I'm in the middle of my fieldwork - fifteen interviews so far and counting,will probbaly end up with close to forty in-depth interviews.On dull days (I'm abroad at the moment and doing fieldwork in three locations,now switched to second one and negotiating access and all the fun part) I started transcribing-I type really fast,but I am quite frustrated with having to take my hands off the keyboard every couple of seconds to turn the dictaphone on and off.

I heard of equipment where you have the machine connected to some sort of pedal so that you can stop or start the recording with your foot or knee -anybody ever use anything like this?is it really expensive?where do I look for stuff like this?If it's a huge investment,I'll resign myself to stick with what I have now,but forty interviews is going to be a lot to transcribe.Any advice on equipment and techniques welcome;)

I have used the foot pedal in the past and I found it to be ok. It was better than stopping and starting a tape recorder. I have also used a digital recorder. In also think it is less intrusive in interviews. The data is then downloaded to your PC. I don't have a great deal of experience transcribing interviews with the digital recorder it but the sound it quite good and having the data on your PC is an advantage. I think they can cost around about 100 pounds. I know someone who paid this amount but the recorder also had an MP3 player.

Hi AnnieG, I used a transcribing machine (foot pedals) for my interviews and I found it a lot easier than having to stop to fiddle with the machine by hand. I borrowed one from my department - perhaps check if your department does the same kind of thing, or your library. One of my friends wanted her own so she got one from ebay which was around 100 pounds, and plans to sell it again when she's done

Is it possible to convert your tapes to mp3 files? You can then play them on Quicktime. It would be much easier to control the interview playback with shortcuts on your keyboard as you're typing.

use "transcription buddy" from download.com it allows you to make automatic pauses, so it will play 15 secs, pause for 3 and then rewind 10 back, you can change the settings.

thank you all for great tips - especially the one about transcription buddy, downloaded it already and will definitely try and get my interviews into mp3 files and transcribe in this way - once again thanks!