Buzz: Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper. VALSEA: A speech-intelligence platform that transcribes and analyzes Southeast Asian accented, code-switched voice into structured transcripts with summaries, action items, and sentiment. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Buzz when transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline matters most, and VALSEA when converting voice notes and field recordings into action items and crm entries for regional operations teams matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
Popular open-source desktop app that transcribes and translates audio offline on your own computer using OpenAI's Whisper.
A speech-intelligence platform that transcribes and analyzes Southeast Asian accented, code-switched voice into structured transcripts with summaries, action items, and sentiment.
Buzz is a widely used open-source desktop application that transcribes and translates audio offline on the user's personal computer, powered by OpenAI's Whisper. It is MIT-licensed and actively maintained, with v1.4.4 released in March 2026, and it has grown a large community with roughly 19.7k GitHub stars. Buzz runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with installation options including Flatpak, Snap, and PyPI. It supports both importing existing audio and video files and real-time transcription from microphone input, and it can export results in formats such as TXT, SRT, and VTT for subtitling and documentation. The app includes an advanced transcript viewer with search and playback controls, a watch folder for automatically transcribing new files, and a command-line interface for automation. It offers GPU acceleration through CUDA for Nvidia cards, Apple Silicon support, and Vulkan for many other GPUs, which makes faster transcription practical even on laptops. Buzz also provides speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio, plus a plugin system that adds capabilities like AI-generated summaries. Because all processing happens locally, recordings and transcripts remain on the user's machine rather than being uploaded to a cloud service. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
VALSEA is a Singapore-built speech-intelligence platform designed to understand Southeast Asian accented and code-switched speech that mainstream models often mishandle. It transcribes audio and turns it into structured output, including annotated transcripts, English conversions, translations, sentiment, and meeting-style notes with action items and decisions. The platform is tuned for Singlish, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Filipino, Tamil, and Khmer, plus East Asian languages, and is built for "messy reality" such as WhatsApp compression, Zoom artifacts, and noisy environments rather than studio-quality audio. Users can try an interactive demo on the homepage by selecting a language and recording or uploading audio to see transcription with semantic tagging and sentiment analysis. Beyond raw transcripts, VALSEA emphasizes turning voice into workflows, generating meeting notes for a CRM, assigning action items, and triggering follow-ups. It targets regional SMEs, support and sales teams, field operations, and content creators, and offers REST API, webhooks, a dashboard, and connections to Zapier, Make, and n8n.
Best suited for
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); VALSEA is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Buzz | VALSEA |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Offline transcription and translation using OpenAI's Whisper | Transcription of Southeast Asian accented and code-switched speech (Singlish, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Tamil, Khmer, and more) |
| Standout feature | Real-time transcription from microphone input | Semantic tagging plus sentiment and emotion analysis on transcripts |
| Team usage | Speaker identification and speech separation for noisy audio | Multilingual translation and plain-English conversion of voice notes |
| Integrations | Exports to TXT, SRT, and VTT | Meeting-style structured output: summaries, action items, and documented decisions/owners |
| Languages & capture | Watch folder for automatic transcription and a command-line interface | Robustness to real-world audio (WhatsApp compression, Zoom artifacts, background noise) |
| Best-fit workflow | GPU acceleration via CUDA, Apple Silicon, and Vulkan | Workflow automation via REST API, webhooks, dashboard, and Zapier/Make/n8n integrations |
Buzz
Choose Buzz if you need transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline — strengths include fully offline so audio and transcripts stay on the user's computer.
VALSEA
Choose VALSEA if you need transcribing and summarizing customer support or sales calls conducted in mixed southeast asian languages — strengths include specialized handling of southeast asian accents and code-switching that general transcription tools struggle with.
Buzz
VALSEA
It depends on your workflow. Buzz is strong for transcribing recorded meetings, interviews, podcasts, or lectures offline, while VALSEA is strong for transcribing and summarizing customer support or sales calls conducted in mixed southeast asian languages. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Buzz is a free tier with paid upgrades and VALSEA is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
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