How to Properly Transcribe an Interview A Comprehensive G...

When people talk about transcribing an interview, they mean turning the spoken words into a clean, accurate text file. But it's more than just that. A great transcript captures the dialogue, notes non-verbal cues, and is formatted in a way that’s easy to read and true to the original recording.

Setting the Stage for a Perfect Transcript

The secret to a painless transcription process starts long before you ever hit record. It’s a simple truth I’ve learned the hard way: garbage audio in, garbage transcript out. No amount of editing can truly fix a muffled, noisy recording.

Nailing the setup transforms transcription from a frustrating chore into a quick, simple task.

It’s not about buying a studio's worth of expensive gear; it's about making a few smart choices upfront.

A clean audio file is the single most important factor for both AI tools and human transcribers. When a recording is crystal clear, AI can hit accuracy rates well above 95%.

But that number nosedives the moment background noise or overlapping voices enter the picture.

Secure Clear Audio from the Start

Your number one goal is to capture clean audio for every single speaker. That just means cutting down on background noise and making sure voices are easy to tell apart. You don’t need a professional studio to make this happen.

Find a quiet room. Soft furnishings like carpets, curtains, or even a few pillows can do wonders to reduce echo. Steer clear of rooms with humming fridges, buzzing air conditioners, or traffic noise from an open window. If your interview is remote, it’s worth asking your guest to do the same.

For in-person chats, place a dedicated mic between you and your guest—a little closer to them is usually better. Even a smartphone laid on a book (to avoid vibrations) can work in a pinch. For remote calls, a basic headset with a mic is a massive upgrade over a laptop's built-in microphone. To make sure you capture everything perfectly, you might want to explore different call recording features to find what works for your setup.

Pro Tip: Always, always do a quick soundcheck. Record 30 seconds of you and your guest talking, then play it back. Listen for volume, clarity, and any annoying background hums. This one small step can save you from a completely unusable recording.

Prepare Your Interviewee and Yourself

A smooth conversation naturally leads to a cleaner transcript. This goes beyond just having good questions; you want to create an environment where people aren't constantly talking over each other.

Here’s a quick checklist for a great recording session:

• Get Consent: Before you record, just ask for permission. A simple, "Do you mind if I record this for my notes?" is professional and, in many places, a legal must.
• Encourage Pauses: Let your guest know it's totally fine to take a beat to think. Not only does this produce more thoughtful answers, but it also creates natural breaks in the audio. That makes identifying who’s speaking a whole lot easier later on.
• Practice Active Listening: This is key. Pay attention to what your guest is saying instead of just waiting for your turn to talk. You'll ask better follow-up questions and avoid interrupting—a classic cause of messy, overlapping audio. For a deeper dive, check out our guide on what is active listening.

Choosing Your Transcription Toolkit: AI vs. Human

Once your crystal-clear audio file is ready, you face a big decision: how will you turn those spoken words into text? This is where you pick your primary tool, and the options really boil down to three main paths: relying on a human, using an AI-powered service, or blending the two.

The path you pick directly impacts your project's cost, speed, and final accuracy. There isn't a single "best" choice here; the right one depends entirely on what you need for this specific interview.

The Case for Human Transcription

When absolute accuracy is non-negotiable, human transcriptionists are still the gold standard. A professional can navigate complex conversations with overlapping speakers, decipher thick accents, and correctly identify industry-specific jargon that might completely stump an algorithm.

Of course, that precision comes with trade-offs. It's the most expensive option, usually priced per audio minute, and it takes the longest. A one-hour interview can easily take a professional several hours or even a full day to transcribe perfectly.

A human is essential when the stakes are high—think legal depositions, published academic research, or a keynote interview for a major publication where every single word must be perfect.

The Power of AI Transcription

On the other end of the spectrum is the incredible efficiency of AI transcription. Platforms built on this technology can process an hour of audio in just a few minutes, delivering a full draft for a tiny fraction of what a human service would charge. That kind of speed is a game-changer for projects with tight deadlines or a high volume of content.

