Transcribe a Bisaya FGD recording and pull the themes out of it.
A 2-hour focus group discussion in Bisaya (Cebuano) comes back as text in about 4 minutes, with the first 20 minutes free and a $6 pack (500 minutes) for the rest. Cebuano is supported but less accurate than the major languages, and an FGD adds overlapping voices, so read the transcript as a fast first draft and plan one review pass.
What an FGD recording becomes
A room full of voices, as text you can code and quote.
Many voices around one table
An FGD brings six to ten participants, a facilitator and often a documenter into one room for about two hours. The whole discussion stays in one transcript on one timeline, and participants are identified in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
From transcript to findings
The brief sets out the takeaways and the questions the discussion answered, and key quotes come with timestamps for your report. Chapters tend to follow the flow of the guide questions, so answers from different groups can be read side by side. NGO teams writing a field report can move from the brief to the quotes they need without replaying the session.
Recording the room well
Put the recorder in the middle of the circle, not at the facilitator's end, and ask people to speak one at a time when it matters. Crosstalk and laughter are where any transcript loses words.
Several FGDs on one pack
Six FGDs of 2 hours each is 720 minutes, which the $12 pack (2,000 minutes) covers with enough left for key informant interviews. Upload them on upload page or share a Google Drive folder holding the whole set.
Why FGD transcripts take so long
Two hours, ten voices, and two languages in the same answer.
✗ Hand transcription of a group
A group recording is the slowest kind to type, because voices overlap and answers switch language. Field teams also record in community halls and covered courts, where wind, children and roosters share the audio with the participants.
- A day of typing per FGD
- Overlapping answers lost entirely
- Tools that need one language set
- Quotes with no time to check them
- Only the documenter's notes to go on
- Field reports waiting on transcripts
✓ One upload per FGD
Every discussion returns as text you can code, with the key quotes already pulled out.
- About 4 minutes for a 2-hour FGD
- Every language kept where it was spoken
- Participants identified in the summary and quotes
- Chapters along the discussion
- Drive folder links for a batch
- DOCX and JSON for coding tools
Sample
An FGD excerpt, as it comes back.
This sample is illustrative and was written for this page, not taken from a real discussion. Timestamps count from the moment recording began.
Export
One transcript. Five clean formats.
Every pack exports all five — no format is held back for a higher tier.
Plain text
De-ummed paragraphs. Ready to paste.
SRT captions
Timed to the speech. Every video editor reads this.
WebVTT
HTML5 player + YouTube uploads.
Show notes
Formatted with chapters and pull-quotes.
Machine-readable
Timestamped text for your own tools.
Pricing
Honest pricing, no surprises.
A pack from $6 (500 minutes) opens the full transcript. After that, no subscription and no auto-renew — every tier is a one-time minute pack, and credits never expire. Buy once, use the minutes whenever you need them.
Casual pack
$6/500 min
8 hours of audio — $0.72 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 500 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$12/2,000 min
33 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 2,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- All export formats
- Unlimited AI chat per transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Priority queue
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
FGD recordings: questions researchers ask.
How long does a 2-hour FGD take to transcribe?
Around 4 minutes, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. A 90-minute session takes about 3.
What does one FGD cost?
A 2-hour FGD is 120 minutes. After the first 20 minutes free, the remaining 100 come off a $6 pack (500 minutes), which still holds 400 minutes for the next three groups. Six groups across a project, 720 minutes in total, belong on the $12 pack (2,000 minutes).
Can it tell the participants apart?
Speakers are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, which is where the main positions in the group are laid out. For coding by participant, keep the documenter's notes and seating plan beside the timestamps.
Is there a file size limit, and must I split a long FGD?
One file can run up to 10 hours or 5 GB, and up to 2 GB before the first pack. A 2-hour audio file is far smaller, so it goes in whole; only something over 10 hours needs to be split.
How does it handle Bisaya mixed with Tagalog and English?
All three are kept in one transcript. Tagalog/Filipino and English passages are the most accurate, and in a group, a participant who speaks softly or over someone else is the part most likely to need fixing in your review. Where a participant answers in Hiligaynon or Waray, that passage is handled like the Cebuano: usable, with a closer look needed.
Which formats can I export, and is participant audio private?
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON come from each run. FGD recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training, and you can delete each discussion and its transcript when your retention period ends.
Related
Related research recordings
Upload the FGD. The first 20 minutes are free to read.
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