In this article, you will learn:
- General recommendations for audio recording,
- Recommended setup by meeting type,
- Recording checklist,
- What to avoid,
- Language and speaker recognition,
- How to upload audio files into Sherpany.
Important note
Sherpany can support you with file requirements, upload issues, processing errors, and product functionality. Sherpany cannot guarantee recording quality, improve unclear source audio, or troubleshoot specific third-party recording equipment.
The overall quality of your generated minutes depends strongly on the quality of the audio file uploaded to Sherpany. Clear audio helps Sherpany generate more accurate transcripts and minutes.
Sherpany cannot control, configure, test, or validate your recording environment, room equipment, microphones, conferencing tools, network, or source audio file. Customers are responsible for choosing and testing their own recording setup.
What are the general recommendations?
Your recording should capture every participant clearly, at a similar volume, with as little background noise and echo as possible.
Before an important meeting, we recommend making a short test recording with the actual room and meeting setup.
What is the recommended setup by meeting type?
| Meeting type | Recommended setup |
|---|---|
| Remote meeting | If a conferencing platform is available (MS Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, etc.), use its native recording. If not, use a recording setup that captures all participants clearly in one audio file. |
| Small in-person meeting | Use a centrally placed room microphone, conference speakerphone, or suitable room audio system. A laptop or phone microphone may work in a small quiet room, but quality can drop quickly when people sit further away. |
| Larger in-person meeting | Use a centralized audio system with multiple microphones. |
| Hybrid meeting | Use a setup that records both people in the room and remote participants through the same audio file. |
What is the recording checklist?
- Place microphones close enough to the speakers,
- Use a quiet room with limited echo,
- Keep microphones in a stable position, avoid touching or moving them during the meeting,
- Avoid placing microphones next to loudspeakers or other sources of echo,
- Ask participants to speak clearly, avoid interruptions or speaking over each other,
- Check that remote and in-room participants are recorded at comparable volume.
What should you avoid?
- Recording a large room with a single distant microphone (for example, a laptop or mobile-device microphone),
- Moving or handling the recording device during the meeting,
- Recording remote participants by playing them through a speaker and capturing that sound with a second device, unless no better option is available,
- Using several microphones without a proper way to combine them into one clear recording.
Note
For half-day or full-day meetings, you may choose to create separate recordings by stopping the recording at natural breaks (coffee, lunch, or agenda changes). This can be useful when the group of participants changes or when the meeting switches to another language. There is no need to split a recording only because the meeting is long if the same participants remain throughout.
How does language and speaker recognition work?
Sherpany generates the transcript in the language it detects based on the first 30 seconds of the recording. If several languages are spoken in the same recording, parts spoken in another language may be transcribed less accurately or not as expected.
Sherpany separates voices into anonymous speaker labels, such as "Speaker 01" and "Speaker 02". These labels do not automatically identify participant names. Meeting organisers need to match speaker labels to participant names manually.
How to upload audio files into Sherpany?
Before uploading an audio file into Sherpany, check that:
- The recording includes the full meeting or the full meeting part you want Sherpany to process,
- All expected participants can be heard clearly,
- The file plays correctly outside Sherpany,
- The file is in MP3, M4A, or OGG format,
- The file does not exceed 200 MB,
- The file contains audio only, video files such as MP4 are not supported,
- You have selected the correct meeting and recording.
Note
If a meeting was recorded in separate parts, you can upload multiple audio files and/or transcripts to the same meeting.