai.Transcriber(config=config).transcribe(audio_file)

# Handle threshold not met
if transcript.text is None:
    print(f"Audio skipped: {transcript.error}")
    # Log for analytics or try with lower threshold
else:
    print(f"Transcription: {transcript.text}")

9. Add Response Handling Examples

The current examples don’t show how to specifically handle the threshold scenario:

# Add this to examples
if transcript.status == "completed":
    if transcript.text is None:
        print("Audio did not meet speech threshold")
        print(f"Reason: {transcript.error}")
    else:
        print(f"Transcription: {transcript.text}")

🎯 User Experience Improvements

10. Add Troubleshooting Section

## Troubleshooting

**Q: My audio has speech but threshold check failed**
- Ensure audio is at least 30 seconds long
- Check for background noise affecting detection
- Try a lower threshold value (e.g., 0.3 instead of 0.8)

**Q: How do I know what threshold to use?**
- Start with 0.5 (50%) for most use cases
- Use 0.2-0.3 for noisy environments
- Use 0.7-0.9 for high-quality speech-only content

11. Add Performance Notes

## Performance Considerations
- Speech detection adds ~2-5 seconds to processing time
- Files under 30 seconds may have less accurate speech detection
- Very short audio clips (< 10 seconds) are not recommended for threshold filtering

12. Warning Improvements

Current warning is buried and unclear. Improve to:

> ⚠️ **Important Limitations**
> - Audio files must be at least 30 seconds long for reliable speech detection
> - Very noisy audio may affect speech percentage calculation
> - You are still charged for the speech detection process even if threshold isn't met

📝 Quick Fixes

1. Add a clear definition at the top
2. Include response structure documentation
3. Add use cases section
4. Improve error handling in code examples
5. Add troubleshooting section
6. Better organize content with clear headings
7. Add parameter table with detailed descriptions
8. Include billing information about failed thresholds

These improvements would transform this from basic parameter documentation into a comprehensive guide that helps users understand, implement, and troubleshoot the speech threshold feature effectively.

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