If you are contemplating using transcription services for your videos, interviews or audio recordings, chances are you are looking for great value, whilst maintaining a high level of accuracy. When obtaining a quote for your transcription project, there are many factors that will affect the price of typing up your transcripts; some of which you can reduce and others, which are dependent on the type of recording you send us and what your specific requirements are. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the ways you can reduce the cost of transcription if you are on a budget.
Transcription Services and Audio Quality
If there’s one thing you can do to reduce the price of your transcription and increase the accuracy, it’s sending clear audio of video files for transcription. Badly recorded files containing background noise, low level speech, over speaking or distortion will drastically reduce the quality of your completed transcripts and will also cost you more to transcribe. The best course of action is to ensure that you make your recordings in a quiet environment (without interruptions), use sufficient microphones, reduce over speaking and ensure that you and your participant speak as clearly as possible.
Transcription Services and Number of Speakers
Transcribing dialogue between many different speakers during the same recording takes skill and experience. Group interviews and multiple speaker interviews tend to contain over speaking, background noise and different accents. Multiple speaker transcription, is more expensive. However, if you wish to reduce the cost of your transcripts, then the best course of action is to ensure that you control the interview session, allowing only one speaker at a time and reduce the background noise where possible. If you don’t need each speaker to be identified individually, you can reduce the cost of multiple speaker recordings quite significantly.
Technical or Medical Transcription
Transcription of audio or video files that contain medical or technical information does take specific knowledge and experience of the subject being discussed. A good medical transcriptionist will have built up extensive knowledge and familiarity with medical terms, medications, treatments and procedures over many years, in order to provide the professional service and level of accuracy that is required. Technical or medical transcription is more expensive than general transcription, however, you can help keep costs to a minimum by providing as much information as possible regarding your recording; these can be resources such as any relevant documentation, spreadsheets, databases, PowerPoint presentations and useful websites. This will also help your typist provide a faster and more accurate transcription service.
If you would like more information about any of our transcription services or require some guidelines on how to reduce the cost of your transcription project, why not get in touch? We are available throughout the week and always happy to help.
