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Recording and Transcribing Lectures

Record audio from lectures and get an automatic transcription you can study from.

Written by Vlad

You can record lectures, meetings, and other spoken events directly in RemNote, then turn them into searchable notes, transcripts, and study materials. This makes it easy to stay focused in the moment without worrying that you'll miss something important.

As you record, RemNote creates a live transcription, cleans it up automatically, and links each word to the exact moment when it was spoken. You can take notes alongside the transcript, jump back to any moment in the audio, and then use AI to generate flashcards, quizzes, and more from what was said.

A recording in progress: the transcript fills the window with a timestamp beside each passage, the newest speech appears in a box at the bottom, and a 'Transcribing Live...' bar with a pause button and a Done button runs along the bottom.

Starting a recording

There are three ways to begin recording:

  1. Open any folder and click the Record button at the top.

    A folder page with the Record button highlighted in the row of buttons under the folder's name, beside Document, Handwriting, Folder, Upload, and Exam.

  2. Open or create a document, click Add Source at the top of the page, and select the Record tab. Then click Record to start.

    A document with 'Add Source' highlighted under its title, and the Record tab highlighted in the popup it opens, beside Add Source and Link Source.

  3. In the RemNote mobile app, you can also start recording anytime by pressing the + button in the toolbar at the bottom and selecting the Record tool.

    The mobile app's + button opened to show its tools, with Record highlighted between Document and Capture.

For more on how sources work, see Document Sources.

Live transcription

As soon as you begin recording, RemNote starts capturing a live transcription of everything being said. You can follow along in real time, so even if you get distracted for a moment, you won't miss anything important. As the speaker continues, RemNote automatically cleans up and refines the transcription in the background, so by the time your lecture or meeting is over you'll have a polished document you can refer back to right away.

You can navigate away from the recording document at any time – browse other documents, search your Knowledge Base, or work on something else entirely. The transcription keeps running in the background. Click on the recording indicator to jump right back to your document.

Transcription is an AI-powered feature and uses AI credits at a rate of approximately 600 credits per hour of recording.

Taking notes during a recording

While the transcription runs on the right side of your screen, you can take your own notes on the left side.

The cleaned-up transcript as bullets, each with the timestamp of the moment it was spoken in the left margin.

If you later realize you're confused about something (for example, a concept the speaker mentioned), just click on the timestamp next to your note or click on any word while holding the Ctrl key (Cmd on a Mac). This will jump you back to that exact point in the transcript, so you can review what was said.

A 'Play Audio' tooltip over a timestamp, with the hint 'Or cmd+click on any word' beneath it.

Working with the transcript

Once the recording is complete, the transcript is automatically broken down into sections that help you identify the key topics covered. You can interact with individual sentences in several ways:

  • Click on any sentence to generate AI flashcards from it, highlight it, get an explanation, or play audio from that timestamp.

  • Click the timestamp number next to any sentence to play audio from that point. If you do this from the Transcript tab, the current word is highlighted as it plays, which can help you stay focused.

  • Switch to the Bullets tab to see the important pieces of information from the recording organized in a structured, easy-to-read format.

Generating flashcards and quizzes

Just like with PDFs, PowerPoints, or any other file you can upload to RemNote, you can use AI to study your recorded lectures:

  • Break the transcript into sections, each with its own summary, flashcards, and mock exam, so you can study the lecture as a guided, step-by-step plan. See Guided Learn Mode to learn more.

  • Generate flashcards from the entire document or from a specific section. See Generating Flashcards with AI for details.

  • Ask the AI Tutor questions about the lecture. The tutor provides answers grounded directly in your recording, with timestamps pointing to the exact moments where specific ideas were discussed.

In the example below, it’s mentioned in the lecture that "philosophia" means "love of wisdom", but it doesn’t explain why. Here, we ask the AI Tutor to break down the word's roots and origins.

The AI Tutor tab open beside the transcript, answering a question about the roots of 'philosophia' with a table of the two Greek roots and their meanings.

Uploading pre-recorded audio

If you prefer to capture audio using another tool (such as a phone recorder or a dedicated microphone app), you can upload the audio file directly into RemNote afterwards and generate the transcript from it.

  1. Open a folder or document.

  2. Click the upload button (or click Add Source and upload the file from the Add Source tab).

  3. Once the file is uploaded, you will be able to generate the transcript or listen to the audio without one. Note that in order to use the AI features, you need to generate the transcript.

An uploaded audio clip showing a 'Generate AI Transcript with Summary' panel with a 'Generate Transcript' button and the credit cost beneath it.

This is useful if you recorded a lecture on your phone, received an audio file from a colleague, or want to transcribe a meeting that was recorded externally.

Supported languages

Supported languages depend on whether you are transcribing audio live or uploading an audio file afterward.

  • Live recording: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese are currently supported.

  • Uploaded audio: If you upload an audio file and transcribe it afterward, RemNote supports more than 80 languages.

If your lecture is in a language not currently supported for live transcription, uploading the audio after recording may be the better option.

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