Audio storage & retention
Gistlist records and processes meetings as WAV first so capture, drift correction, echo cleanup, transcription, and click-to-seek alignment all work from stable local files. After processing finishes, the app compacts the stored audio according to your Settings → Storage → Audio Storage choice.
The three modes
Section titled “The three modes”| Mode | Stored source channels | Stored playback | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compact (default) | mic.ogg + system.ogg (Opus, 48 kbps mono) | combined.ogg (Opus, 32 kbps mono) | Voice meetings, replay, future re-runs — much smaller files |
| Lossless archive | mic.flac + system.flac | combined.ogg | Bit-exact source preservation with smaller playback |
| Full fidelity | mic.wav + system.wav | combined.wav | Maximum preservation, largest storage |
Compact keeps separate source channels plus a combined playback file, usually around 60–70 MB per hour for a two-channel voice meeting.
A note on re-running transcription: from Compact audio, re-runs use the compressed source channels, so results can differ slightly from the original WAV-based run. Re-running prompts only (without re-transcribing) uses the existing transcript and is unaffected.
Retention
Section titled “Retention”Settings → Storage → Audio File Retention controls how long audio files are kept:
- Never (default) — audio is kept until you delete it.
- 7 days — audio is deleted seven days after processing.
- 30 days — audio is deleted thirty days after processing.
- Custom — pick any number of days.
Retention deletes the entire audio/ directory inside each meeting folder. Notes, transcripts, and prompt outputs are preserved.
Why compress at all?
Section titled “Why compress at all?”A typical hour of stereo WAV audio is roughly 600 MB. After Compact applies, that drops to about 60 MB — ten times smaller — with no audible quality loss for voice. If you have a year’s worth of meetings, the difference matters.
If you’d rather keep originals, use Lossless archive for bit-exact source plus a smaller playback file, or Full fidelity to keep WAV everywhere.