How to record an in-person meeting, interview, or lecture

Separate speakers and create a replayable note.

For an in person conversation, microphone placement matters more than any advanced setting.

Put the computer where it can hear everyone, make a short level check, and keep the HoldSay recording state visible during the session.

HoldSay can begin building the transcript while an in person recording is still under way.

Prepare the room and microphone

You are trying to capture a conversation that happens in one room, whether it is a meeting around a table, an interview between two people, or a lecture with questions from the audience. Before you start, decide where the computer can hear the people who matter most. A computer at one end of a long table may capture the nearest speaker clearly while leaving other voices distant. Put it near the middle of the conversation when possible.

Open Settings and choose the microphone you intend to use. The built in microphone is a useful baseline for a small and quiet room. In a larger room, an external microphone can help if it can be placed closer to the speakers. Do not hide the microphone behind a display, bag, laptop cover, or stack of papers. These objects can block or soften voices before HoldSay receives them.

Choose the microphone you are actually speaking into before the real recording.

1. Position the computer where it has a clear path to the speakers.
2. Choose the intended microphone in Settings.
3. Record a short sample before the full session begins.
4. Ask the quietest participant to speak in their normal voice.
5. Replay the sample at a normal listening volume.

The sample is your practical check. Listen for the quietest voice, not only the person closest to the computer. If that voice is difficult to hear, change the computer position or microphone position before the session begins. Moving closer usually produces a better result than trying to recover a distant voice later.

• Move away from fans, loud keyboards, and open doors when possible.
• Keep papers and other objects away from the microphone.
• Check that normal speech is understandable before recording the full session.

Record the session

Once the room test is clear enough, start the actual recording from the floating voice card. Tell participants that the session will be recorded when required. This gives people the information they need before they speak and helps avoid an interruption after the discussion has started.

Click the red control on the voice card. HoldSay should show both the timer and the recording state. Check these immediately rather than assuming the recording began when you clicked. Keep the card visible enough that you can confirm the state during the conversation without having to search for it.

The red control and running timer are the visible confirmation that the in person session is being recorded.

1. Click the red control on the voice card to begin.
2. Confirm that the timer and recording state appear.
3. Leave the computer in its chosen position while people are speaking.
4. Pause when the room takes a real break.
5. Choose Continue when the conversation resumes.
6. Finish the recording when the session ends.

Use Pause for an actual break, such as when participants leave the room or the lecture stops for a substantial interval. When you choose Continue, the resumed conversation remains in the same note. This is useful when one meeting should be reviewed as one record rather than split into separate pieces.

At the end, finish the recording and keep HoldSay open until the transcript is ready. Do not treat the end of speech as the end of the task. The note still needs a quick review while the people, decisions, and context are easy to remember.

Review the note while the context is fresh

After the transcript is ready, review it while you can still recognize voices and remember what happened in the room. Start by replaying the beginning and end of the recording. This verifies that the session started when intended and that the final discussion was captured before you finished the recording.

Completed notes are available in History. Depending on the source, a note can show Raw, Speakers, Polish, or Summary. These views help you inspect the original wording, work with speaker labels when available, refine the note, or read a shorter result for a specific use.

Review an in person recording while you still remember who was sitting where.

Name the speakers you will need later. The Speakers view can turn generic labels into recognizable people, which makes an interview or meeting easier to follow. Name people who are important to your later work, such as the interviewer and guest, the meeting owner, or a person assigned an action. If an identity is uncertain, use the source audio before assigning a name.

Review the transcript and source audio together. Correct important names, numbers, dates, and figures that could change the meaning of the record. Audio is the reference for moments where the transcript cannot establish what was said on its own, especially where a word is unusual, a person speaks quietly, or several people respond at once.

1. Replay the beginning and end to confirm the recording boundaries.
2. Review important names and figures against the source audio.
3. Name the speakers you will need later.
4. Create a summary for the job you need to do next.

Choose the emphasis of the summary based on the work ahead. An interview brief may need the speaker's main statements and supporting details. A lecture outline may need the sequence of ideas. An action list should focus on decisions, owners, and follow up work. Reviewing the note first gives the summary a clearer purpose.

Improve difficult room recordings

A difficult room recording usually has a physical cause: speakers are far from the microphone, noise competes with speech, or people talk at the same time. Address the cause you can control rather than relying on higher playback volume after the session. Raising volume later can make noise louder too, while moving the microphone closer improves the speech before it is recorded.

If distant speakers are hard to understand during the room test, move the computer or microphone closer. For a panel or long table, choose a position where no single person blocks the rest. A place near the middle often gives a more balanced result than placing the computer directly beside one speaker.

• Ask panelists and meeting participants to avoid speaking over one another.
• Keep the microphone clear of objects that can block sound.
• Reduce avoidable room noise before the session starts.
• Use the source audio to check unclear transcript passages.

Replay is most useful when names, commitments or quotations need confirmation.

Some overlap cannot be avoided in a live discussion. In that case, keep the source audio and use it when correcting the transcript. You can replay unclear moments even when no automatic transcript can perfectly separate every overlapping voice. This matters most for decisions, names, numbers, quotations, and questions that will be used after the session.

If the first recording is not as clear as expected, use what you learned for the next one. A small change in computer placement, a quieter position in the room, or a clearer request for one person to speak at a time can make the next transcript easier to verify. The goal is not a perfect room. It is a recording that preserves enough clear source audio to review the conversation accurately.

Common questions

Can HoldSay record an in person meeting?

Yes. Choose a microphone, place the computer where it can hear the room, then use the red control on the floating voice card to start and finish the recording.

Can I pause an in person recording?

Yes. Pause during a real break and choose Continue when the session resumes so the recording stays in the same note.

How do I improve a quiet in person recording?

Move the microphone closer to the speakers, reduce room noise, and make a short test with the quietest participant before the full session starts.

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