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Pete Combs Recording Tips

Intro of capturing great audio

:  My name is Pete Combs and I'm a reporter for K O M O KOMO radio in Seattle. I've been doing this for about 40 years and my life has basically revolved around gathering audio and putting it on the air.

: The gathering audio part is what I want to talk to about because there's a lot you can do to make your audio presentations sound great and to improve the quality of audio for the purpose of transcription. For instance when you're doing phone audio you want to record that on a landline if possible.

Levels and cadence of speech

: Speak slowly and make sure that there are no glitches in that landline connection. If there are, do them over again. It doesn't hurt and it could make the transcription a lot more clear.

: If you're doing it in person, the one thing I tell you, is make sure your levels aren't too high. In the digital world you can certainly boost levels all day long but when you try to deal with levels that have gone too high and they distort, there's nothing much you can do. The audio will just remain terrible. So if you have any doubt about the volume of your recording go low and you can adjust later.

Volume of recording and exact leveling

: I usually do my recordings at 4,400 hertz or 44.1, and I use 64 bit audio when I do an MP3. For radio use I usually record MP3s at 44.1 kilohertz and I use a bit depth of 64 kilobytes per second. That's pretty clear. And again the volume is the key here. You don't want to get too loud.

Summary of capturing great audio

: Try those as you're making recordings for transcript and if you have any problems remember this: Slow down. The slower you go the easier it is for the computer to figure out what you're saying. I'm Pete Combs. Good luck and happy recording.

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