One such example is the Parakeet AI transcription service, which showcases this modern approach.

However, AI isn't flawless. It excels with clear, single-speaker audio, but its performance can dip with background noise, multiple speakers talking over each other, or unfamiliar terminology. This just means you should always plan to spend some time proofreading and editing the initial AI-generated draft. If you want a deeper dive into how this tech works, check out our guide on transforming audio to text with AI.

Finding the Sweet Spot with a Hybrid Approach

For most people, the most practical solution is a hybrid model. This method combines the best of both worlds: you start with a fast, affordable AI transcript and then do a final human review to catch and correct any errors.

This approach gives you the raw speed of automation while ensuring the accuracy and nuance that only a human eye can provide. It’s the perfect balance for most common use cases, like creating blog content from a podcast, generating meeting notes, or transcribing interviews for internal analysis.

Let's look at how these three methods stack up side-by-side.

Transcription Method Comparison: Cost, Speed, and Accuracy

Method	Average Cost (per audio minute)	Typical Turnaround (for 1hr audio)	Accuracy (Word Error Rate)
Human Transcription	$1.50 - $5.00+	24 - 48 hours	< 2%
AI Transcription	$0.10 - $0.50	5 - 15 minutes	8% - 18%
Hybrid (AI + Human Edit)	$0.50 - $1.25	1 - 4 hours	< 5%

The data really backs this up. Benchmark evaluations show that while top AI engines have word-error rates of 8% to 18% in ideal conditions, that can jump above 25% with noisy, multi-speaker interviews. In contrast, professional human transcribers maintain error rates under 2% in those same tough conditions.

The hybrid model effectively bridges that gap, often bringing the final error rate down to below 5% for just a modest increase in your time and effort.

Editing and Polishing Your First Draft

Getting that raw transcript back—whether it took you hours of manual typing or just a few minutes with an AI tool—is only step one. The real craft of learning how to properly transcribe an interview happens in the edit. This is where you transform a jumble of words into a polished, accurate, and genuinely useful document.

Think of that first draft as raw clay. It has the basic shape, but it needs a skilled hand to smooth out the imperfections and bring it to life. Your job now is to listen back to the audio, comparing it word-for-word against the text.

You’re hunting for errors, clarifying confusing bits, and making sure the final transcript is a true reflection of the conversation.

This flowchart breaks down the basic decision-making process when you're first starting out, helping you weigh the need for speed against the demand for accuracy.

As you can see, no matter which path you take initially, a final human review is almost always the last step to guarantee a high-quality, polished transcript.

Deciding Between Verbatim Styles

Your first big decision is what type of transcript you actually need. This choice dictates how you’ll handle all the natural messiness of human speech, and it's a crucial one to make upfront.

• Strict Verbatim: This is the "warts and all" approach. You capture everything—every single "um," "ah," stutter, and false start. It’s essential for legal depositions or deep qualitative analysis where how something was said is just as important as what was said.
• Intelligent Verbatim: This is what most people are after. Also known as a "clean read," you remove all the filler words, fix minor grammatical stumbles, and tidy up run-on sentences to make the text flow. The goal is maximum readability without changing the speaker’s original meaning. It's perfect for creating articles, publishing interviews, or generating meeting notes.

Getting this right from the start saves you from a massive headache later. There’s nothing worse than having to do a second, much deeper edit because you chose the wrong style.

A high-quality transcript isn't just a "nice-to-have"—it has a real impact. One study found that qualitative researchers using verbatim transcripts captured 28% more usable data and cut down on re-contacting interviewees for clarification by 42%.

Your Proofreading Workflow

Okay, you’ve chosen your style. It’s time to dive in. Don't just skim the text; you need to actively listen to the audio while you read along. A tool with integrated playback controls that you can manage with keyboard shortcuts is an absolute game-changer here. Being able to slow down the speed or instantly jump back 5 seconds makes the whole process so much smoother.

