Transcribe a long recording edited in SOUND FORGE saved as one file.
Save the edited recording from SOUND FORGE as a WAV or MP3 file (Save As or Render As, depending on the version) and upload it here, up to 10 hours or 5 GB. An 8-hour recording is text in about 16 minutes, the first 20 minutes are free, and its 480 minutes fit the $6 pack of 500 minutes with 20 left.
Cleaned up, then read
You trimmed, leveled and cleaned the long recording. Now get the words out of it.
Watch the size of an 8-hour WAV
A 16-bit, 44.1 kHz stereo WAV is about 635 MB an hour, so eight hours comes to roughly 5.1 GB, just over the 5 GB limit. Saving as mono brings it near 2.5 GB, and an MP3 at 128 kbps keeps it around 460 MB.
Edits help the transcript
Noise reduction, removing long silences and evening out quiet passages all make speech easier to read. Music and sound effects are not transcribed, so there is no need to cut them out first.
Days that run past 10 hours
A recording longer than 10 hours goes up as two files. Split it in SOUND FORGE at a natural break, such as a lunch pause, and save each half separately; each keeps its own timestamps.
Where large files go
Files up to 500 MB upload in the box on this page. Larger ones, up to 5 GB, go through the upload page; before your first pack the limit there is 2 GB.
Long recordings after editing
A clean recording is still eight hours long. Reading it is faster than replaying it.
✗ The edited file alone
The audio sounds better, and finding anything in it is just as slow.
- Eight hours to replay for one answer
- Talks summarised from scribbled notes
- OpenAI's Whisper API stops at 25 MB
- A stereo WAV that passes 5 GB
- Timestamps written down by hand
- Questions from the floor lost
✓ The same file, transcribed
One upload and the day reads like a report.
- The full day as searchable text
- A chapter for every session or talk
- Questions the recording answers, listed
- Names, figures and dates collected
- About 16 minutes for eight hours
- DOCX for the write-up
Sample
An 8-hour day of talks, cleaned up in SOUND FORGE.
A made-up illustration for this page; no real event or speaker is quoted. Timestamps cover eight hours.
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
SOUND FORGE recordings, answered.
How long does an 8-hour recording take?
About 16 minutes, at roughly 2 minutes per hour of audio. On /proof/long-files a 9.31-hour file finished in 1,033 seconds.
What does it cost?
A first-time visitor gets the first 20 minutes free; a longer recording is previewed and a pack transcribes the rest from that point. An 8-hour file uses 480 minutes of the $6 pack of 500 minutes. Two such days make 960 minutes and need the $12 pack of 2,000 minutes, leaving 1,040.
My WAV is over 5 GB. Do I have to cut it?
Not necessarily. Save it as mono or as MP3 and it fits easily; only a recording longer than 10 hours has to be split into two files.
Will the cleanup I did change the transcript?
It usually helps. Removing hum and raising quiet speakers makes the words easier to catch. Avoid heavy noise gating that clips the start of words.
Can I upload the original recorder file instead?
Yes, as long as it is an audio or video file such as WAV, MP3, M4A or FLAC. The SOUND FORGE project file is not audio, so save the recording itself.
Which files come back, and is my audio safe?
TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON. The recording is transcribed on our own servers and is never used to train models.
Related
More long audio and editors
Save the edited recording. A full day reads in minutes.
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