App for journalists: Voice Record Pro, for transcribing audio interviews

What is it? An app enabling you to record in a variety of audio formats, and then immediately transcribe the audio into text afterwards.

Price: Free (upgrade to no ads for £6.99)

Devices: iOS

How is it of use to journalists?

Voice Record Pro is an app that can record directly in MP4, MP3 and WAV, and edit afterwards.

Journalism.co.uk has taken a look at how to use the app to capture interviews in the Pro 7 version. But since then, the app has introduced a new function that can take that audio and transcribe it into text.

The transcription is not perfect though, and it will rely on optimum conditions.

It means that recording a conversation in a busy cafe where people clink their cups and speak over one another will likely result in a transcription full of errors, so you need to record in a quiet room.

How do you get started?

The first thing you will need to do is record audio into the app. From the home screen, there is a red 'rec' button. Hit it, and you will find preset and advanced recording settings.

The bar graph icon on the top row will boot up a level check, to ensure audio is being picked up cleanly without huge amounts of background noise. After you have made your adjustments, tap the blue tick icon to exit from this screen.

Inside Voice Record: main menu, recording settings and level check

When you are ready to record, press 'start' or the red 'rec' button.

Looking at the bottom three icons while recording, you can pause recording on the left, or add notes throughout the recording with the chart icon on the right, or hit the square icon in the centre to finish your recording. Then, Voice Recorder will process the audio.

A post-recording menu will appear with the next steps, from uploading the audio to other platforms, or making trims and edits.

Trimming can be useful if you only want to transcribe part of your interview, because while the app can handle large audio lengths, this will cut down the time needed to transcribe.

If you want to trim the file, you can use the sliders to cut the audio length. This will either overwrite the original audio or save as a new file, which will appear back in your main menu recordings.

Inside Voice Record: recording, post-recording menu, edit and trimming

Keep scrolling on the menu until you find the transcription option. On the next screen, chose any language from Arabic to Vietnamese. Once confirmed, tap 'start transcription' and Voice Recorder will go to work, turning the audio you have just recorded into text.

The transcription will appear as it processes and once finished, the app will give you the option of appending it to your notes.

Back on the previous screen, find your 'notes' and you will be able to edit the transcription - as it is not flawless - while listening back to the audio by hitting play.

Inside Voice Record: transcribing interview and editing in notes

And there you have it - your audio interview turned into text in a fraction of the time.

You also have the option to upload audio into Voice Recorder Pro, from platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox - but it will only work for compatible file types AAC, MP4 and M4A, and from a folder created by the app.

First, export a file from your recordings to automatically create a Voice Record Pro folder. Any audio you want to bring into the app in the future has to be from this folder.

Inside Voice Recorder: uploading to Google Drive

Now from the top row of the main menu, hit the cloud icon to open Cloud Services. You can import audio from the folder you have just created.

Inside Voice Recorder: Main menu, Cloud services and importing from Google Drive uploads

All files in that folder will appear. Tick the files you want and hit 'import items'. Once complete, the audio will appear on the main menu, where you have all the normal options to edit and transcribe the file.

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