As you work your way through, keep an eye out for these key things:

1. Speaker Labels: Make sure every speaker is identified correctly and consistently from start to finish. "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2" are okay, but "Interviewer" and "Dr. Smith" are so much clearer for the end reader.
2. Inaudible or Unclear Words: When you hit a patch of audio you just can't make out, never guess. Use a timestamped placeholder like [inaudible 00:15:32] or [unclear 00:21:10]. Those timestamps are your best friend, allowing you or a colleague to jump right to the tricky spot later.
3. Non-Verbal Cues: Depending on what the transcript is for, you might want to note important non-verbal sounds. Simple tags like [laughter] or [crosstalk] can add a surprising amount of context that would otherwise be lost in the text.

This proofreading stage is, without a doubt, the most important step for ensuring your final transcript is accurate and reliable. To really nail this process, check out our deep dive into the best practices for proofreading in transcription. A little time spent learning the ropes here pays off massively in the quality of your work.

Formatting Your Transcript for Professional Use

An accurate transcript is worthless if nobody can read it. After all the hard work of editing and proofreading, the final step is formatting your text into a clean, professional, and easy-to-navigate document. This is what turns a rough draft into a final asset ready for legal review, academic research, or content creation.

The goal is pretty simple: make the document as user-friendly as possible. Proper formatting isn't just about making things look nice; it’s about function. It lets a reader quickly scan for key information, identify who's talking, and find specific moments in the recording without digging through a wall of text.

Building a Consistent and Readable Layout

Consistency is everything in a professional transcript. Every interview you transcribe should follow the same set of rules, which makes your work reliable and instantly understandable to anyone who uses it.

First, establish clear speaker labels. Using the person’s actual name or a descriptive title (like Interviewer or Dr. Evans) is so much better than generic tags like "Speaker 1." Always make these labels bold and use them the same way throughout the document.

For example:

Jessica Kent: The first step is always to prep the hell out of the interview. You need to know your subject inside and out.

Interviewer: How does that preparation change your line of questioning?

This simple change immediately tells the reader who is speaking, making the back-and-forth a breeze to follow. Another game-changer is using timestamps. You don’t need them on every single line, but dropping them in at regular intervals—maybe every paragraph or every 30-60 seconds—provides invaluable reference points.

A well-placed timestamp, like [00:15:32], acts as a navigational beacon. It allows a reader to instantly jump to that exact point in the audio to verify a quote or catch the speaker's tone. For any kind of journalistic or legal work, this is non-negotiable.

Handling Non-Verbal Cues and Unclear Audio

Real conversations are messy. Your transcript needs a standardized system to handle all the bits that aren't clean dialogue. These little notes add crucial context that would otherwise be completely lost.

Here are the essential notations you’ll want to include:

• Inaudible Speech: When you genuinely can't understand a word or phrase, use a bracketed note with a timestamp. Something like: [inaudible 00:08:14]. Whatever you do, never guess what was said.
• Crosstalk: If speakers start talking over each other and the dialogue gets jumbled, a simple [crosstalk] is all you need to explain the overlap.
• Non-Verbal Sounds: Contextual sounds like [laughter], [applause], or [phone ringing] should be included to paint a fuller picture of what was happening in the room.

Finally, think about the file format. While a plain .txt file is universal, exporting to .docx or .pdf is what locks in all your careful formatting. A .docx file is great for collaborators who might need to make their own edits, while a .pdf is perfect for creating a final, unalterable version for distribution. By mastering these details, you learn how to properly transcribe an interview from start to finish.

Navigating Confidentiality and Data Security

The words in your interview are important, but protecting the information behind them is just as critical. When you transcribe an interview, you're not just typing—you’re handling potentially sensitive data, and that comes with serious ethical and legal responsibilities.

It all starts with informed consent. Before you even think about hitting the record button, your interviewee needs to know exactly what's happening. A quick "Is it okay if I record this?" doesn't cut it anymore. They need to understand how the recording and transcript will be used, where they'll be stored, and who gets to see them.

