Recording audio that transcribes cleanly

8 min read

Mic distance matters more than mic quality: six inches from a decent mic beats two feet from an expensive one, every time.

Soft surfaces (carpet, curtains, a couch) cut echo dramatically compared to a bare room — you don't need acoustic foam, just something absorbent nearby.

If you have a choice of export codec from your recorder, prefer uncompressed or high-bitrate formats — heavy compression can smear consonants in ways that confuse transcription models.