To get top quality transcripts at affordable cost it is important to provide good audible recordings of your business sessions

2. How to Produce Quality Audio Recordings for Business Transcription
To get top quality transcripts at affordable cost it is important to provide
good audible recordings of your business sessions
For accurate business transcription in quick turnaround time, you need to provide a
quality recording. Producing a transcript is not just about copy-typing. The
transcriptionist has to listen to the recording and faithfully produce a document that
will serve your needs. If the quality of the recording is poor, it would take more time
to transcribe it, which would take up the cost. Moreover, only a good, audible
recording can result in a clear and legible transcript within the specified turnaround
time.
Top Quality Recordings – Factors to Consider
• Choosing recording equipment - Find recording equipment that is
affordable and can meet your specific needs. The recording equipment should
have good sound quality. For example, for interview transcription, it is
essential to choose recording equipment with external microphone rather than
one built in to the recorder, which is only designed to pick up dictation. For
focus groups, several microphones may be needed to ensure that all the
participants are audible. Use good microphones for conferences, including
“roving” microphones to record questions asked by members of the audience.
Choose a digital recording device that offers high quality audio recording.
Also, check whether the chosen device has back-up batteries so that your
recording is not interrupted by a power outage.
• Do a test recording - It is important to conduct a trial recording with the
equipment before initiating the actual recording. This would help to identify
technical difficulties (if any) so that they can be resolved before the actual
event or activity.
• Transcription time - Often in transcription, it is not easy to type as fast as
you speak. Even a trained and experienced transcriptionist will need an
average of 4 hours to transcribe an hour-long clear one-to-one interview
recording. A poor quality recording would take more time to transcribe. So to
get quality transcripts at affordable cost, it is important to provide a clear and
precise recording.
• Recording environment - It is very important to record in a quiet and calm
environment. Open windows can cause big noise problems. Also, if you have
air conditioning unit in the recording room, make sure that the speakers are
not connected near it. Use noise cancelling microphone if needed. On the
other hand, if you are conducting a telephonic interview, it is important to
seek the permission of interviewee to get recorded. Also, make sure that your
interviewee is also in a quiet environment.

3. • Listen to the conversation - While conducting an interview; do not over
speak your interviewee unless and until you want to take control of the
interview. Even uttering words like “OK, Right or Yeah” to indicate that we are
listening can obscure important things said by the interviewee.
• Decide on the type of transcription you need - Make a decision whether
you need a verbatim transcription or not. Verbatim transcription includes
every repeated word, every ‘um’ and ‘erm’, “filler” phrases such as “You
know” and “know what I mean” that may be repeated different times in an
interview. It includes coughs, throat clearing and pauses as well. All this
usually takes a longer time to transcribe. On the other hand, if the transcriber
can filter out all this stuff and produce a concise intelligent verbatim
transcript, the work would get done faster and cost less.
Once you ensure high quality recordings, choose a reliable transcription company for
professional business transcription services to meet your deadlines.