Record what your computer is playing, and transcribe it

On Mac and Windows, D-REC can record the machine's own audio rather than the microphone, so a call, a video or a stream gets a timed transcript.

A microphone in front of a speaker records the room as much as the sound. It picks up the fan, the keyboard, the person in the corridor, and it loses whatever the speaker cannot reproduce. If what you want is the audio your computer is already playing, the right thing to record is the computer.

The D-REC desktop apps for Mac and Windows can take the machine's own output as the input. Choose it the way you would choose a microphone, and everything the computer plays goes into the take with a live transcript beside it.

That covers most of what people actually want transcribed on a computer: a call, a recorded interview somebody sent you, a lecture, a briefing, a piece of footage you are logging. The transcript carries the time of every line, so you can jump back to the moment rather than scrubbing for it.

It stays local like everything else. Recording a call on your own machine does not send that call anywhere, which is a meaningfully different proposition from inviting a transcription bot into the meeting.

Consent is still yours to handle. You are responsible for having the right to record the people and rooms you record, and the rules differ by country and by state.

Also asked as: record system audio · transcribe a video call · record internal audio windows · capture computer sound mac · transcribe a webinar · record streaming audio with text.

More: Transcription that works with no internet · Transcription that never uploads your audio · Transcribe an interview, with the time on every line · A meeting recorder that does not join the meeting · Timecoded transcripts, and markers for DaVinci Resolve