We can accept a wide variety of digital formats for transcription directly through our secure client area.
Upload only what you want transcribed
It’s best if you upload only the exact piece of material you want transcribed.
For example: If there are 20 minutes on a 60-minute file you want transcribed, it is preferable to upload a 20-minute file of just the exact piece you need instead of uploading the 60-minute file and then telling us your IN and OUT points.
If you elect to upload a larger file and provide IN and OUT points, please keep in mind that we will add a little cushion (30 seconds) to each side to make sure all the audio your are requesting is transcribed.
Please allow additional turnaround time if you request us to edit your file for you.
Preferred Format
Our minimum recording sample rate for Type-1 audio is 22khz. In practice audio should be recorded at either 44.1khz or 48hz. It is important that the original recording be done at the higher sample rate, simply converting a 16khz file to 48khz after the fact does not improve the quality of the recording.
Our preferred format for digital audio files is MP3 using the following specifications. See our MP3 conversion Tutorial if needed.
- 44.1 khz sample/frequency per second
- 128 kbit/second data rate
- Stereo Channel
- Not more than 60 minutes per file if possible. (e.g.: if you have 120 minutes, split it into 2 files.)
Please name your file in some unique way but with a name not longer than 50 characters. For example “file_1.mp3” is not unique, many other clients might use that same name. Something more unique to your particular job is preferred. For example:
- 2017-01-23-John-Doe-pt1.mp3
- John_Doe_interview_at_ranch.mp3
Once you have your files use our ‘Easy Upload’ to drag and drop your files onto our server. This is found in our secure client area.
To begin the process you must first sign up for an account. After you receive you login and password, login to the secure client area.
Additional Format List
All digital files must be ‘downloadable’. We do not transcribe directly from web pages or via ‘streaming’ media files. We can however transcribe both YouTube and Vimeo files
- MP3 audio format
- WAV audio format
- AIFF audio format
- M4A audio format (Zoom Audio downloads)
- MP4 Video format (H.264 or H.265)
- AAC audio format
- Quicktime (MOV format)
- Windows Media formats (WMV and WMA)
- MPG format
- DSS Transcription
- RealMedia Transcription
- RealAudio Transcription
When using WAV, please be sure that the sample rate is at least 22.1 khz and 16bit audio. In general if there is a trade-off between size and quality, choose quality. That said, remember that large digital files can take some time to upload, even with a fast internet connection.
We recommend converting AIFF and WAV files to MP3 prior to upload as uncompressed files take about 20 times longer to upload. We provide a quick tutorial for converting WAV and AIFF files to MP3
More exotic formats have slightly longer turnaround times as we will have to convert them to something we can use. We do not transcribe directly from DVF. Please convert to WAV on your end and upload that file instead.
Note regarding DSS and DVF format:
DSS is a legacy dictation format from the early 80s. Both DSS and DVF are decidedly inferior to more modern recording formats. Unfortunately most digital dictation devices still use this format. We DO NOT recommend it for recording anything other than dictation. If you need to purchase a portable digital recorder please see our Digital Recorder recommendations.