Recording Phone Interviews

[Pod13]

Hi, I saw this mentioned in another post but it didn't quite answer my question.

What I want to do is to be able to conduct phone interviews but instead of using the handset to talk to the person on the other end I want to use an external mic hooked up to a mixer. I also want to send the phone conversation through the mixer to record it.

Does anybody have a solution for this...relatively cheap?

[TINKOFF RADIO]

1-Use Skype with the "Skype Out" feature.
2-Hook up the mics to the mixer then in/out your PC.
3-Record with "Hot Recorder" or "Skyhook" on a PC or "Audio Hijack Pro" on a Mac.

Google "recording Skype call" for more details.

[Pod13]

Thanks Tinkoff but I'm looking at recording with an actual landline....should have mentioned that, sorry. I understand this is probably not easy to do the way I described it but any further help or direction on it would be appreciated.

[richpav]

Two words: Radio Shack (http://www.radioshack.com/category.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F008%5F008%5F012%5F001&Page=1).

[TINKOFF RADIO]

I've mentioned this before - and this is the low-cost method I've used for years before podcasting or Skype. Use a full-duplex speakerphone. Point one mic at the speaker phone running into the mixer and another to you. This works better than you would expect if the mics are good (I used SM58s at the time cause I had them) and the mix is balanced on the board. The caller will hear you through the speaker phone mic, but the audience will hear you through your studio mic - which is all that matters.

This method has been used at many low budget radio stations for years and I think the results are as good if not better than the Radio Shack solution - at least you will sound MUCH better than using your phone receiver as a mic.

Good luck!
Adam

[Pod13]

That method would probably work for me since I do have a speaker phone handy. Like you say it solves some levels issues too. I'll give it a try...thanks again Tinkoff

The radio shack gadgets are fine but I can't see how to use them w/o speaking into the handset.

[jeffbearer]

I've produced several interviews just like tinkoff has said, by putting a mic to the speaker of the speaker phone, and micing the interviewer directly. It sounds much better than I ever would have expected.

I've seen people link to the types of things that radio stations use and IIRC they started at $400. I don't have a link, sorry.

[Will-Casel]

I agree with Tinkoff for the low-budget solution.
I used the Radio Shack solution before I switched over to Skype Out.

My voice sounded very "tinny" going through the adapter. Skyp Out is now my preferred choice as it is cheaper than making a long-distance call for me in most cases.

Will

[TINKOFF RADIO]

This is a funny aside that indirectly relates to this issue. Professionally I work for a big IT Research firm and our media department has a pretty well funded production studio and asked me to make a recommendation on how to do this portably. Well, after spending some good cash on digital phone bridges and the like - the best mobile solution as determined by the entire studio was using Skype Out - which enables you to make calls to any regular phoneline and Skylook which enables the recording - well maybe that story is not funny, but it sure is interesting... well maybe not that interesting... but it sure is something!

[mediamogul]

I have been using www.audioblog.com for my phone interviews. I love the service. Its simple to use, i can use it on the go. Its pretty cheap like 5 buck a month too. I usually call the person im interviewing then i 3 way audioblog and off we go. I can them download the audio film and bring it into my editing software to clean it up a bit.

Just my 2 coppers! 8)

Cheers, Dave

[jbisjim]

Agreed Radio shack


I use
http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=17-855

plug that baby right into my cordless phone and my mixer, done...

[X Pat Radio]

Hi, I saw this mentioned in another post but it didn't quite answer my question.

What I want to do is to be able to conduct phone interviews but instead of using the handset to talk to the person on the other end I want to use an external mic hooked up to a mixer. I also want to send the phone conversation through the mixer to record it.

Does anybody have a solution for this...relatively cheap?

What you need is software, or a mixer that can do a mix-minus

[gettig]

I've been researching this too. JKAudio seems to be a good bang for the buck. Their offerings vary in price. Here are three options from them, all at bswusa.com, that I have been looking at.

