5 Do’s for Recording a Perfect Audio Interview | Transcription Guide

In the recent times, audio interviews have gained huge popularity. These are conducted by journalists, students carrying out their research work, private investigators, research companies etc. Such interviews can take place when at least 2 persons are involved in the conversation. There may be cases when more than one interviewee is going to be there while carrying out an audio interview. The more the number of persons involved, more are the chances of chaos. Whether two or more persons are involved in interviews, you need to make sure that no compromise is done with the quality of recording the research interviews. Here are 5 amazing tips which will prove to be beneficial for you while recording an audio interview:

1. Informing the Participant Beforehand

In the conversation, the participant is the person who is going to be interviewed.  He should be informed about the location where interview is going to take place, the date and day when he should be available, the time when it will start and the duration for which it will be continued. He should be already provided with a list of questions which are going to be asked in the interview. It is done to avoid any probable chances of miscommunication. The objective of the interview should be made clear to the interviewee so that he can search for the related contents before.

What To Do?

Prepare a possible list of questions that you will ask the interviewer:
Collaborate with the participant and send in the list and ask for approval.
If any revisions are required prepare for the same and re-send for approval.
Also, the list of common questions can be sent to the transcriptionist who will be transcribing the audio files.

2. Select a Suitable Location

While conducting an audio interview, noise free places should be taken into consideration where there are less chances of human interruption. If you are going to interview the person in a restaurant, you must ensure that the staff or other people are not creating any kind of nuisance. If you are using Skype, Cisco WebEx, GoToMeeting or any other online source for conferencing purposes, a good network connection is required as well.

 A conference room can be a better option where nobody is there to distract you from the respective purpose of carrying out the interview. For transcription purposes, transcription service companies charge extra $/minute of audio for bad audio recordings. Hence, recording audio conferences, interviews and seminars make sure to record it in a noise free environment. This also helps the typists greatly in their work.

Some Suitable Locations:
Office building or a conference room.
Co-located Park  such as Central Park, New York or Hyde Park, London can be a good option.

Examples of a Bad Location:
Noisy restaurants.
Fast food café's such as McDonalds for formal meetings.

3. Choose a Powerful Audio Hand Recorder

The main factor that affects the effectiveness of an audio interview is the selection of an audio hand recorder. While buying, you must make sure that it has a long battery life as you won’t be bothered about its timely charging related issues. If possible, you should go for water proof recorders which don’t stop working even if they fall in water unluckily. You can search for the respective products online as well as by visiting the stores personally as per your convenience and interests. Various reputed voice recorders including Olympus WS- 821, Countryman B6, Rode Micro Boom Pole etc. can be considered which will offer an amazing interview experience.

4. Make Smoother Conversations

For the purpose of making smooth conversations during the audio interview, both the respondent and the interviewer should speak louder in the mike. They should make sure that their tone is easily understandable. If they speak slowly, it will certainly affect the quality of the interview, resulting in waste of their efforts and time involved. The recording mic used should be of excellent quality as well, which will result in recording the voices involved clearly. Some example of a good recording mic are Shures, Audio Technica's, Samson and Bower.

What To Do?
Make the participants comfortable beforehand.
Speak slowly, clearly and a bit loudly if needed.

5. Transcribe the Audio Interviews

After you are done with its recording, you need to be responsible enough by sending the transcript of the interview to the interviewee. This is done so that the interviewee can be sure that the conversations recorded in the interview have been correctly transcribed. In case, he is not satisfied with the transcription, he can ask the interviewer to make respective changes suggested by him. The interviewee possesses the authority to approve the transcript of the interview.
   
What media's can be Transcribed?

You can transcribe videos and audios from Skype and Youtube, even conferences from WebEx and GoToMeetings. Radio stations and Podcasters frequently use transcription services. There are many  reliable transcriptionist services online from where these recordings can be transcribed into text. 

Important Tips:

Place the recorder in such a way that makes the participants audible.
Carry spare batteries for the voice recorder in case of emergencies.
For noisy environments the recorder should be placed closer to the interviewee instead of placing it in the middle.

 

Summary:

The above mentioned tips must be followed if you want your make the recording of your audio interview a big success. In addition, you should prefer a place which is free from traffic so that you can carry out the interview without any kind of distraction. You should keep an extra recorder along with yourself. This is because there might be chances that you forget taking the actual recorder or the battery becomes low before the interview gets completed. So, it is always better to prepare yourself for handling these uncertain situations. If the interviewee knows about the topics to be covered in the interview, he won’t feel anxious while giving the interview. Instead, it will add a sense of confidence while answering questions which he already knows about. Following and implementing these advices in the right manner will surely help you in conducting an efficacious interview.

Presented By: This blog article is presented by Alltranscript.com the online site for interview transcription services.