How it works
- Record or import. "Record Microphone" on your laptop in the lecture hall, or import a recording from your phone or the lecture video afterwards (MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV and audio formats).
- Choose "Lecture". That picks the lecture summary. Long recordings are written to disk as they are made, so a 90-minute lecture does not fill your memory.
- Study from the notes. Read the summary, check the transcript where it matters, and ask the AI chat to explain a passage.
- Export. Word keeps headings and bullet points; Markdown works with Obsidian and Notion.
A semester you can search
The library search looks inside every transcript and summary, not just titles, and shows the matching passage. Switch the AI chat from "This recording" to "All recordings" and ask "which lectures covered the Krebs cycle?": the answer names the lectures it drew on, and one click opens them.
New recordings get a short title from their content, so "New Recording 23" becomes something you can find again.
Getting a clean recording
Sit near a speaker
Lecture halls are loud. A seat near the front or near a loudspeaker makes more difference than any setting.
Use the large model
Whisper Large v3 Turbo handles accents, technical terms and room echo best.
Add course vocabulary
Names, formulas spelled out and field terms in the custom vocabulary come out spelled your way.
Online lectures
For a lecture that plays in the browser, "Record from App" records the computer’s sound.
Why on your own laptop
Online transcription sites need an upload and often cap free minutes. Scrieb runs OpenAI's Whisper on your computer, so it works without Wi-Fi, the recording stays with you, and the lecturer's voice is not sent to a third party. Details: what Whisper is.
Pricing
Free plan: 1 hour of recording per day. Pro: no minute limits, one licence for Mac and Windows.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I transcribe a lecture?
- Record it with "Record Microphone" on your laptop, or import the recording or lecture video afterwards. Choose "Lecture" when Scrieb asks what the file is. You get the full transcript and lecture notes, both made on your computer.
- What do the lecture notes contain?
- Scrieb’s Lecture summary turns the transcript into notes you can study from. You can write your own summary type too, for example key terms, definitions and likely exam topics.
- Can I search across all my lectures?
- Yes. Library search looks inside every transcript and summary and shows the matching passage. The AI chat can answer across all recordings, for example "where did the professor explain entropy?", and names the lectures it used.
- How long does a 90-minute lecture take?
- Minutes on a Mac with Apple Silicon or a PC with a recent graphics card; roughly the length of the lecture on an older laptop without one. It runs in the background.
- Does it handle technical terms and accents?
- Choose Whisper Large v3 Turbo for difficult audio, set the spoken language if needed, and add course terms and names to the custom vocabulary so they are spelled correctly.
- Am I allowed to record lectures?
- That is up to your university and the lecturer. Many allow recordings for personal study, some do not. Ask first; for recordings the university provides, check the terms of use.
- Is it free?
- The free plan includes 1 hour of recording per day, enough for most single lectures. Pro removes the limit and covers Mac and Windows with one licence.