recording telephone interviews [Archive]

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DaveeDawg

Jan 9th, 2006, 11:39 AM

Hello everyone!

Does anyone have a good, quality solution for recording telephone interviews that isn't REALLY expensive?

I tried Skype and that usually sounds poor. It is very inconsistent. You never know what you're going to get with Skype.

I have also tried different phones (cordless and corded) connected with my Sony portable stereo recorder by a Radio Shack telephone recording device. This records in mono and I have to cut and paste it into a new audio track in Audacity to make the sound able to be heard in both ears. There must be a better solution than this!

I am looking for a reliable solution.

1.) What kind of telephone is best?
2.) What kind of recording device is best?
3.) What kind of connection from the phone to the recorder is best?

I wish there were a standard "package" to buy or some options that were more easily found to answer my questions. I have searched high and low for this information and I'm not finding anything. It's all been trial and error so far.

Thanks for any help!

WildeGeek

Jan 9th, 2006, 02:25 PM

Does anyone have a good, quality solution for recording telephone interviews that isn't REALLY expensive?
Reliable, (sound-) quality, and cheap. Pick any two of those, but you'll never get all three. Throw into that "hassle free". Some set-ups will get you descent quality if you're willing to futz with them a lot. How do you you prioritize: Reliability Sound quality Ease-of-use PriceI am looking for a reliable solution.

1.) What kind of telephone is best?
Of all of the phones I tried, the only one that's really been reliable for me, and sounds by far the best, is one of the old heavy-duty traditional AT&T desk phones made around 1980. Mine is one of the first generation of touch-tone (as opposed to rotary-dial) phones, back when you couldn't buy phones, you could only rent them from the phone company. When phones were rented, they were built for rock-solid durability. Now that phone are sold rather than rented, they're built for low-cost and disposability. It shouldn't be hard to find one of these phones in a garage sale.

2.) What kind of recording device is best?
I use the sound card (http://www.digigram.com/products/getinfo.htm?prod_key=9000) in my computer. I also use a mixer (http://www.allen-heath.com/US/DisplayProduct.asp?pview=47).

However, you could just as easily, with the right adaptor cables, connect your phone interface into a portable recorder like a mini-disc, or a flash recorder such as the Marantz PMD-series or equivalent. If you choose the adaptor cables correctly, something like the iRiver MP3 players could also work, I suppose.

3.) What kind of connection from the phone to the recorder is best?
On the low end of the pro and semi-pro price range, JK Audio makes some nice phone interfaces that start at around $60, like their QUICKTAP (http://www.jkaudio.com/quicktap.htm) handset interface. The main problem with a handset tap like this, is that you don't have separate control of the local and remote audio levels, and usually the local level is much louder than the remote level.

JK Audio, as well as many other companies, make better-quality and more-expensive products as well. If $500 isn't too much to spend, their BROADCAST HOST (http://www.jkaudio.com/broadcast-host.htm) digital hybrid is the way to go.

In consumer products, on the high-end, there are some conference phones by companies like Polycom (http://www.polycom.com/home/) and Panasonic (http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vOverview?storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&catGroupId=25035&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702) which have tape recorder interfaces.

On the low-end of consumer products, you'll find various phone recording taps from places like Radio Shack. I used to use an inductive-type "suction cup" pickup into an analog cassette deck. As long as I could get it to stick to the phone, it worked OK. I always found the cheap wired recording interfaces to be noisy and flakey.

Ideally, another thing you'll want is post-processing to clean up your recording. A noise reduction processor such as Sound-Soap (http://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundsoap/) works well. But a cheaper alternative is probably already built into your audio editing software: Low-pass Filter Noise GateProcess the signal with the low-pass filter first. Set it to cut off everything above about 4,500 Hz. Phone lines only respond up to 3.9 kHz anyway, and any noise above that is just garbage picked up on the phone line, and it'll be distracting. Then set the noise gate to cut off the noisy sections between words, but to let the words of your interviewee pass through. This will take some experimentation.

Also, in order to make your phone interviewee's voice sound as loud as your in the show, you'll have to actually make it a little louder than yours. That's because their voice will have been more muffled and distorted by the phone system. So you have to use a gain-envelope tool in your editing software to adjust their voice separately from yours.

There are more expensive ways (>$2,000 in equipment and $50-$100/Mo. for a special phone line) to get much higher quality with much less hassle, but you didn't ask about those.

TINKOFF RADIO

Jan 9th, 2006, 02:54 PM

I shared this method a few time on the board but the best cheap way to record the phone is to go all analog and use a full-duplex speaker phone, 2 mics and a mixer.
1 mic points over the speaker phone
1 mic points to the host
both go into the mixer.
mixer goes to whatever recording device you fancy...
and viola! you have a pretty decent sounding recording of a phonecall.
with no digital madness...

We used this method for years at my college radio station and it worked fine and still does last I checked...

