Here at Transcription City, we like to offer our clients a transcription service that is both high quality and affordable. If you are in need of transcription services but don’t want to break the bank, we have 5 quick and easy ways you can save money on your transcription services. These will of course also apply to recordings that need to be transcribed or translated into a different language.
Transcription Services Clear Audio
One of the easiest ways to save money when using online transcription services is to ensure that the audio or video recordings you send to your chosen transcription company is crisp and clear. This means selecting a good quality recording device (suitable for the number of speakers and environment you are recording in), eliminating background noise where possible and ensuring that the speakers involved in your recording refrain from speaking over each other and interrupting where possible. This will not only reduce the cost of your transcription services, but will also reduce the amount of unclear sections in your final transcript.
Transcription Style
Depending on what you are using your transcript for, you may or may not require special formatting, specialist transcription styles (think strict verbatim, time stamping or discourse analysis). When looking to save money on your transcription services, it is always best to ensure that you are getting the right style of transcription for your specific needs, rather than just a fancy sounding style. For instance, while strict verbatim transcription is recommended for audio files used in court, time coded transcription is recommended for video rushes and discourse analysis can be required for certain language courses, these styles of transcription are more expensive that standard intelligent verbatim transcription and are also very hard to read. We think you’ll find that unless a specific style of transcription is required we recommend using intelligent verbatim transcription services.
Transcription Services and File Format
It is always recommended that you send your sound or video files in a digital format that can be uploaded online to us for transcription. Non digital files and hard copy files are always more expensive to transcribe. Hard copy files are more expensive due to the time it takes to export and reduce the size of the audio or video file ready for transcription. Non digital files also need to be digitized and unfortunately are often poor quality audio or video files, which are harder to hear, and therefore more expensive to transcribe. We recommend recording your audio and video files digitally and sending them to us online via our website as the most cost effective option for transcription.
Transcription Services Turnaround Time
Unless your transcripts are urgent, it is recommended that you opt for either standard turnaround or slow turnaround transcription services. This is a simple but effective way of reducing the cost of your transcription services.
Transcription Services and Multiple Speaker Files
Multiple speaker sound and video files (such as group interviews and focus groups) are more expensive to transcribe due to the difficulties associated with this type of audio. Not only are multiple speaker audio files difficult to transcribe because of factors such as correctly identifying each speaker, but the quality of these files is often also reduced due to over speaking, background noise and inadequate recording equipment. If you want to save money on these types of recordings, we recommend that you do not serve food during these sessions, be sure to manage the group in a professional manner to reduce over speaking and background noise. You can also save money by opting for a transcript that does not need each participant to be identified (for instance, just an indication of a new speaker and whether they are male or female). Another option is to use video rather than audio to record your sessions, as this makes identification of speakers much easier for the typist.
So there you have it, now you can select a transcription company safe in the knowledge that you are getting the most for your money! If you would like more information about any of the transcription services, translation services, captioning services, subtitling services or typing services we provide, why not get in touch today? We are available 7 days a week and always happy to help.
