Webcast Recording and Audio File Editing Programs

Webcast recording is a necessary skill to learn if you want to pick up repeat clients or land a solid contract with a larger transcription company so you need to know how to digitally record a webcast like online seminars, podcasts and conferences from company websites.

When you do webcast recording, it helps to have a good software recording program to clean up the audio or take out bits that you don't need. For instance, during a presentation there may some technical difficulty that could cause the audio to stop, so it helps to be able to remove a lot of blank air before you start transcribing.

Or at the beginning of a teleconference, the speakers may all be speaking at once off the record so you can eliminate the first part of the audio before transcribing. Sometimes the audio file is fine, but you just want to tweak it for extra clarity or to boost the volume.

The most popular and most widely used software program that general transcriptionists use for webcast recording is Audacity. This is a small but fast program that's very easy to use to both record and to do some minor editing of your audio files. We've even uploaded a video to show you how to use Audacity.

If you need the capability to some extra editing of your audio files before you transcribe them, check out PolderbitS. PolderbitS makes it easy to "chunk" longer audio files into smaller files that are faster to load into ExpressScribe than say a 90 or 120 minute audio file.

While the Audacity program is free to download and free to use, PolderbitS has a free trial then it's 24.95 euro or approximately $34.25 US to purchase. It's well worth the investment, however, because sometimes you need to do a little more work on an audio file than Audacity can handle.

But whichever program you choose or even if you decide to use both, Audacity and PolderbitS are two of the best and most popular programs to use for both webcast recording and audio file editing. With easy-to-use interfaces and conversion capabilities, either of these two programs will get the job done just right.

More Information on Tools:
Your Computer System
You need to make sure your computer is up to date, not more than five years old, if that.

Audio Playback Software
Turn your computer into an online digital transcriber unit with this software, headset and a foot pedal that plug into your computer.

Word Processing Software
You need somewhere to transcribe all of that information into and plain old Notepad, Wordpad or even Microsoft Works won't cut it.

Transcription Headset
Don't try to decipher your audio through computer speakers. No matter how good you think they, there is no substitute for a good noise-cancelling headset.

Transcription Foot Pedal
Keep your fingers moving on the transcript and let your foot do the stop-start-rewind on the audio.

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