Recording interviews
For journalism, research and hiring interviews. The recording stays on your machine, which matters when a source has agreed to talk to you and not to a cloud service.
Ready. Press Record and allow microphone access when your browser asks.
Consent comes before technique
Recording someone without their knowledge is illegal in many jurisdictions and unethical in nearly all of them. Rules vary: some places require only one participant to consent, others require every participant. Check what applies where you and your subject are.
Beyond the legal minimum, the practical approach is to record the consent itself. Start the recorder, then ask on tape: "Are you happy for me to record this conversation?" It takes five seconds and gives you a durable record if the question ever arises.
Tell people what will happen to the recording, too. Being able to say the audio stays on your laptop and is never uploaded is a materially different conversation from asking someone to trust an unnamed cloud service.
Getting two voices into one recording
| Situation | Approach |
|---|---|
| In person, same room | One microphone placed between you, slightly closer to your subject. Their audio matters more than yours. |
| Remote, quality critical | Double-ender: both record locally, sync afterwards with a clap. Two clean tracks. |
| Remote, convenience critical | Record the call itself with the tab audio recorder, with everyone's consent. |
| Phone call | Put the call on speaker and record the room. Quality is poor but usually adequate for transcription. |
Format for interviews
MP3 at 128 kbps. Interviews run long, transcription services accept MP3 everywhere, and the difference between compressed and uncompressed speech is inaudible at this bitrate. An hour comes to about 58 MB rather than 318 MB, which matters when you are archiving a project's worth of them.
Use Pause rather than Stop for breaks. It keeps the whole interview in one continuous file, which is much easier to reference later than a scatter of fragments.
Practical points
- Record thirty seconds of room tone before you begin. It is invaluable if you edit later.
- Say the date, name and topic on tape at the start. Files get renamed and mislaid; the audio does not.
- Do not interrupt. Overlapping speech is the single biggest cause of unusable transcription. Let people finish.
- Download immediately. Nothing is stored, so a closed tab means a lost interview. Save before you do anything else.
- Back it up as soon as you can. One copy is not a copy.
- DictaphoneFor long-form with pause and resume.
- Recording meetingsMore than two participants.
- Podcast recordingThe double-ender technique in detail.
- Tab audio recorderCapturing a call, with consent.
More in use cases
See all use cases — the right recording setup depends on the job: what you are capturing, and where the file goes afterwards.
Questions
Do I need permission to record an interview?
Legally it depends on where everyone is — some places require one party's consent, others require all. Ethically, always ask. Recording the consent on tape at the start of the file is the simplest way to document it.
How do I record both people clearly?
In person, place one microphone between you, angled slightly towards your subject. Remotely, have both parties record locally and sync afterwards using a clap.
Which format is best for transcription?
MP3 at 128 kbps. Every transcription service accepts it, it is inaudibly different from uncompressed for speech, and files stay manageable across a long project.
Can I pause during an interview?
Yes. Pause holds the take open so you resume into the same file. Use it for breaks and reserve Stop for the actual end.
Is the recording private?
The audio never leaves your browser — no upload happens at any point. Once you download it, its security is down to how you store it, so encrypt sensitive material and back it up carefully.
How long can an interview recording be?
No limit is imposed. Practically, use MP3 for anything over half an hour and download periodically, since the take is held in memory until you save it.