How to Improve Transcription Accuracy: 12 Proven Techniques

Published November 19, 2025 • 9 minutes read • By Alessandro Saladino

AI transcription is impressively accurate, but there's always room for improvement. Whether you're getting 85% accuracy or 95%, these 12 techniques will help you achieve near-perfect transcripts.

1. Master Your Microphone Distance

The sweet spot for most microphones is 6-8 inches from your mouth. Too close creates bass buildup and breathing sounds. Too far captures room echo and reduces clarity.

Quick Test: Make a fist and extend your thumb and pinky. That's approximately 6 inches—your optimal mic distance.

Accuracy Impact: Proper mic distance can improve accuracy by 5-10 percentage points.

2. Eliminate Background Noise

Every sound your microphone captures competes with your voice. Common culprits:

• Air conditioning and heating systems
• Computer fans and hard drives
• Refrigerators and appliances
• Traffic noise through windows
• Room echo and reverb

Solution: Record in a small, carpeted room with closed doors and windows. Turn off unnecessary appliances. Use acoustic panels or even blankets to dampen echoes.

3. Speak Clearly and Deliberately

This doesn't mean speaking robotically, but being mindful of clarity:

• Enunciate word endings (don't drop "ing" sounds)
• Pause between sentences
• Avoid talking too fast
• Don't mumble or trail off
• Project your voice naturally

Practice Tip: Read a paragraph aloud imagining you're teaching someone unfamiliar with the topic. This natural teaching pace is perfect for transcription.

4. Use Technical Terms Carefully

Specialized vocabulary challenges transcription AI. When using technical terms:

• Spell out acronyms on first use
• Pronounce technical words clearly
• Consider providing a glossary for post-processing
• Use common alternatives when possible

Example: Instead of just saying "k8s," say "Kubernetes, or K-eight-S" to help the AI recognize both forms.

5. Minimize Filler Words

While modern AI can remove filler words, reducing them at the source improves overall quality. Common fillers:

• "Um" and "uh"
• "Like" and "you know"
• "Actually" and "basically"
• "Sort of" and "kind of"

Training Method: Record yourself for 2 minutes. Count filler words. Repeat daily. Most people reduce fillers by 50%+ within two weeks.

6. Choose the Right Model

Different AI models excel at different tasks:

• Small/Fast Models: Great for clear audio, native speakers
• Medium Models: Balance of speed and accuracy
• Large Models: Best for accents, technical content, challenging audio

For most use cases, medium models offer the best balance. Use large models when accuracy is critical and you can afford longer processing time.

7. Preprocessing Audio

Professional-grade transcription starts with audio preprocessing:

Noise Reduction: Remove constant background noise (AC hum, computer fans). Modern tools can reduce noise by 10-20dB without affecting speech.

Normalization: Ensure consistent volume levels throughout recording. Prevents quiet sections from being missed.

High-Pass Filter: Remove frequencies below 80Hz (rumble, wind) that don't contain speech information.

Tools like Tells me More include automatic preprocessing for optimal transcription without manual work.

8. Handle Multiple Speakers Properly

Multi-speaker audio requires special attention:

• Avoid overlapping speech (biggest accuracy killer)
• Use separate microphones when possible
• Maintain consistent distance for each speaker
• Consider recording separate tracks per person

Interview Tip: Establish a pattern where one person finishes completely before the other speaks. A one-second pause between speakers dramatically improves accuracy.

9. Optimize Your Recording Settings

Technical settings matter:

• Sample Rate: 16kHz minimum, 44.1kHz or 48kHz ideal
• Bit Depth: 16-bit minimum, 24-bit for archival
• Format: WAV or FLAC (lossless), avoid MP3 below 192kbps
• Mono vs Stereo: Mono is fine for voice, saves space

10. Provide Context When Possible

Some transcription systems allow context hints. Use them for:

• Names of people, companies, products
• Industry-specific terminology
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• Non-English words or phrases

While Whisper doesn't directly accept custom vocabularies, you can mention context at the start: "In this interview with Dr. Sarah Agrawal from TechCorp..."

11. Post-Processing with AI

Even with perfect recording, post-processing helps:

AI Text Correction: Use language models to fix obvious errors based on context. Modern LLMs can correct transcription while preserving meaning.

Grammar and Punctuation: Add proper punctuation, capitalization, and paragraph breaks for readability.

Format Standardization: Ensure consistent formatting of numbers, dates, times, and measurements.

12. Learn from Errors

Track common mistakes to improve future recordings:

• Which words are consistently misrecognized?
• What audio conditions cause problems?
• Are certain speakers harder to transcribe?
• What technical terms need pronunciation adjustment?

Improvement Loop: Review → Identify patterns → Adjust recording technique → Measure improvement

Accuracy Benchmarks

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Recording in reverberant spaces: Large, empty rooms create echo
• Using built-in laptop mics: Quality too poor for consistent accuracy
• Not testing before important recordings: Always do a test clip
• Talking over others: Overlapping speech confuses AI
• Moving around while recording: Inconsistent mic distance
• Recording in compressed formats: Loss of audio information
• Ignoring room acoustics: Hard surfaces reflect sound

The 80/20 Rule

Focus on these three factors for maximum impact:

1. Quiet Environment (40% impact): Single biggest factor in accuracy
2. Quality Microphone (30% impact): Clear audio capture
3. Proper Mic Technique (10% impact): Consistent distance and positioning

These three factors account for 80% of transcription quality. Everything else is optimization.

Measuring Your Progress

Track improvement over time:

1. Transcribe a standard test passage
2. Count errors per 100 words
3. Implement techniques from this guide
4. Re-transcribe same passage weekly
5. Measure error reduction

Most users see 20-40% error reduction within 2-3 weeks of applying these techniques.

Conclusion

Perfect transcription isn't about having the most expensive equipment—it's about optimizing every part of the process. A $50 USB microphone in a quiet room with proper technique outperforms a $500 microphone used poorly in a noisy environment.

Start with the big three (quiet space, decent mic, proper technique), then layer in additional optimizations. Each small improvement compounds, bringing you closer to that elusive 99% accuracy.

The investment you make in better recording practices pays dividends forever. Every future transcription benefits from the skills you develop today.