How overlapping voices come out in the transcript
A focus group is some of the hardest audio there is, because the liveliest moments are exactly the ones where six participants react at once. Be aware of what you will get back: FastScribe returns one continuous transcript of everything it hears, with no speaker labels, so a burst of crosstalk is written as a single stream of text rather than separated out by participant.
In practice that is workable for analysis. Your own questions as moderator give the transcript its structure, and every line carries a timestamp, so when a quote is heading into the report you can jump back to the exact second in your recording and confirm who actually said it.
From recorder to codable text
FastScribe works on uploaded files only. If the group met in person, upload the file straight from your recorder or phone. If the session was held and recorded in an online meeting tool, download the recording file to your computer first, then upload that file. There is no way to pull it in from a link or a connected account.
Export plain TXT to paste into your coding sheet or qualitative analysis software, where timestamps make it easy to cross-reference the audio. Choose SRT or VTT if you are turning a highlight from the session into a captioned clip for a stakeholder presentation, and Pro adds DOCX export when the deliverable is a formatted transcript document.
Test with a clip before committing a whole session
Most focus groups run sixty to ninety minutes, which is longer than the free first file allows. A sensible workflow is to trim a ten-minute slice of your recording and run it free with no signup, so you can judge how our transcription engine handles your room acoustics and your participants' overlap before paying anything.
For the full session, Pro is twelve dollars a month and handles files up to two gigabytes and five hours each, comfortably a whole group. Batch uploads let you queue every group from a multi-session study at once, the priority queue moves them ahead of free jobs, and your transcript history is kept forever, which matters when a client asks about a study months later.
Frequently asked questions
Does FastScribe label which participant is speaking?
No. You get one continuous transcript without speaker labels, and moments where participants talk over each other are written as a single stream of text. Use the timestamps to jump back into your recording whenever you need to attribute a quote to a specific participant.
My focus group ran ninety minutes. Can I transcribe the whole recording?
Not on the free first file, which is capped at ten minutes and fifty megabytes. A Pro account handles files up to five hours and two gigabytes for twelve dollars a month, so a full session fits in a single upload.
Is it safe to upload a recording of research participants?
Transcription runs on our own servers, so the audio never goes to a third-party AI service. The recording itself is deleted the moment your transcript is ready, and only the text is kept for you to revisit and export.
Can FastScribe fetch the recording directly from my meeting software?
No. FastScribe only accepts files you upload, and it never connects to other accounts or fetches from links. Download the recording file from your meeting software to your computer first, then upload that file for transcription.