Transcribe long multitrack podcasts from a Zoom LiveTrak L-8 one mix file, not a folder of tracks.
A Zoom LiveTrak L-8 writes WAV files to its SD card, often one per channel plus a stereo mix, and uploading that mix gives you the whole show: a 3-hour podcast comes back as text in about 6 minutes. The first 20 minutes are free, and the 180 minutes fit the $6 pack of 500 minutes with 320 left.
A folder of WAVs, one transcript
The L-8 can record every channel on its own. For text, you want the one file that holds everyone.
Find the mix in the project folder
Each recording on the L-8 is a project folder on the SD card. Depending on settings, it holds a WAV per channel and a stereo mix file of the whole show. Open the folder on a computer through a card reader, find the mix, and upload that. File names differ by setting, so check the project before deleting anything.
Why not upload every track
Each channel file holds one microphone, so it carries one person clearly and the others faintly. Uploading four tracks of a 3-hour show is 720 minutes, which would need the $12 pack, against 180 minutes for the mix on the $6 pack. The mix is cheaper and reads as one conversation.
The size of a long mix
At 24-bit, 48 kHz, a stereo WAV is 2,304 kbps, about 1.04 GB an hour, so a 3-hour mix is about 3.1 GB. That is over the 2 GB that uploads before a pack and under the 5 GB ceiling; it starts once a pack is on the account. At 16-bit, the same mix is about 2.1 GB.
A show you can quote
Your show returns as text with a brief, timestamped chapters, and every name, number and date mentioned. Hosts and guests are named in the summary, key quotes and chapters, which is where a producer looks first when cutting a highlight or writing the episode page.
Multitrack podcasts elsewhere
Multitrack recording is great for the edit and confusing for a transcript.
✗ Common mistakes
A clean four-person show, transcribed the hard way.
- One mic's track uploaded by mistake
- Every track paid for separately
- Size caps like the Whisper API's 25 MB
- A three-hour mix refused as too big
- Hours re-joined by hand
- Guest quotes found by ear
✓ Send the mix
Everyone in one transcript, paid once.
- The stereo mix WAV as written
- The full show back in about 6 minutes
- Up to 5 GB in one upload
- Every host and guest named in the summary
- Chapters for each segment
- Captions for the filmed version
Sample
A four-person podcast on a mixer-recorder, as it comes back.
Made up for this page as an illustration, not recorded from a real podcast. Roles replace names; the timestamps follow a 3-hour 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 $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
Zoom LiveTrak L-8 recordings, the common questions.
How long does a 3-hour L-8 recording take?
Roughly 6 minutes: each hour of audio takes about 2. The proof page records a 2.48-hour file finishing in 200 seconds.
What does a podcast season cost?
Your first visit includes 20 free minutes of the show. A single 3-hour show takes 180 minutes from the $6 pack of 500 minutes. Ten weekly 3-hour shows make 1,800 minutes on the $12 pack, and a 26-week season of them makes 4,680 minutes on the $24 pack of 5,000.
There is no mix file in the folder. What do I do?
Bring the channel files into an audio editor or DAW, line them up from the start, and export one stereo or mono mix. Then upload that file. Uploading the channels one by one splits the conversation across several transcripts.
Do the jingles and sound pads get transcribed?
No. Music, sound effects and crowd noise are left out of the text; only the speech is transcribed. A jingle under someone talking can blur a word or two, so keep stingers in the gaps.
Can the show be in Tagalog or Spanish?
Yes, along with 97 other languages, all detected automatically. A show that moves between English and Tagalog in one recording is handled.
Which files come back, and is the recording private?
You get TXT, DOCX, SRT, VTT and JSON for every show. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers and are never used for training, and you can delete the show and its transcript once the episode is published.
Related
Podcast recorders and long shows
Upload the mix. The opening 20 minutes of the show are free.
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