Import audio or a transcript

You do not have to record a conversation in Free Meeting Transcriber. You can bring in audio recorded elsewhere or start with an existing subtitle file.

Import one audio file

1. Create a New Note or open an empty note.
2. Open the ••• menu and choose Upload audio.
3. Select the recording and leave the app running while it is processed.

You can also drop one audio file onto an open note.

Supported file extensions are WAV, MP3, OGG, MP4, M4A, FLAC, WebM, and AAC. Audio imports use the selected on-device Transcription model.

Note

You can also import from the terminal: fmtr import recording.m4a --transcribe creates the meeting and transcribes it without opening the app, when the selected Transcription model is an on-device Soniqo model. See the CLI reference.

Import several recordings

1. Open an empty tab and choose Import Audio.
2. Drop audio files or a folder into the dialog. Dropped folders are scanned recursively. You can also use Choose files.
3. Clear the checkbox for anything you do not want to import, then click Import.

Each file gets its own note. The app processes the queue one file at a time. Use the sidebar progress item to reopen the queue, inspect a failure, or retry it.

The note date comes from available recording metadata or the file’s modification date. A summary is generated when an Intelligence model is configured and the transcript is long enough.

Import a transcript

1. Create a New Note or open an empty note.
2. Open the ••• menu and choose Upload transcript.
3. Select a WebVTT (.vtt) or SubRip (.srt) file.

The timed text becomes the note’s transcript. No audio file is created. If an Intelligence model is configured, the app also tries to generate a summary.

If nothing happens

Check the file extension and make sure a downloaded Transcription model is selected for audio imports. For summaries through LM Studio or Ollama, make sure the local server is running.

See Transcription and AI for model setup or Troubleshooting for common problems.