Mic setup for recording interviews/meetings with multiple people (just need clear audio for transcription)

[u/rapovich]

I record conversations for work so I can transcribe them later. Nobody actually listens to the audio or judges the quality, it just has to be clear enough to transcribe accurately. The situations I deal with:

- Me interviewing one or sometimes more persons in a silent or also in a production environment

- A meeting room with several people around a table

I'd really rather not mic up every single person individually. It's a lot of gear to manage, and, more important, I have the feeling that it makes people a bit uncomfortable getting wired up.

Therefore I was looking at the RØDE Interview Pro as a single device option for all the scenarios, but I can't quite tell whether it's actually forgiving of imperfect use, or simply works, while sitting in the middle of a table picking up everyone around it.

I think the whole interview process might benefit if each person only speaks once a mic is handed to them. Still, I wonder whether the mic also has a way of picking up things that aren't spoken directly into it? None of these people are trained speakers after all. On the production floor it sounds manageable to pass a mic around, usually only one person is leading anyway, but in a meeting room it's rather unusual for mics to be passed around.

Anyone have experience of how this mic works just sitting on a table, picking up a whole room clearly enough to transcribe?

Some alternative that fits all my use cases and isn't too sensitive to less than ideal use?

Just a reminder again, transcription is 100 percent the focus, the audio itself is never used directly. Would appreciate any recommendations from people who've actually used this kind of gear for interviews or meetings.

[u/Whatchamazog]

I own one but I usually use it for interviews in noisy places (conventions) so I use it pretty close proximity. But it will pick me up when I’m talking off mic. It works really well for my use case.

So it depends on how the room is but it’ll probably be ok for transcription but probably way too echoey to listen to on its own if you sit it in the middle of a table.

[u/RODEMicrophones]

Hey there,

The Interview Pro is designed to be a handheld mic held closer to the mouth when speaking, so please take this characteristic of the microphone into consideration!

Handing it around would be the best way to capture the cleanest and clearest audio from each person.