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It’s pretty easy to record a telephone meeting these days but there are a few things you should know.

Request permission before recording

In some states and territories of Australia, it is illegal to record a conversation with someone without the other person’s consent. Even where it is legal to do this, it is polite to ask permission before recording a person’s comments.

So, I suggest you obtain the consent of the people involved and seek legal advice to make sure you don’t break the law, before recording any discussion either via telephone or face to face.

Apps available for recording telephone meetings

For information about the best Apps for recording telephone conversations, go to: meeting recorder apps 2024.

If you’re going to record using an App, do a ‘test run’ first to make sure the recorded audio quality is good, and to make sure you are able to save, copy or import your audio files from the App. You need recordings that are independent files that can be emailed or sent to a transcriptionist or you won’t be able to obtain a transcript of the recording.

Note: if you wish to hold your meeting via Zoom, you can use the Zoom app to record the meeting then send you the digital audio/video file.

Recording a telephone meeting onto a separate recorder

If you don’t want to or can’t use an App, you can use the older-fashioned method of recording a telephone conversation by placing a digital audio recorder next to the speaker-phone and pressing the ‘record’ button. Note: the audio quality may not be as good as the above method.

This is how to do it:

• You need a digital audio recorder. For information about the best types of recorders, go to: Best digital audio recorders
• You need a phone that can be switched to ‘speaker phone’ (landlines are usually better than mobiles), and good telephone reception
• Make sure there is no background noise at your end
• The voices coming through the telephone line will be quieter than yours. Make sure the digital recorder is placed closer to the speaker-phone than you. Place the recorder 10 to 30 centimetres from the speaker-phone. Face the recorder either towards the phone or upwards
• Do one or two ‘test runs’ prior to recording the conversation. The speaker phone needs to be at the correct volume, and the recorder at the right distance from the speaker, to produce an audible recording.

How to produce a clear recording of a telephone discussion

• Start the recording then again ask the person for their permission to record the conversation, so their consent is recorded
• It is essential that you have good telephone reception because inaudible comments in the recording will result in gaps and inaccuracies in the transcript. If audibility is poor due to static or a poor connection, hang up and try to establish a better connection
• Check that you can easily hear what the people at the other end of the line are saying. If their comments are too quiet, ask them to speak more clearly and loudly. If there is background noise at their end, ask them to go somewhere quieter. If anything they say is not very clear, reiterate what they have said yourself, as your voice will probably be louder and clearer in the recording than theirs
• If there are only two people speaking – you and the person at the other end of the line – and the recording is clear, the transcriptionist will be able to identify the speaker of each comment.
• If there are three or more people speaking and you want each person identified with their comments in the transcript, everyone will need to identify themselves as they speak. If this isn’t possible, refer to them by name as often as you can to assist the transcriptionist to identify the speakers.

For other articles about recording meetings and conversations and producing transcripts go to: Audio transcription and transcripts.

Audio to text apps

Audio to text apps and programs have become far more accurate over the last few years and are continually being improved. However, they are definitely not as accurate as a human transcriptionist. Whether the accuracy of an audio to text app is suitable for your purposes depends on how accurate your transcript needs to be.

We at On Time Typing, Editing and Proofreading have trialled using the best audio to text app we could find to draft a transcript and then proofread that transcript against the audio to correct all the errors, and timing how long it took to proofread that transcript, and compared that to the amount of time it takes to create an accurate transcript from scratch. The results show that if you are a fast typist it takes the same amount of time to proofread a draft, as it does to create an accurate transcript from scratch. However, if you were a slow typist (below 80 words per minute) it would be a time-saver to use an audio to text app to create the draft, then proofread it to improve its accuracy.

Sally-Anne Watson Kane has 30 years’ experience recording oral histories; transcribing audio recordings of interviews, focus groups, meetings, seminars and other events; and editing transcripts.

Image: Pixabay, used under the Creative Commons licence.