Adam

WildeGeek

Jan 9th, 2006, 03:07 PM

...use a full-duplex speaker phone, 2 mics and a mixer.
This would certainly work -- if you accept that a good-quality, full-duplex speakerphone is about a $150-$300 item. I'd think you'd have to have a pretty quiet room as well.

Granted, you can buy $30 speakerphones, but I haven't found a cheap one that worked well enough to have a fully intelligible conversation.

TINKOFF RADIO

Jan 9th, 2006, 04:50 PM

As I said before considering that podcasting is a "$0 Million Dollar Industry" with an even smaller potential market...

A $30 speaker phone sounds fine to me. :-)

Don't knock it till you try it. If you use a dynamic mic on the speaker phone room tone is less distracting.

Adam

jbisjim

Jan 10th, 2006, 07:01 AM

We Used a cheap gizmo Radio Shack (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103157&cp=&kw=record+telephone&parentPage=search) and it worked great until it developed a serious issue. We did an interview on Saturday and it sounded like Crap, Crap is probably a too nice of word we will have to re-record it because you can't understand anything.

The problem, as stated above, is that the caller and the callee come out of the device as One Mix and depending on the quality of your connection the caller or the callee can be very loud or even very soft and then it can take a lot of post edit.

The problem with my device and other devices is side tone. This is where your on the phone and you hear your self. That is great so you dont yell and all. However, Some devices are not seperating that out.

That pretty much ends the Cheap devices from here on out the price seems to go up. What is needed is a hybrid device like Jkaudio (ttp://www.jkaudio.com/broadcast-host.htm) This type of device becomes your phone and seperates out that side tone but it does it for a price.

A $30 speaker phone sounds fine to me.
Don't knock it till you try it. If you use a dynamic mic on the speaker phone room tone is less distracting. kudos to you for making it work, I have not found it to work so well for me.

Needless to say I have been doing some research of my own. I know there has to be a way to make one or convince the Giant Squid Guy to make one at a resonable price.

/end 2cents

kinkysex

Jan 11th, 2006, 07:37 AM

Ok, now what about a high dollar solution?

I don't mind saving a little and spending some bucks.

What should I look for and what is just a pricey waste of money to avoid?

Thanks.

guscave

Jan 11th, 2006, 09:06 AM

I tried several different methods including that same Radio Shack device. I found it to be ok for a mobile set-up. As for sound quality, I found that the Skype and HotRecorder set-up was ok for the price, but inconsistant. I had one interview that I had to scrap because the Hotrecorder wouldn't save the whole conversation. Also don't even try to use Skype with anything less than broadband for consistancy and quality.

The most reliable (and my personal preference) is the 2 mic set-up with a speaker-phone. At least with this type of set-up you can maintain the quality of your voice, even though the caller may sound a bit boxy. Try to use a directional mic on the speaker and far enough away from your mic so it doesn't bleed thru into your signal.

jbisjim

Jan 11th, 2006, 09:27 AM

Ok, now what about a high dollar solution?......Get one the radio stations Use something This (http://www.comrex.com/products/dh30.htm) If you have a couple spare grand laying around. JK audio (http://www.jkaudio.com) does makes some things that cost 275 -300

2 mic set-up with a speaker-phone...
I get horrible results with this. also goes against GIGO for me

kinkysex

Jan 11th, 2006, 09:40 AM

http://www.jkaudio.com/voice-path.htm
Anyone know anything about that one? Seems pretty economical to me.

Thanks again!

jbisjim

Jan 11th, 2006, 09:51 AM

http://www.jkaudio.com/voice-path.htm
Anyone know anything about that one? Seems pretty economical to me.

Thanks again! read above about Side Tone It will do it but you and the caller will be on the same channel to your mixer/recording software. I did a lot of interviews doing just that, some interviews required a lot of post edit.

...Speakerphone and a mic... elminated that with putting speaker phone on a seperate channel

tabulator32

Jan 11th, 2006, 11:40 AM

I downloaded Skype a couple weeks ago but just had time to get into it last night. I bought some credit and made a few long distance calls from my wifi laptop and headset on the couch while surfing the web and watching television.

Ok. I'm addicted now because I don't have to hold the phone and my LD bill just went down.

Now, With Skype and Audacity loaded on my PC laptop, can I record the call and how, exactly, do I set it up? I kept playing with it while i was chatting but could only get my side of the conversation to record.

How do I do get both sides? Thanks for responding to the newbie question.

8)

tabulator32

Jan 11th, 2006, 02:28 PM

Do I set it to 2 channel and set one channel to something and the other to something else to get incoming and outgoing?

tsidock

Jan 12th, 2006, 01:47 AM

You want a JK Audio "Hybrid" it is the only correct way to have the control and audio quality of a radio station. This device is $500, give or take.

