I’m using Muse AI to search 7 recordings, but it keeps missing phrases I can hear clearly when I play them back. I’ve left the settings at their defaults and tried shorter search terms without much improvement. Which settings should I check first for this kind of search problem?
If the missing phrase appears correctly in the transcript, I’d check search filters first: select Speech rather than Text, which is a separate search category. You can test a distinctive spoken word with s:keyword. Check that speech analysis has finished, too. Then search inside a single affected recording to rule out a collection or library-scope issue. If the transcript itself has the wrong words or a gap at that timestamp, I’d investigate transcription rather than keep shortening the query. Comparing one missed phrase against its transcript is the quickest way to decide which direction to troubleshoot.
Searching for the exact words you heard is different from searching for the subject being discussed. I’d check whether you’re using keyword search or Smart Search, in addition to the Speech filter @xturbopandax suggested. Keyword search is intended for specific words and phrases. Smart Search matches meaning, so it’s better suited to finding a discussion when you don’t know the wording.
For troubleshooting, I would rather suggest using keyword search rather than switching several default settings off. Instead, use Smart Search with the description of the discussed issue as a workaround for the absence of phrase matching rather than trying to prove that it does work. For instance, use the speech “push the deadline back” along with the topic search “discussion about delayed delivery” to get an idea of how different the search results can be compared to phrase search.
In case keyword search fails to find the information that is clearly present in the audio file, I would rather suggest sending the time stamp along with the search query and type of search used to support rather than trying to figure out which setting combination might be a better fit.
Don’t change settings across the whole library yet. I’m not clear from your post whether search finds some spoken phrases and misses others, or barely finds anything. That distinction would matter more to me than which defaults are switched on. I wouldn’t pick a settings combination until you have something that reliably works to compare against.
I’d try a small side-by-side check in an affected recording: a phrase that search already finds, then a missed phrase from nearby. Keep the search mode and filters identical for both. If you change a setting, run both searches again, rather than checking only whether the missing phrase suddenly appears. I’d want to know whether the change helped without losing the result that worked before.
The comparison I’d be curious about is ordinary words versus names, abbreviations, or numbers. Are the misses mostly in that second group? If so, try a nearby ordinary word as a way to reach that passage. That’s a workaround to test, not a claim that Muse has a particular setting for those cases. Hearing the phrase clearly tells you where it should be found, but doesn’t yet explain why the search missed it.
I take @mr_lynx’s point about searching by topic, but I’d keep those results separate from this check. Finding the right discussion would help you get on with your work. It wouldn’t tell you whether the original phrase search is now behaving as expected. For sorting out the settings, I’d stick with the same pair of searches so you have a consistent comparison.