Junior records two channels:
| Channel | Source | Appears in the transcript as |
|---|---|---|
| Your microphone | You | You |
| System audio | Everything your computer plays | The other speakers |
It hears everything your computer plays
System audio is a single mixed feed of whatever is coming out of your computer. Junior can't take only Zoom, and it can't exclude only Spotify, because neither macOS nor Windows offers a per-application feed.
So anything audible during a recording is in the recording: a video you share, a notification chime, music you forgot to pause, a second call in another window. Mute or quit it before you start.
What it can't hear
- Anyone not coming through your computer or your microphone. A colleague on the other side of a large room, or someone on a separate phone.
- A call you're on with headphones, if it's on your phone. The audio never reaches your laptop.
- Anything before you pressed record. There's no buffer.
Your own voice, once
Junior removes the far end's audio coming back through your speakers from the microphone channel, so remote speech isn't transcribed twice as though you had said it. This is why a speakerphone call in a room still separates you from everyone else correctly.
Questions
Does it work if I'm wearing headphones?
Yes, and it's the better setup. Junior takes system audio from your computer before it reaches your ears, so it doesn't matter whether the sound comes out of speakers or headphones. Headphones also remove the echo path entirely, which makes the transcript cleaner.
Can I record an in-person meeting on my laptop?
You can. It'll use the microphone and pick up the room. A laptop microphone on a table handles three or four people reasonably and a boardroom badly. For anything in-person, your phone is easier to place well: see when to use your phone instead of your laptop.
Someone on the call is missing from the transcript.
If their voice reached your computer, they're in the audio and the problem is speaker separation. Check the Original tab, where they may be merged with someone else. If their voice never reached your computer, they're genuinely not there, and no amount of processing will recover them.