Transcribe long field interviews recorded on a Marantz PMD661 from the reporter's bag to a searchable file.
A 45-minute interview recorded on a Marantz PMD661 is back as text in about 90 seconds, and a 2-hour oral history session in about 4 minutes, once you upload the WAV or MP3 from its SD card; one file can run to 10 hours or 5 GB. The opening minutes are a free preview. Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes, and credits never expire.
Out of the field bag
The PMD661 has been a reporter's recorder through several revisions. Its SD card holds plain audio files that upload as they are.
Card, cable or reader
The recorder writes WAV or MP3 to an SD card. Connect it by USB, where it usually appears as a drive, or use a card reader, and copy the take by date and time. If the editor already has the file in a shared Google Drive folder, paste that link instead of uploading again.
WAV or MP3 for a long session
A 2-hour stereo WAV at 48 kHz and 16-bit is about 1.4 GB, so it uploads before any pack; at 24-bit it is about 2.1 GB, still well inside the 5 GB one file can be. An MP3 at 128 kbps keeps two hours near 115 MB. The box on this page takes 500 MB, and larger files continue on the upload page.
Older cards and split files
On older or smaller cards, a long take can be split into more than one file as it grows. Upload the parts in order, or join them in an editor first so the timestamps run on one clock. A session that runs longer than 10 hours goes in as two files.
What a field interview turns into
A brief with the interview's thesis and takeaways, chapters with timestamps for each subject, the names, places and dates said, and the questions the interview answers. The interviewee is named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, and the chat finds the line you half remember from the car ride back.
Field tape without a transcript
The interview went well. Finding the quote for the deadline did not.
✗ The usual route
A full card and a deadline.
- Quotes found by scrubbing on the train
- Place names spelled from memory
- Long sessions split across card files
- Hours of oral history never indexed
- WAVs too large for small upload boxes
- Notes typed while the tape plays
✓ With WhipScribe
The tape becomes text you can quote.
- WAV or MP3 straight off the card
- 45 minutes back in about 90 seconds
- Subjects as timestamped chapters
- Names and dates for the fact-check
- Free preview of the opening minutes
- A 40-session oral history on the $32 pack
Sample
A field interview for a local radio piece, as transcribed.
Illustrative only: written for this page, not taken from a real interview. The timestamps show a 45-minute recording.
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 $4 (300 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
$4/300 min
5 hours of audio — $0.80 an hour. One-time — credits never expire.
- 300 minutes of audio
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
- Executive summary & key quote
Best value
$18/3,000 min
50 hours of audio — $0.36 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 3,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- All export formats
- AI chat over the whole transcript
Bulk pack
$32/6,000 min
100 hours of audio — $0.32 an hour. Credits never expire.
- 6,000 minutes of audio
- Summary, chapters and key quotes
- API access for batch pipelines
- All export formats
FAQ
Marantz PMD661 recordings, answered.
How long does a PMD661 interview take?
A 45-minute interview takes about 90 seconds and a 2-hour session about 4 minutes, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio.
What does a month of interviews cost?
Ten 45-minute interviews are 450 minutes, inside the $18 pack of 3,000 minutes. A heavier month of thirty is 1,350 minutes, which fits the $18 pack of 3,000. Packs are one-time and the minutes never expire, so a quiet month carries over.
And an oral history project?
Packs start at $4 for 300 minutes. A long project spread over a year is fine, since the minutes do not expire.
Can I use the transcript for a court or legal record?
It is an AI transcript to work from, not a certified or official transcript, and nothing here is legal advice. For quoting in a story, check the quote against the audio at its timestamp.
Does WhipScribe connect to the recorder?
No. There is no integration, plugin or bot with Marantz or any recorder. You copy the file and upload it, or paste a Google Drive or podcast feed link.
Which exports come back, and who hears the tape?
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON, with 99 languages detected automatically. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training.
Related
More field recorders and long interviews
Copy the take off the card and drop it here. The opening minutes are a free preview.
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