Our transcriptionists have many years experience as audio typists across a variety of different industries. Once you have recorded your audio file, simply upload it using our secure SSL, Encrypted File Transfer. Once received, we will assign one of our specialist transcriptionists to type your audio file. Depending on the length and volume of files as well as the service you choose, we can have your files transcribed, proofread by the typist and sent back to you within four hours.
Submitting a Good Quality Audio File – Things to Consider
- Try to keep your focus group or conference recording free from background noise. If you’re in a busy building, make sure you shut the door and try to schedule your focus group at a time when there is no building work or cleaning going on. Also, consider fitting speakers with individual microphones to keep speech clear and to the foreground of your audio.
- Introduce your speakers. If you want our typists to identify individual speakers in your transcript, make sure you go through a short introduction at the beginning of the recording so we can match up voices to names straight away. For recordings where speakers are of the same sex, age and accent and it may be difficult to differentiate between them, so you may want to even number them and ask them to quote, Number one speaking’ before adding any comments.
- Consider the finished transcript. If you don’t need speakers to be individually identified, you can consider requesting a transcript with no specific speaker key for respondents. This can be a useful option if you are looking to save money and don’t want to pay for your transcript per speaker, as it will save the transcriptionist time.
- Keep control. The hardest thing for a transcriptionist to type is speakers shouting over each other. Not only can you miss comments if they are rendered entirely inaudible, but poor quality sound and over-speaking may warrant a higher cost for you, as it takes more time to decipher the dialogue.
- Be prepared. You can purchase specialist recording equipment for recording conferences and if you are going to be holding a lot of focus groups, this can be very worthwhile. Recording using a Dictaphone or voice recorder on a mobile phone can lack in quality and be hard to transcribe, and should only be used as a last resort for audio recordings such as dictation. Mobile phone recordings are often not sufficient for focus groups.
Consider your audio format. Try to record sound in an audio or video format that will be fast to upload to your computer and our website. This will save you time.
All of our work is proofread by the typist before it is returned to you. If you would like the services of an extra proofreader, this is also available. In the unlikely event that you are unsatisfied with your finished transcript, we are happy to make any corrections or amendments free of charge as long as you let us know within 24 hours of receiving your completed transcript.
