desgrabar

In most of the Spanish-speaking world, to transcribe a recording into written text — desgrabar una entrevista — a common task in journalism, research, and legal work, especially in Argentina and Uruguay. It can also mean to erase something from a recording, but the transcription sense is far more common today.

• La periodista pasó la tarde desgrabando la entrevista. — The journalist spent the afternoon transcribing the interview.
• Contrataron a alguien para desgrabar las reuniones del comité. — They hired someone to transcribe the committee's meetings.
• Es más rápido desgrabar con un programa de reconocimiento de voz. — It's faster to transcribe with speech-recognition software.

Don't confuse it with grabar (to record) — desgrabar in modern usage almost always means converting an existing recording into text, not making or erasing one.

Often confused with transcribir.