Note-taking
One of the earliest and most widespread methods of information capturing, there’s not a single person out there that didn’t write down notes at least once in their lifetime. Whether it’s by hand or with the help of a keyboard, it can be pretty time-consuming and distracting. Still, note-taking has its respective pros and cons.
Pros
- Information can be organized exactly how you want it. This relates to paraphrasing certain sentences so they can be more understandable, or even omitting details that are somewhat irrelevant.
- Less time spent editing. All data is written down and edited on the fly.
- Condenses the subject for easy studying. Different blocks of information are concise and separated accordingly.
Cons
- The only information you get to keep is the one you write down in the moment of speaking. Any additional details are lost.
- It can be hard to keep up, especially with fast speakers.
- Draws away the focus from the actual lecture/conversation.
- Can be difficult to read if there’s no proper structure
Audio Recording
The more modern approach takes care of most of the key disadvantages of its former counterpart. Recording equipment is readily available at any time since it comes built-in with all smartphones. There’s no interaction required by the person recording whatsoever – it’s a set-and-forget type of device. However, it’s not perfect and has its corresponding cons.
Pros
- Gives the person the ability to fully focus on the subject at matter. Useful for students attending lectures and especially useful for interviewers.
- Every single detail is recorded, with no possibility of information loss (unless environmental distractions come into play).
- Voice tone, accents, jargon, and any other voice-specific features are available on tape, otherwise inaccessible through note-taking.
- With expandable storage through memory cards that have capacities as high as half a terabyte, you won’t run out of space any time soon.
- The quality of audio today is better than ever before and is constantly improving through new technological discoveries.
Cons
- Rewinding constantly to find a specific piece of information can be tedious and time-consuming.
- Equipment is prone to failure, and it’s best to always have a backup plan.
Why Recording Is Better
Overall, the recording has a lot fewer letdowns. It would be a lot more convenient if somehow we could record information but have it available in written form. Well, that’s exactly what can be achieved when we transcribe audio to text. It’s the best of both worlds and essentially a combination of note-taking and audio recording with almost no downsides.
This way, it’s easy to focus on the speaker, lose no details, and have a nicely structured text file to easily review later. Interviews would be a breeze to go through since both interviewer and interviewee lines could be easily distinguished. Of course, manual transcription would take ages and counteract all benefits that this method provides. Fortunately, with Audext, this is not an issue.
Audext Service For Recording
When manual work is just too tiresome, automation is the way to go. Through audio to text transcription service Audext.com, you can easily convert audio files to text, whether it’s an interview recording, a university lecture, a podcast or anything else. Forget about spending hours in front of the PC constantly rewinding the same footage – Audext’s complex algorithms do the work for you in just a couple of minutes. AI technology works with top-notch accuracy through thousands of hours of taught material.
All of the most commonly used audio extensions are supported – MP3, WAV, and WMV. It also saves you the trouble of having to rewrite and reformat the end result by providing a Microsoft Word document as a downloadable option alongside the plain and simple text document. Even with slight background noise, you can expect an accurate and clean output. The whole process is done completely from the comfort of your web browser.
Audext is especially suitable for interviewers due to its speaker identification feature. During the file upload process, you are prompted to provide the names of different people in the recording. During the transcription, the algorithm is going to differentiate between different voices, space out, and break down the text accordingly. Each word is connected to the audio player and is going to automatically rewind to the point when it was spoken if you highlight it. If you need to restructure the final result, you can do so via the built-in text editor.
Pricing plans are simple and straightforward. Additionally, you get the first 30 minutes completely free upon registration. Afterward, you can either choose per hour or monthly options. With $9 per hour being the cheapest out of the bunch, it’s equivalent to a cup of coffee, and the amount of time that you’re going to save is priceless.
