A research interview can contain personal experiences, unreleased product details, and statements you need to quote accurately. OGAD (Off Grid AI Desktop) can transcribe a saved audio file locally on your Mac. Download a suitable speech model first, and you can review the transcript without uploading the recording to a cloud transcription service. Keep the original audio as the reference for what the participant said.
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Want help with this workflow, or a feature you would like us to add? Email support@offgridmobileai.co with your devices and the task you want to improve.
Keep the research purpose clear
The first output is a transcript you can check. Analysis, theme comparison, and report writing come later. Keeping those stages separate helps prevent a recognition error from becoming a research finding.
Suppose a small user-research team interviews participants about a booking process. One person says, “I did not know whether it was confirmed.” If the transcript misses “not,” the meaning reverses. A fluent summary could then hide the error.
Use local transcription to prepare the text, then review the passages that matter to your research question. Do not treat a model's confidence or readable prose as evidence of accuracy.
Prepare the recording and handling rules
Use an interview you are authorised to process under your research arrangements. Check the consent and access rules that apply to the work. Local processing is a technical choice; it does not determine those permissions for you.
Save the complete recording on your Mac. Use a participant code in the filename if that matches your research process, and keep any identity key separately. Make sure a cloud-drive file is fully downloaded before going offline.
Check that the audio plays, that the beginning and end are present, and that the recording is the correct session. Keep an unchanged original.
What do you need in OGAD?
Use an Apple Silicon Mac with the desktop app and a downloaded local transcription model. For a non-English interview, choose a multilingual model. A local text model is needed only if you also want help organising or analysing the checked transcript.
The saved-audio path is a core chat feature. It does not require the separate Pro meeting recorder. Supported audio files include MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, Opus, FLAC, and AIFF. If the interview was recorded as video, export the audio with a local tool first because video attachments use a different processing path.
Complete installation, model downloads, and a short test while connected. Choose local processing for both speech and any later text-model work.
Import and transcribe one interview
- Open Models > Transcription.
- Download a suitable local model and choose Use this model.
- Open its Settings and check Transcription > Current model.
- Choose the interview language under Spoken language, or use Auto-detect with a multilingual model.
- In Chat, select + > Attach files and choose the audio.
- Wait for Processing... to finish, then click the attachment's text preview.
The file-processing implementation sends saved audio through the selected transcription service and returns text. A remote transcription selection changes that route, so verify that the selected model is local.
The preview is read-only. Copy the text into a local document for correction and review.
Review for meaning, not only spelling
Listen to the recording while checking the text. Focus on details that affect interpretation:
| Detail | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Negation | Can reverse a participant's meaning |
| Names and product terms | Can change what the participant refers to |
| Dates and quantities | Can distort an example or frequency |
| Hesitation and uncertainty | Can make a tentative view sound definite |
| Speaker changes | Can attribute the interviewer's suggestion to the participant |
| Incomplete sentences | Can invite an editor to add meaning |
Do not assume this workflow produces verified speaker identification or usable timestamps. Add speaker labels only after checking the audio. If a word remains unclear, mark it rather than guessing.
A corrected transcript does not need to make the participant sound polished. Preserve wording relevant to the research purpose.
Keep interviewer prompts separate from participant evidence
An interviewer may suggest a possible explanation. That suggestion is not evidence that the participant held the view.
When reviewing a passage, keep the question and answer together long enough to understand the context. If you later extract a quote, check whether removing the question changes its meaning.
For the booking example, “yes” after a leading prompt may require more context than a standalone statement. Do not ask the model to turn every short answer into a complete confident sentence.
Use a review log for uncertain passages
Keep a small list with the section, issue, and resolution. You can use your own audio-player time references where available, but do not present them as automatically generated by this transcription path.
For example:
| Passage reference | Issue | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Your recording reference | Product name unclear | Check audio and approved terminology |
| Your recording reference | Speaker uncertain | Listen to surrounding exchange |
| Your recording reference | Word inaudible | Keep marked unclear |
This log helps another reviewer see what was checked and what remains unresolved. It also prevents later drafting from quietly filling the gaps.
Prepare the reviewed transcript for analysis
Save the corrected text with a clear version name. If you want a local text model to help, remove the original pending audio attachment and attach the corrected TXT file instead. That makes the checked text the source for the next step.
Ask for a limited working output:
From this reviewed transcript, list passages relevant to the booking-confirmation question. Keep participant statements separate from interviewer prompts. Quote only text present in the transcript and include the surrounding context needed to understand it. Do not infer a theme from an unclear passage.
Check the output against the transcript and audio before using it in a report.
Handle long interviews in sections
A long recording or transcript can exceed practical processing or context limits. Work in sections if needed and maintain a coverage checklist. Confirm that every section, including the final answer, has been reviewed.
If you split audio with a local tool, keep the original and label the parts in order. Do not mix participant files or lose the link between a transcript part and its recording.
Local storage still needs your normal access, backup, and retention controls. A local model does not make every later copy or sharing destination private.
Start with a short research excerpt
Download OGAD and transcribe a short permitted interview segment. Check the words that affect meaning before analysing anything. That gives you a reviewed source for research, with the original recording available whenever a claim needs to be checked.
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