Importing Audio

You can import existing audio or video files into Murmur and run them through the same transcription pipeline as a live recording. This is useful for transcribing recorded calls, podcasts, lectures, or any audio you already have on disk.

How to import

There are two ways to import a file:

• From History — click the import button in the History tab toolbar. The resulting transcript appears in your History list with an "Import" badge.
• From Meetings — use the import option in the Meetings tab if you want the file processed as a meeting, with speaker diarization and summary options available.

In both cases, a file picker opens. Select your file and Murmur will begin processing it.

Supported formats

Murmur accepts the following file types:

• Audio: M4A, MP3, WAV, CAF
• Video: MP4, MOV, M4V (audio track is extracted automatically)

If you have a format not in this list, convert it to WAV or MP3 first using a tool like QuickTime Player or ffmpeg.

Duration limit

Imported files can be up to 180 minutes (3 hours) long. (Raised from 60 minutes in 1.6.) Files longer than this are rejected at import time with an error message.

For longer recordings, split the file into segments using a tool like QuickTime Player (Edit > Split Clip) and import each segment separately.

Audio processing

Before transcription, Murmur pre-processes the audio:

• Resampling — the file is automatically resampled to 16 kHz mono, which is the format required by on-device transcription models. Your original file is not modified.
• Quality analysis — Murmur measures RMS level, peak level, and silence percentage. If the audio is very quiet, heavily clipped, or mostly silence, a warning is shown before transcription begins. You can proceed anyway, but accuracy may be lower.

Progress and cancellation

A progress indicator shows how far along transcription is. You can cancel at any time by clicking the cancel button — no partial transcript will be saved.

Imported files in History

Transcripts from imported files appear in your History list with an Import badge so you can tell them apart from live recordings. Everything else — searching, playback, export — works the same way as any other transcription.

Transcripts imported via the Meetings tab also appear in the Meetings list and have access to speaker diarization and AI summary generation.