*Rate
per minute assumes good audio and speaking quality, everyday language,
and non-rapid speech. Recordings involving several frequent speakers,
such as meetings and focus groups, take longer to transcribe due
to overlapping voices, poor enunciators, low-volume speakers, etc.,
and thus entail a higher rate. If the voices are easily distinguishable,
we will try to label the speakers.
In
cases of 3 or more principal speakers, if they are speaking one
at a time, with no interruptions or overlapping voices, then a lower
rate may apply. Conversely in cases of 2 speakers with frequent
interruptions/overlappings, a higher rate may apply.
**Transcript
is checked against the audio and proofread by a second transcriptionist.
Please allow an extra day for this service.
Other
Factors Affecting Price
Factors
such as poor audio, non-clear speakers, hard-to-understand accder to be good audio, click here.
For a good phone-quality sample, click here.ents,
frequent use of technical and/or esoteric terms and names, or frequent
overlapping voices increases the rate - typically in increments
of 30 cents per minute per factor. To listen to an example of what
we consi
Verbatim transcripts, where we attempt to transcribe absolutely everything including um's, ah's, stutters, "false starts," etc., entail an additional 60 cents per minute due the the additional transcription time involved.
See
below for pricing regarding tapes.
(Note:
1 hour of good-quality audio with 1 or 2 speakers generally takes
4-5 hours to transcribe. Recordings involving multiple speakers,
frequent technical terms, foreign accents, and/or poor audio typically
take much longer.)
Rush
Service
A
one-day turnaround time is an additional 60 cents per minute. If
we go beyond that time, normal rates go into effect. For an additional
fee, same-day service may be available as well, depending on our
workload at the time.
Tapes,
DVDs, CDs, and Video
- You
also can mail us cassette tapes, microcassettes, reel-to-reel
tapes, videotapes, DVDs, or audio CDs, but this entails a surcharge
to cover the cost of converting them to a more transcribable format.
- For standard cassettes and microcassettes, the surcharge is $15
for the first tape and $5 for each additional tape.
- DVDs and audio CDs that require us to "rip" or extract
the media off of the disc and onto our hard drives entail a $5
surcharge per disc. For DVDs that cannot be ripped, the surcharge
is $10 as this entails extra effort in order to transfer the audio
to a new format. Or if it is copy-protected and cannot be transferred,
the rate per minute of audio is double.
- Data discs, where the audio file is simply copied onto the CD
or DVD disc, entail no surcharge.
Reel-to-reel is $30 for the first tape and $22.50 for each additional
tape, up to a maximum of three hours of audio for each tape. For
tapes greater than three hours in length, there is a $5 surcharge
for each additional hour. (Most stereo 7-inch tapes are three hours
total. "Four-track mono" 7-inch tapes can hold as much
as eight hours of audio.) This assumes the tape is in good shape
- i.e., not brittle and/or easily breakable.
Note
again that in addition to returning your tapes, along with your
transcript(s) we will provide you with downloadable digital (mp3)
audio files of your items as well. These are highly useful when
taking advantage of the timestamps in the transcripts, and/or if
you want to make the audio files available to others along with
the transcripts. This also results in multiple backups of each recording.
If
you have several tapes containing several different items to be
transcribed (e.g. interviews or conference presentations), and the
beginning/end of each item does not correspond to the beginning/end
of each tape, then we add a surcharge for isolating each item in
order to produce a unique transcript for that item (which can be
time-consuming). Similarly, if you only want certain portions of
the tape or tapes transcribed, there is a surcharge. Alternatively,
we can have each transcript correspond to each tape, in which case
there would be no surcharge.
Certified
Transcripts for Legal or Other Uses
For
certified (notarized) transcripts, add $1 to the per-minute rate.
In addition, please describe the nature of the case and/or recording
in the "notes" portion of our submission form.
Transcript
Editing Services
Consider
having us turn your raw transcript(s) into clean, edited documents.
Our editors will do such things as correct speakers' grammar errors,
eliminate unnecessary words and phrases, look up the exact spellings
of names and other words, and add tables of contents, headings and
subheadings where appropriate. For example, perhaps you want to
turn a raw transcript of a conference into something that looks
like a slick, easy-to-read conference report, which you can then
publish or post on your website. We will do that for you. Contact
us for more information including pricing.
