Best Free Interview Transcription Tools

What’s the best app for transcribing recorded interviews, speeches, videos or other audio content?

Below, I’ve rounded up a few free apps for manually transcribing long interviews. I spent the weekend using the free Transcribe tool for Google Chrome, an elegant, simple add-on that gives you the ability to slow down or speed up a recording while transcribing. It works on both Macs and PCs. Here’s more about Transcribe for Chrome:

* Single key keyboard shortcuts – to pause, slow-down, speed-up, rewind or fast-forward the audio clip.
* Auto-saves your transcribed text with EVERY keystroke locally in your browser.
* Works completely offline – you don’t need an Internet connection to use Transcribe! Just click on the Transcribe icon on the Chrome New Tab page anytime, and the Transcribe app will open.
* We don’t store or process your audio clips on our server – everything happens locally on your browser. Your data is yours.

Free Interview Transcription Tools

Transcriptions (for Mac): “Media with tape behavior, Customizeable media-control shortcuts(->shortcut recorder), Timestamps, Text substitution and Footpedal-support”

Express Scribe Free (Windows or Mac): “The free version supports common audio formats, including wav, mp3, wma and dct. Download the free version of Express Scribe here. You can always upgrade to the professional version for proprietary format support, including ds2 and mvf.”

If you are transcribing your own spoken text, try Dragon Dictation to transcribe your speech automatically.