Audio Recording Tips for General Transcriptions
- Turn off all electronic devices that may interrupt the conversation or cause background noise. These include fans, air conditioning (if you can), cell phones, radios, etc.
- Introduce yourself and have the speakers introduce themselves with a few words at the beginning so that the transcriptionist can familiarize his or herself with the each speakers voice.
- Give a list of proper nouns and jargon to the transcriptionist. This will help the transcriptionist understand the audio better which will result in a more accurate transcription. In addition, this saves the transcriptionist lots of time from trying to figure out what the speaker is saying and then doing an internet search for that term.
- Ask your speakers not to interrupt each other or to speak at the same time. In the moment it is understandable, but transcribing when two speakers are talking at the same time is extremely difficult and many times impossible. You may have to remind them during the recording to not speak over each other or at the same time as one another.
- Set the microphone or recording device in the center of all of the speakers if you are recording a group of speakers. If you are recording a class or speech where one person will do most of the talking at the front, sit as close as possible to the speaker. And if you are interviewing someone, place the recorder closer to them than to yourself and if possible aim it toward them.
- If someone speaks too low, don’t hesitate in asking them to speak louder so that the audio will be able to pick up their voice.
- Start and end the audio at least 15 seconds before and after the conversation ends. This avoids cutting off part of the beginning and end of the speech.
- Do a test run with each speaker. Set the recording device where it will be placed during the conversation and have each speaker say something as they would normally speak.
- Advise the speakers that if there is a loud interruption to stop talking and let the interruption pass. For example, if the cleaning person goes down the hall vacuuming, let him or her pass by and then resume the conversation when the noise is gone.
- Don’t be afraid to ask someone to repeat themselves more clearer. Even if you understood what they said, if they slurred or you could tell that what they said wasn’t so clear you may ask them to repeat what they said or ask them to confirm what they said by you repeating the main points and saying, “Is that correct?”
- When addressing different people, it is extremely helpful to call their name and then ask the question. For example, “Maria, what do you think?” instead of just looking at Maria and saying, “What do you think?”
- Use a high-quality digital voice recorder. The Olympus DS-40 Digital Voice Recorder is one of the highest rated digital voice recorders on Amazon with 132 ratings! New it goes for around $165, but you can buy a used one for around $75.
If you follow these twelve simple but crucial steps you will save yourself time and money and even come out in the end with higher quality transcriptions than if you went into voice recording blindly. Let me know if you have any additional tips that I haven’t thought of yet, particularly those of you who know a thing or two about recording with tapes!
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