IT

Preparing Your Data for Audio Typing

typingTyping companies will confirm that many of the challenges that they face with their work assignments have nothing to do with the actual work. It mostly has to do with completely avoidable challenges that are created when the source data-audio recording-is created. A simple example is too much noise in the recording which leads to garbled audio, with instances of conversations becoming completely unintelligible as the noise randomly takes over the recording itself.

Voice Quality

The more are the instances of the voice being lost to other factors like noise, the more time will the audio typing company spend on the process of copy typing. Since everything is billed per hour, at the end of the day, the customer is being charged more out of sheer inconvenience. Some folks might think that, there is nothing that can be done about this. Actually, there are a lot of things that can be done about this.

These ‘little things’ that can be done to improve the quality of the audio apply to individuals and corporations alike. You might be getting an hour’s worth of recordings transcript once in a month or hundreds of hours done, every day. Either of these scenarios, providing quality audio recording to the typing service company is better than giving recording that is filled with noise and whatnot. Once the service company sees that you have a habit of providing good quality audio tapes, they would appreciate it, so will their agents who work out the transcription.

So, how exactly would you go about improving the quality of your audio recordings?

Recording Equipment

Audio recording equipment is cheap, and we have our friends in the Asian economy to thank for that. Despite this, or inspire of this, companies do not pay much attention to the actual recording equipment that is purchased. Since the equipment itself does not cost much, it is surely is not a question of price or expenses. This is why, we feel that recording gadgets are one of those things, like envelopes that people use everybody but just don’t care how it feels or looks.

This attitude has got to change. Once that has been accomplished, you should start by looking at buying recording hardware that is omnidirectional. You see, there are two types of recording technologies. The one that we are most used to, captures audio from a single direction. The second one, records audio from every direction. Since recordings usually involve at least two people sitting in opposite directions, having a single direction recorder does not make sense. Such a gadget will ensure that one of the speakers is clear while everybody else is not. It makes for such an uneven listening experience.

With the right set of omnidirectional speakers, voice will be captured and recorded from every possible direction. So, every speaker is given his due place in the recording and you won’t have that problem of directional voices any more.

Recording Conditions

You have realized that you need to improve the audio quality. You have invested in the right hardware. Now, it is time to improve the environment where the discussions and hence the recordings, are taking place.

All companies usually have one or two places where discussions are held. Such rooms are equipped or will be equipped with all the recording hardware that we have discussed above. The next option is to reduce noise and echo during the recordings. The best way to check this is to do some dummy recordings and playing it back. Even a few minutes of recording will tell you if there is noise and echo. Echo cancellation is easy. Get some curtains to the windows and arrange some cushion filled furniture and you can get rid of echo. Once you take care of the echo factor, noise will die down too.

Some typing companies are now beginning to expand their offering to include consultation about recording equipment. If you are looking to improve the quality of your audio recordings so as to enable quicker turnaround times for audio typing, then you can work with the audio typing company. At the very least, they will go into a lot more detail, like specific buying advice and best practices. Some audio typing services have even begun to lease out recording equipment for a fee. You could always consider buying typing services from such companies. Such companies end up becoming the best business partners.

The author has learnt the above tips from his transcription services partner, with whom he usually works. His usual audio typing services helped him with buying the right recording gear.

If you have any questions, please ask below!