Anonymizing and Protecting Identities

For a ton of projects—academic research, journalism, user feedback sessions—keeping your participant's identity under wraps is non-negotiable. The go-to method is anonymization, which means methodically stripping out any personally identifiable information (PII) from the text.

This is more than just removing their name. You need to be on the lookout for other identifiers:

• Company or specific team names
• Job titles or precise locations
• Names of colleagues, family, or friends
• Any other unique detail that could accidentally point back to them

A common trick is to swap names for generic codes like "Participant A" or "Interviewee 1." If you need to re-identify them later for your own records, you can keep a separate, securely stored key. It’s a simple step that goes a long way in building trust.

Your duty of care covers the entire lifecycle of the interview data. From the second you capture the audio to the day you finally archive or delete the transcript, every action needs a security-first mindset.

Secure Storage and Transfer Practices

How you manage the actual files is a huge piece of the security puzzle. Emailing audio files or transcripts as regular attachments is a massive gamble, since standard email isn't encrypted. You have to use secure methods for both storing and sending your data.

Using encrypted cloud storage with strict access controls is an excellent starting point. When it comes time to share, use services that let you create secure, password-protected links that expire. This shrinks the window of vulnerability and helps ensure only the right people get access.

For anyone working with medical information, the rules get even tighter. If that's you, check out our deep dive on HIPAA-compliant transcription services to make sure you're buttoned up.

A Few Common Transcription Questions

When you’re first figuring out how to transcribe an interview, a few questions always seem to pop up. The whole process can feel a bit overwhelming, but once you get a handle on a couple of key ideas, your workflow will get a lot smoother.

Let’s tackle some of the most frequent hurdles people run into. One of the biggest is just wrapping your head around the time commitment—it's incredibly easy to underestimate how long it really takes.

How Long Does It Take to Transcribe One Hour of Audio?

Honestly, the time it takes to transcribe an hour of audio is all over the map. It really depends on your experience and how clean the recording is.

A seasoned pro working with a clear, two-person conversation can probably knock out an hour of audio in about 3 to 4 hours. That's pretty fast.

But for a beginner, or anyone stuck with messy audio—think multiple speakers talking over each other, thick accents, or a ton of background noise—that time can easily stretch to 6 to 8 hours, or even more. That huge difference is exactly why AI transcription services are taking off. They can spit out a first draft in 10-15 minutes, leaving you with the much easier job of proofreading.

What Is the Best Software for Transcribing Interviews?

There's no single "best" tool, because it all comes down to what you're trying to achieve. The right software really depends on the job.

• For Speed and Value: This is where AI-powered platforms like Transcript.LOL, Otter.ai, or Descript really shine. They give you a surprisingly good draft in minutes, which is a lifesaver on a tight deadline.
• For Maximum Accuracy: If every single word has to be perfect, especially with difficult audio, a human-powered service like Rev or GoTranscript is often worth the investment.
• For Manual Editing: A lot of pros, myself included, use a hybrid approach. We’ll start with an AI draft and then use a dedicated tool like Express Scribe to clean it up. It syncs the audio playback with your text editor, making corrections way more efficient.

The most effective workflow today often combines the raw speed of AI with the final polish of a human editor. You get a massive head start from the AI, then you can focus on getting the details perfect without the high cost of a fully manual service.

Should I Include Filler Words Like Um and Ah?

This all boils down to the purpose of your transcript. You’ll want to decide on the style before you start editing, as it dictates how you handle these little details.

If you need a strict verbatim transcript, then yes, you have to include every single sound. That means all the "ums," "ahs," stutters, and false starts stay in. This style is non-negotiable for things like legal proceedings or deep academic research where how something was said is just as important as what was said.

For pretty much everything else—turning an interview into a blog post, publishing a Q&A, or just getting clean meeting notes—an intelligent verbatim transcript is the way to go. This "cleaned-up" style ditches all the filler words and corrects minor grammar mistakes, making the text flow smoothly and read easily without changing the speaker’s actual message.

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