How overlapping voices come out in the transcript
FastScribe splits the transcript by voice and labels each one Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, which you rename to your participants. Set your expectations by the recording, though: 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. When two people speak together there is one waveform carrying two voices and the labeller has to pick one, participants with similar voices picked up by a single microphone across the table can merge into one label, and someone who says one short thing all session may not get a label of their own.
That is workable for analysis as long as you plan the review pass. 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. A microphone per participant, or even a recorder placed between them rather than beside one, changes the result far more than any setting does.
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?
It separates the voices it hears and labels them Speaker 1, Speaker 2 and so on, and you rename them to your participants. A focus group stacks every hard case at once, so treat the labels as a strong first pass rather than a finished attribution. Use the timestamps to jump back into your recording before any quote goes into the report.
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.