Tips for recording group interviews

• Use a small, quiet room with no interfering background noises (such as humming air conditioners or noisy cafes), as this will be picked up by your recorder.
• Use a good quality external microphone, and ask all participants to speak slowly and clearly.
• Allow interviewees to finish their sentences, keep interruptions to a minimum, and reduce over talk(when participants speak over each other) as best you can, otherwise words and phrases may be inaudible to the typist.
• Sit still, don’t shuffle paper or type on a keyboard near the microphone, and don’t walk around the room.
• If your interviewees have strong accents ask them to speak slowly and repeat their responses if necessary.
• If you’d like speakers identified in your transcript other than with Q (for interviewer) or A (for interviewee), please provide details in the notes box when uploading files.

See Interview transcription services and Tips for recording interviews for more information.

Tips for recording telephone interviews

• Telephone microphones are very sensitive and can pick up so much more than the ear can hear. Background noise and distortion can compete with your speakers.

• Ask interviewees to choose a quiet location with no background noise.

• A landline generally produces better results than a mobile phone or Skype

• Don’t use your mobile phone on speakerphone – the in-built microphone is very sensitive and will pick up every sound within a short distance and may produce an inferior recording.

• Use a telephone pick-up microphone to better capture the interviewee.

See Interview transcription services and Tips for recording interviews for more information.