Now back to Skype. Want great sound on the Near side while recording the far end? This is sweet and easy if you are podcasting with a mixer and a recorder like an iRiver or Edirol/Marantz. I use a laptop/PC for a soundboard - those noises we play when things are a bit dull... I also have Skype running on this PC. Everything feeds out of the PC to the mixer. I use two cheap PC condensor mics into the mic input on the PC, using a simple "Y" adapter cable. The mics are tied to my studio mics so that when my wife and I speak they feed our voices to the far end. Everything else goes to the mixer and then to recorder in full fidelity.

see:

http://wizardstoybox.com/pcast/PodStudioDiagram1.jpg

Tom
http://looseendsshow.com

WildeGeek

Jan 12th, 2006, 02:13 AM

Ok, now what about a high dollar solution?

I don't mind saving a little and spending some bucks.

What should I look for and what is just a pricey waste of money to avoid?
As in most things, as you go up in price, you only asymptotically approach perfection.

The serious, you're a professional and money is no object way to go is to order an ISDN phone line, or use a digital office PBX.

An ISDN line will set you back $200 - $500 for installation, and cost at least $50/Mo. Every call, even local ones, are charged by the minute at rates comparable to long distance. But the advantage is that you'll have a full noise-free, synchronous digital connection all of the way.

If you have a digital PBX in your office building, you won't need an ISDN line because you already have the equivalent.

Then you'll need a PBX or ISDN digital hybrid. These seem to start at around $1,800. One popular model is the Telos Two (http://www.telos-systems.com/?/two/default.htm).

OK. So that's all a little steep for a podcaster? I mentioned above the JK Audio Broadcast Host (http://www.jkaudio.com/broadcast-host.htm). For $500, it sounds as good as anything you could hook to an analog phone line.

There are many more expensive hybrid interfaces by JK Audio, Telos, Tandberg, and Comrex that sound no better than the JK Audio Broadcast Host, but they do provide lots of specialized features for more automated broadcast systems -- for prices between $700 and $2,000.

tabulator32

Jan 12th, 2006, 05:52 AM

Now back to Skype. Want great sound on the Near side while recording the far end? This is sweet and easy if you are podcasting with a mixer and a recorder like an iRiver or Edirol/Marantz. I use a laptop/PC for a soundboard - those noises we play when things are a bit dull... I also have Skype running on this PC. Everything feeds out of the PC to the mixer. I use two cheap PC condensor mics into the mic input on the PC, using a simple "Y" adapter cable. The mics are tied to my studio mics so that when my wife and I speak they feed our voices to the far end. Everything else goes to the mixer and then to recorder in full fidelity.

see:

http://wizardstoybox.com/pcast/PodStudioDiagram1.jpg

Tom
http://looseendsshow.com

This is all very good and sounds very much likewhat I am doing and/or setting up. I have the cartboard and skype on a laptop and I am getting a mixer to blend everything before it goes into my M-Audio Firewire Solo.

I just cant get Skype to record both halves of the conversation. I tested it with my USB headset mic but I would rather feed into Skype with the AKG Perception I use to record the rest of my show and monitor it on the regular studio headset, so, it sounds like your set up (above) will help me tremendously. Thanks!

I just can't get Skype to get both halves of the conversation and I thought it was a setting adjustment or something. People using just USB headsets and a laptop use Skype and get both halves of the conversation, don't they? Or are they adding more equipment I don't know about?

Thanks for your help!

guscave

Jan 12th, 2006, 08:09 AM

Everything feeds out of the PC to the mixer. I use two cheap PC condensor mics into the mic input on the PC, using a simple "Y" adapter cable. The mics are tied to my studio mics so that when my wife and I speak they feed our voices to the far end. Everything else goes to the mixer and then to recorder in full fidelity.

see:

http://wizardstoybox.com/pcast/PodStudioDiagram1.jpg

Tom
http://looseendsshow.com

I like your set-up, but don't you get a doubling efx on your voice if you have 1 mic (your AKG) going to the mixer and then another (cheaper mic) going to your PC. I would think that the latency on the pc mic would result in that signal feeding back into your mixer to be a few miliseconds behind your AKG mic.

podcastrant.com

Jan 12th, 2006, 08:54 AM

tab,

If you're talking about recording both sides of the conversation you need to run your sound output back in through your soundcard or your mixer. You can also use Audio Hijack Pro or HotRecorder. I use HotRecorder and am happy with it.

If this wasn't what you were talking about then disregard.

tabulator32

Jan 12th, 2006, 09:21 AM

tsidock

Jan 13th, 2006, 12:57 AM

Wildebeat,

I agree, you get diminishing returns for money spent. I listen to many serious podcasters who use skype, and the quality is managble for our intent and medium. There are many approaches to recording near end and far end as seperate audio streams, the Broadcast Hybrid is probably the summit for serious podcasters. You will still need to manage a lot of cable and feed a mixer board. Given that, Skype and a mixer looks pretty attractive and sounds pretty good as well.

Tom

tsidock

Jan 13th, 2006, 01:06 AM