Transcribe a long RealAudio file the dial-up broadcasts.
A RealAudio file is tiny, about 9 MB per hour at 20 kbps and 29 MB at 64 kbps, so length is the only limit that matters: up to 10 hours per file. If the upload refuses .ra or .rm, convert it to MP3 with ffmpeg or VLC; it then transcribes at about 2 minutes per audio hour, the first 20 minutes free, and a 3-hour broadcast fits the $6 pack of 500 minutes.
RealAudio, worked out
Radio went online over 28.8k modems in RealAudio. Plenty of those archives still exist only as sound.
Who recorded in RealAudio
From the mid-1990s RealAudio carried most of the speech on the early web: talk radio simulcasts, public lectures, parliamentary and council streams, oral history projects and church services. Station and university archives often kept the .ra or .rm files long after the live streams stopped.
The size is the easy part
Bitrates were set for modems. At 20 kbps an hour is 20,000 bits a second times 3,600 seconds over 8, about 9 MB; at 32 kbps about 14.4 MB; at 64 kbps about 29 MB. Ten hours never reaches 300 MB, so the 500 MB box on this page takes even a full day of broadcast.
Find the real file first
A .ram file is not audio. It is a few lines of text pointing at a server, and if that server is gone the link leads nowhere. You need the .ra or .rm itself. Try it in the upload; if the upload refuses it, convert to MP3 or MP4 with ffmpeg or VLC. Larger converted files continue on the upload page.
A broadcast you can quote
Each programme comes back with a brief, chapters at every segment or caller, the names, places, dates and figures said on air, and a chat to find a remark without replaying the tape. Hosts and guests are identified and named in the summary, key quotes and chapters.
Why RealAudio archives go silent
The streams stopped, the player faded out, and the voices stayed locked in the files.
✗ Sound nobody can open
RealAudio needs a player few people still install, and narrowband sound puts off quick tools.
- A .ram link that points at a dead server
- Players that no longer open .ra
- Codecs some converters do not know
- Hundreds of one-hour programmes
- Quotes remembered but never found
- Archive catalogues with titles only
✓ The archive in writing
Convert once, upload, and read every programme.
- Up to 10 hours in one file
- About 2 minutes per audio hour
- First 20 minutes free
- $24 for 5,000 minutes, a whole season
- A chapter per segment or caller
- DOCX for a printed record
Sample
A late-night phone-in show, two hours into a RealAudio archive.
Written for this page as an example. It is not from any real station or programme, and the timestamps only show where lines fall in a long RealAudio file.
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
- AI chat over the whole 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
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$24/5,000 min
83 hours of audio — $0.29 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 5,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Long RealAudio files, the follow-up questions.
Can I upload .ra or .rm as it is?
You can try. RealAudio is old and browsers do not play it, so the upload may refuse the file; if so, convert to MP3 with ffmpeg or VLC and upload the MP3. Recent ffmpeg builds decode the common RealAudio codecs, though very old or unusual ones may need another converter.
I only have a .ram file. Is that enough?
No. A .ram file holds a web address, not sound. Open it in a text editor to see where it points; if the .ra or .rm is still on that server, or in your own archive, download it and use that file.
How long does a long RealAudio take?
About 2 minutes per hour of audio, so a 3-hour broadcast takes roughly 6 minutes. At under 30 MB an hour, the upload itself is over almost at once.
What does a radio archive cost?
Thirty programmes of 55 minutes is 1,650 minutes, on the $12 pack of 2,000. Forty one-hour shows come to 2,400 minutes, which needs the $24 pack of 5,000 and leaves 2,600 for the next season.
Will low-bitrate audio transcribe?
The speech is transcribed, whatever the bitrate; the first 20 minutes are free, so you can judge a muffled 20 kbps stream before buying. Plan to check proper names against the source on the weakest tapes. Jingles and music beds are not transcribed.
What comes back, and who sees it?
A brief, chapters, the names and numbers said, the questions answered, and a chat, with downloads in TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
Related audio formats
Upload the RealAudio file. The first 20 minutes cost nothing.
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