Why field recordings deserve a private pipeline
When an elder, an informant, or an interviewee agrees to be recorded, they agree to speak to you, not to whichever cloud service later processes the tape. FastScribe keeps transcription on our own servers, so the audio you carried back from the field is never handed to an outside AI provider.
Retention is deliberately short on the audio side: the recording itself is deleted the moment your transcript is ready. Only the text is kept, so your working archive holds the transcript you need for analysis while the voices themselves stay out of long-term server storage.
From tape to searchable archive
A field recording is only as useful as your ability to find things in it. Every transcript comes back with timestamps, so when a phrase in the text catches your attention during coding, you can return to the exact moment in the original audio and hear the tone, pause, or laughter around it.
Export plain TXT for qualitative-analysis software and searchable notes, or SRT and VTT when the recording accompanies video documentation and you want timed captions. Pro accounts add DOCX export for transcripts you deposit with an archive or share with a community partner.
Handling a whole season of interviews
Oral-history projects rarely produce one file. A Pro account at twelve dollars a month accepts batch uploads, takes files up to two gigabytes and five hours each, moves through a priority queue, and keeps your transcript history forever, with unlimited files under fair use. That covers a full fieldwork season of long-form sessions without splitting recordings by hand.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to my field audio after it is transcribed?
The audio file is deleted the moment your transcript is ready. Only the text transcript is kept, so you can revisit, search, and export it later without the recording itself sitting on our servers.
Can FastScribe handle a full-length oral history interview?
Your free first file covers up to ten minutes and fifty megabytes, and a free account raises that to thirty minutes and one hundred megabytes. Pro accepts files up to two gigabytes and five hours, which fits most long-form interview sessions in one upload.
Which export format is best for an ethnographic transcript?
Plain TXT works well for coding and analysis software, and it still includes timestamps so quotes stay anchored to the recording. Choose SRT or VTT if the session was filmed and you need captions, and Pro adds DOCX for formal deposits.
My recordings live on an online platform. Can FastScribe fetch them?
No, FastScribe only works with files you upload directly. Download the recording from wherever it is stored first, then upload the audio or video file itself to get your transcript.