Good: http://tinyurl.com/9jnqh
Better: http://tinyurl.com/7agch
Best: http://tinyurl.com/7p2ry

I'm looking at picking up the JKAudio Broadcast Host in time. For now, I run my Vonage softphone on my Mac Mini to an input on my board, which then gets routed out to an input on my audio interface, which then sends it into the Windows studio PC. I pan my voice hard left to track 1 and the phone hard right to track 2. Kludgy, yes, but it will work until I pickup the JKAudio.

Good luck! Let us know what you end up doing!

[Lifespring!]

Hi guys.

I've got this one (http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F008%5F008%5F012%5F001&product%5Fid=43%2D228) from Radio Shack. It's giving me a really bad buzz (or hum).

Any ideas?

I've tried a couple different phone jacks in my house. There is no noise on any of the lines until I put this device in the chain.

[Lifespring!]

Well, well, well.

I figured it out. It seems that my laptops power adapter was throwing of a tremendous amount of RF interference. The minute I unplugged it, the hum/buzz vanished.

There's a lesson for everybody. Don't have any extraneous equipment running or plugged in while you're trying to troubleshoot mysterious noises!

[FrankJKimeJR]

The JK audio digital hybrid / broadcast host does a pretty good job, definately removes the ground loop problem to the board ... but:

It will not bring up the audio level of an extremely quiet caller because you will have to down your send level as well. The seperation is pretty good unless youre trying to "blast" your send audio. There is some mix of the send back into the board.

The digital hybrid is NOT good for uplinking to a studio either. There is way too much distortion coming out of the DSP. Use an analog hybrid for this.

Remember this: a standard phone line cuts off at around 3.6khz. There is no way the caller is going to sound like they are in the studio using the analog phone line.

[gettig]

...
The digital hybrid is NOT good for uplinking to a studio either. There is way too much distortion coming out of the DSP. Use an analog hybrid for this.

Remember this: a standard phone line cuts off at around 3.6khz. There is no way the caller is going to sound like they are in the studio using the analog phone line.

I don't necessarily want them to sound like they are in the studio. I'm just looking for good separation so I can send my voice and the caller to separate tracks. Are you saying the analog JKAudio might be as good of a choice as the digital one, given the purpose? I was thinking the digital one would be better since it has a little more intelligence with DSP.

[FrankJKimeJR]

We are going forward with the analog hybrid to SEND a live stream to a radio studio where it gets broadcasted (rbn.) It is a live talk show so mp3 shoutcast would have too much delay versus the commercial ques and callins...

You might be able to get by with the analog hybrid on a board, but the digital hybrid takes into account a number of factors that would need careful adjustment thoughout the show.

I did speak with JK the other day regarding the Broadcast Host. To be honest, I am a little disapointed with the seperation (on very quiet callers). Aparently, the Inkeeper version of hybrid is much better in terms of removing the send audio from the return on the board.

The recordings are coming out very nice with this product. A regular guest we have speaks very quietly and it is necessary to turn the gain up so far that the host feeds back into the board. Problem is, what audio is sent out on the phone has alot of distortion in it (I guess from the DSP...)

Anyway, its a good solution for medium quality level audios. Hope that helps...

[FrankJKimeJR]

More on the inkeeper versus broadcast host by jk audio...

The problem here is that the phone line is so far from the central office (i.e rural studio) that the phone audio is somewhat weak. Its pretty clean but the audio levels are dim.

The issue with the broadcast host is that it does not do a complete job of seperating the incoming caller audio from the sender audio. With a good clean bright phone line its not so much of an issue. With a weak one you have to upgrade to the inkeeper. It is possible to mix out the broadcast host under ideal conditions, but its gonna get trashed on a weak voiced caller or bad phone line (of either the caller or the host.)

This first interview is produced using an inkeepr 1x digital hybrid from jk audio.

Here goes the inkeeper:
http://pantograph.zephnet.com/podcast/CHZ-11-03-05_JACOBSON.mp3

Now here is the broadcast host. Notice how it is somwehat distorted. Even Zeph is distorted, because this is the feedback from the broadcast host. When the gains are up so far, you get this digital (scratchy) feedback. Just the way it is. And to be fair, remember Z mans phone line is very weak. ISDN is irregular out there and DSL is not even available...

http://pantograph.zephnet.com/podcast/ZANDK.mp3