How do I turn a recording into notes?

Goal

Put a finished audio file into the audio inbox. Nova writes a transcript and, if you want, notes.

Before you start

• Expert view. The switch is in How do I switch between Simple and Expert?
• Speech recognition through AI access or on this Mac.
• An audio file as OGG, MP3, M4A or WAV.

Steps

1. Settings, Meetings & minutes, the Folders & templates tab, card Locations. Under Audio inbox (meeting recordings), set a folder with Choose folder…, for example in iCloud or on the Desktop.
2. On the same card, choose a folder under Target folder for transcripts & notes. If it is empty, Nova uses the Markdown folder.
3. The Pipeline tab, card Meeting minutes: turn on Meeting pipeline on.
4. Create notes automatically after the transcript on: the notes follow right after the transcript. Off: Nova asks first.
5. Put a new file into the audio inbox. Nova notices it, writes the transcript and puts it in the target folder. The audio file stays in the inbox.
6. Files that were already in the inbox before you turned it on are not picked up on their own. For the newest of them: the Actions tab, card Start now, button Process newest meeting audio now.
7. The result is in the meeting dashboard. In the Pipeline tab, Open meeting dashboard opens it, or in the menu bar Meetings, Open dashboard.
8. Keep an audio copy next to the transcript puts a copy in the meeting folder. The dashboard can then play the recording. It needs storage space.

Example

Drag a short voice memo as M4A into the audio inbox. After the transcript it shows in the meeting dashboard.

Common problems

• The file goes to the speech recognition you set up. With a cloud provider the audio leaves the Mac for that.
• Without an audio inbox or without a target folder Nova watches nothing, even with Meeting pipeline on.
• Nova looks only directly in the inbox folder, not in subfolders.
• If transcription fails three times, Nova stops trying on its own. Process newest meeting audio now starts a new attempt.
• The sales Nova has no direct Plaud connection. Put a recording from a voice recorder into the inbox as a file. You pick the template for the notes in How do I choose a template for meeting minutes?