audio recording help

toasterman

Hi everyone,
I'm trying to record something in a particular way.. any help much appreciated.

I want to record a telephone conversation - me and another person.
I want my side to be recorded on a microphone I have here, and the other side to be recorded from the phone socket..much like you hear when people phone up on radio phone-ins. One side sounds like a phone call, the other side sounds like a studio.

Anyone got any idea of an easy way to do this?
I was wondering about one of these -> http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ITAG=FAQ&ModuleNo=29908&doy=28m11#faq plus one of those devices that lets you record phone conversations.

I plug their side into one mic input, a microphone I have here into the other side, and feed the line-out into my PC for recording?

The only problem I can imagine is if one is massively louder than the other - you can't adjust either - it just boosts both a certain amount.
Knowing my luck, one would be a lot louder than the other.

Can anyone think of a better/easier way to do it? I can afford to spend a little (maybe £50 max), but not too much - hence why I'm not buying a mixing desk with a telephone input.

I've got until Saturday to come up with a way of doing it :eek:

Phil-T_2

Could you not get a modem in the PC with some telephony software and add a mic to the PC then record the conversation on the PC.

That way you'd get the input from the phone and your voice from the mic.

Seems fairly simple to put together to me.

Phil

xJonny

My suggestion is that you call them using Skype or a similar program and get a program that can record "What U Hear" - which basically records everything that you might be able to hear.

To do this you will probably have to unmute hearing your microphone from the volume control. Firstly test that you can hear yourself from the speaker, then make it so that your speakers aren't heard through the microphone and make sure you can record "What U Hear".

I'm not sure if it is possible, I think it is, but there is a freeware program called Audacity that is a sound editor - that includes recording.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

toasterman

Nice suggestions both of you.
I was thinking about Skype actually, especially as it'll be free to do.

I tried recording "what you hear" but it didn't seem to record my own mic oddly enough if I select that option.
So I wired my laptop with skype on, from headphone socket, to the line-in on computer2 and recorded there.

Then it seems to record both sides.. although if I connect my headphones into computer2 and talk, the fact that it's going thru several pcs and coming back to me gives me a terrible echo. I don't think its recorded though, so it might just about...

It's likely to be a one off.. or at least next time I'll have plenty of warning first

raptorman

Just a little word of warning though, I think it is against the law to record a telephone conversation without the other persons consent.

toasterman

Thanks for that. It's worth noting.

It's not a real conversation.. its a kinda sketch thing, where one person pretends to be a caller, and the other pretends to be a host....hence why it has to sound like one side is recorded on a phone.

To be honest I just tried a skype call and the sound quality was superb.. far too good to be believably over a phone. I might have to take the pc apart and find that old modem from back in the days of dialup, after all.

Donnie

I'm a little too tired(and busy) to explain it in detail, but it's just a matter of equalisation.

http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_phone.html

Sooler

Just record both voices normally, then use Audacity or similar to alter the voice for the telephone part.



http://videomaker.com/community/forums/topic/phone-conversation-help

"Telephone lines (old analog POTS lines) will filter out all signals below ~240 Hz and above 3.2 kHz. To simulate a phone line, bandpass everything within those ranges. Shrink the bandpass to make it sound older."


http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

bookduck

you mean like this?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=30352&doy=29m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=46963&doy=29m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=30350&doy=29m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=3519&doy=29m11

or one of the above with a local microphone on the second stereo channel.

Quaint1

Skype for Windows has a voice recorder built in - it's a cut down version of a product called Pamela and works really well; I use it to record interviews for a podcast I produce - I occasionally have to do a little volume adjustment in an external sound editing package, but the end result is pretty good!
Au Res.,
Paul

toasterman

Thanks for the above guys. I'd really rather not add a telephone "effect" to it afterwards by fiddling with high and low filters. It's a conversation that could be between 10 and 15mins long, and theres going to be 2-3 of them. I don't really want to have to go through each, and add filters to one person's lines for the whole thing. I want myself to sound good - the other person has to sound distorted.

Skype is fine if I wanted it to sound good, but part of the joke is the poor quality.

I think I may have found a solution with products from Maplin.
I bought a telephone recorder device, and also a microphone mixer (£27 total). The telephone recorder and a normal microphone goes into the mixer and then the line out of that goes to my minidisc recorder/pc.



I think there could potentially be an issue with echo, because all of the telephone recorders seem to be designed to record both sides of the conversation, and I need my side to sound like it isn't on a telephone. I've got a plan for that though.....

Me with microphone and recording device connected to landline.
I'll get the other "actor" (used in the loosest possible sense) to phone my landline, and answer. That's him being recorded fine.
Then I'll put the phone on mute, use my spare mobile to phone him on another mobile we'll borrow from somewhere or other.. that way he can hold two mobile phones and have the phone conversation, I can talk normally and he can hear me.....
I can't think of an easier way to do that, sadly...