How to transcribe a meeting recording

Este contenido está en inglés.

A recorded meeting is only useful if people can find what was decided and who agreed to do what. Re-listening to an hour of audio is slow, and typing notes from memory is unreliable. A transcript with timestamps and speaker labels solves both problems. This guide explains how to record a meeting properly, how to upload your own recording to the Video Transcriber on Valtrinity, how to add speaker labels and check names, and how to turn the result into minutes that others can rely on.

Por Valtrinity. Actualizado el 18 de octubre de 2026.

Get permission before you record

Tell everyone at the start of the meeting that you are recording it, why, and what will happen to the recording and transcript. Ask for agreement and note it in the minutes. Some organisations have their own rules on recording meetings, and some attendees may not be comfortable with it, so check the policy before you press record.

If someone declines, do not record them. Either take notes manually for their contributions or offer to send them the finished minutes instead. Clear permission protects everyone, including you.

• Say at the start that the meeting is being recorded.
• Explain what the recording and transcript are for.
• Note the agreement in the minutes.

Record with good audio

The quality of the transcript depends on the recording. Put one microphone in the middle of the table for a room meeting, rather than leaving a laptop at one end. If people join online, ask them to use headsets, and avoid rooms with echo or background noise such as air conditioning. A single clear recording is far better than several poor ones.

Start the recording before the meeting begins, so you do not miss the first words, and check the level by speaking a short test sentence. Save the recording as MP3 for audio-only meetings, or MP4 if you recorded video that you also want to keep.

• One central microphone for a room, or a headset for each person online.
• Test the level before the meeting starts.
• Save as MP3 for audio or MP4 for video.

Upload to the Video Transcriber

Open the Video Transcriber on Valtrinity and upload your own file. Files can be up to 500 MB. A single file pass covers up to 90 minutes for £0.99. The Unlimited plan includes 600 minutes a month, with files up to 180 minutes long, so a regular meeting series can be processed without paying for each file.

Worked example. A one-hour board meeting recorded as an MP3 is well within the single file limit. Upload it, wait for the transcript to appear, and continue with the steps below while you work on the minutes.

• Single file pass: up to 90 minutes for £0.99.
• Unlimited: 600 minutes a month, files up to 180 minutes.
• Files up to 500 MB.

Turn on speaker labels

Speaker labels are optional, but they make a meeting transcript far easier to use because you can see who said what. Turn them on before you start. The transcript will then assign each part of the recording to a speaker, usually as Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, in the order the software finds them.

Speaker labels are a starting point, not a final record. The software does not know who each person is, so you will need to replace the generic labels with names.

• Turn speaker labels on before the upload.
• Labels are generic until you add names.

Review names, decisions and actions

Read the transcript against the recording for the parts that matter most: decisions, dates, figures, and every action assigned to a named person. Replace Speaker 1 and Speaker 2 with the names of the attendees, and check that spellings of names and project terms are correct. Timestamps help here, because you can jump to the exact moment in the recording when a point needs checking.

Pay particular attention to short replies such as yes, no and agreed. They often decide what the group actually committed to, and they are easy to misattribute.

• Replace speaker labels with the names of attendees.
• Check decisions, figures, dates and actions against the audio.
• Use timestamps to jump to disputed points.

Export TXT and write the minutes

Export the transcript as TXT for minutes. A plain text file is easy to paste into a document and to edit. Tidy the text into sections, such as attendance, decisions, actions and any items to be discussed later. Do not paste the full transcript into the minutes. Summarise the decisions and actions, and keep the transcript as the supporting record.

Keep the transcript with the minutes in the same folder, and note the date it was created. If anyone disputes what was said, the transcript and the recording together give a clear answer.

• Export as TXT for editing.
• Summarise decisions and actions in the minutes.
• Keep the transcript with the minutes.

Keep the recording and transcript only as long as you need

Decide how long the recording and transcript should be kept, and tell attendees. Uploaded media is deleted within 24 hours of upload on the Video Transcriber, and transcripts are kept for 30 days unless you delete them sooner. Nothing you upload is used to train models. You still need your own retention rule for the minutes and for any copy you save, so decide that before the meeting, not after.

• Uploaded media is deleted within 24 hours.
• Transcripts are kept for 30 days unless deleted sooner.
• Set your own rule for copies you save.

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