For qualitative researchers
Qualitative data analysis, from recording to themes
Klang transcribes your interviews and focus groups, separates the speakers and helps you code and compare them. Every theme cites the quote it rests on, so you check the analysis instead of rebuilding it.
Transcripts with speakers and timestamps, ready to code
Ask questions across a whole study, answers cite the source
Processed in the EU, never used to train AI
From fieldwork to findings in three steps
Add your data
Upload audio and video from the field (MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4 and more, up to 10 GB per file), record in the room with the mobile app, or let Klang join a Teams, Zoom or Google Meet interview. Consent forms and field notes can sit next to the recordings.
Check the transcripts
Klang transcribes, separates the speakers and marks passages that may need a second listen. Play it back with the text scrolling along, correct names and terms, and you have a verbatim transcript you can stand behind.
Code and compare
Put a set of interviews in one analysis and ask for codes, themes or a comparison by question. Every answer cites the interview and the time code, so each claim can be checked against what was said.
Thematic analysis · Onboarding study
Theme 1 · Unclear first week
- P3: Nobody told me who to ask, so I asked no one.at 14:02
- P8: I spent two days waiting for accounts.at 06:41
Theme 2 · Mentors make the difference
- P5: Having a buddy was the only thing that worked.at 22:17
Open questions for the team
- Do remote and on-site hires describe the same gaps?
- Check P11 against the coding frame
Invented study and quotes, shown to illustrate the format. Every quote in a real analysis links to its place in the recording.
See patterns across the whole study.
Ask what keeps coming up, or how one group answered a question compared with another. Klang reads every transcript in the analysis and groups what it finds, with a reference to each passage.
Every finding leads back to the quote.
Follow the citation to the transcript, read the context and play the audio. Interpretation stays with you; Klang makes the evidence one click away.
Keep the study moving.
Share folders with co-researchers, export transcripts to Word with speaker names and timestamps, or to Excel and CSV with one row per segment. New interviews can be followed with a scheduled analysis that runs every week.
All integrations
Choosing qualitative data analysis software
Qualitative data analysis software, often called CAQDAS, helps you organise, code and interpret non-numerical data such as interviews, focus groups and open survey answers. The right tool depends less on feature lists than on where your time actually goes. For most interview studies, that is transcription and the first rounds of coding.
What qualitative analysis software does
Every tool in the category does some version of the same four jobs: it stores your data, lets you attach codes to passages, helps you group codes into categories or themes, and lets you retrieve everything coded the same way. Classic CAQDAS packages such as NVivo, ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA are built around manual coding with a codebook. They are powerful, and they assume you arrive with clean transcripts.
AI-native tools start one step earlier. They produce the transcript, and they can propose codes and themes that you then accept, merge or reject. The researcher still owns the interpretation. What changes is how long it takes to get to a first version you can argue with.
Where the hours go in an interview study
A rule of thumb many researchers recognise: transcribing an hour of interview by hand takes four to six hours, and the first pass of coding takes about as long again. In a study of twenty interviews, that is weeks of work before analysis proper begins.
Automatic transcription removes most of the first block, as long as you still check the transcript against the audio. AI-assisted coding shortens the second, as long as every suggested code is traceable to the passage it came from. Traceability is the property to look for, because it is what lets you defend a theme in front of a supervisor, a client or a reviewer.
A workable process for thematic analysis
Braun and Clarke's six phases are the most cited approach to thematic analysis. This is how they map onto a tool like Klang:
- Familiarise yourself with the data: read each transcript while listening to the audio, correcting it as you go.
- Generate initial codes: ask Klang to propose codes for one interview, then compare them with your own reading.
- Search for themes: put all interviews in one analysis and ask which codes recur and where they differ.
- Review themes: open the cited passages for each theme and drop or merge themes the data does not support.
- Define and name themes: write a short definition for each, with two or three representative quotes.
- Write up: export the quotes with their interview and time code so every claim in the report can be checked.
What to check before you choose a tool
Research data is often sensitive personal data, and ethics boards ask concrete questions. Before you upload a single interview, make sure you can answer them:
- Where is the data processed and stored, and is there a data processing agreement?
- Is your data used to train AI models? With Klang it never is.
- Can you separate and name speakers, and anonymise participants before sharing?
- Can you export transcripts and coded material in formats your other tools import, such as Word, Excel and CSV?
- Does it handle the languages your participants speak, including interviews that switch between two of them?
Klang next to NVivo, ATLAS.ti and MAXQDA
Klang is not a replacement for every CAQDAS feature. If your method depends on a detailed codebook, inter-rater reliability statistics or mixed-methods visualisations, a classic package remains the right home for the final stage of analysis.
Many researchers use both: Klang for recording, transcription and the exploratory rounds of coding, then a Word export of the checked transcripts into the package their department uses. Because Klang's exports keep speaker names and timestamps, nothing is lost on the way.
Manual workflow vs Klang
The same study of twenty one-hour interviews, two ways:
| Transcribe and code by hand | With Klang | |
|---|---|---|
| Transcription | Four to six hours per interview | Done when the upload finishes; you check it against the audio |
| First round of codes | Line by line in a separate tool | Proposed per interview, accepted or rejected by you |
| Themes across interviews | Built up by copying quotes between documents | Asked across all twenty at once, with citations |
| Checking a quote | Find the file, scrub to the right minute | One click from the theme to the moment in the audio |
| Data protection | Depends on where files are kept | Processed in the EU, never used to train AI |
Times for manual transcription and coding vary with audio quality, accents and the level of detail your method requires.
Frequently asked questions
What is qualitative data analysis software?
Software that helps you organise, code and interpret qualitative data such as interviews, focus groups, field notes and open survey answers. It is often called CAQDAS (computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software). Klang adds transcription and AI-assisted coding to that, with every result linked to its source.
Can AI do thematic analysis?
AI can propose codes and themes and find passages that support or contradict them, quickly and across many interviews. It cannot take responsibility for the interpretation. Use it for the first pass, then review every theme against the cited passages. In Klang each suggestion links to the quote and the time in the recording, which makes that review fast.
Is Klang an alternative to NVivo?
For transcription, exploration and first rounds of coding, yes, and many teams use Klang for exactly those steps. For codebook-heavy methods and inter-rater statistics, NVivo, ATLAS.ti or MAXQDA still do more. Klang exports transcripts to Word with speaker names and timestamps, so you can move checked data into those tools.
Is my research data safe in Klang?
Data is processed and stored in the EU, encrypted at rest with workspace-specific keys, and never used to train AI. Klang is ISO 27001:2022 certified and signs a data processing agreement. Institutions with stricter requirements can run Klang in a dedicated environment or on-premise.
Which languages can I transcribe?
Klang transcribes English and the major European languages, including Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Polish, as well as Japanese and others. Set the language to Automatic and interviews that switch between two languages are transcribed in the language actually spoken.
Can I start for free?
Yes. The free plan includes unlimited transcription, file uploads, summaries and chat. Speaker identification, scheduled analyses and integrations are part of Pro, which you can try free for seven days.
Start with the interviews you already have.
Upload a recording and see the transcript, the speakers and a first set of themes before your next supervision meeting.
- Processed and stored in the EU
- ISO 27001:2022 certified
- Never used to train AI