Recording phone interviews

[ratbagradio]

I record interviews for podcasting by using a speaker phone. The standard approach is to employ Skype for this and record direct to your pc but I record the interviews with a split stereo mic and a speaker phone.

My phone line is VOIP and I run one mic (on a short stand) to the speaker on the phone and the other is attached to my lapel. I've built a padded 'phone box' to house the phone and to reduce the ambient sound floor. (A milk crate wrapped in blankets)

Here's a image of another setup a guy uses:

This may seem an unusual approach but I like the freedom it offers me and the control too as I can easily setup a supplementary recording by using a mic from my iRiver ifp in case the original fails.

This way too I can employ the HiMD gain control to keep my sound levels balanced.Much better setup, I find, than direct to PC while being at the mercy of your programs.

The only drawback --aside from occasional bad connections on international calls -- is that I'd like to alter the phone sound by changing its pitch so that it is a little more normal.. Any suggestions? Analogue sound is analogue sound so there's that price you pay over a phone line. But if I were to fiddle with pitch

I';m also experimenting how best to present the mic to the speaker phone so I get the sweetest sound. I note that on radio -- talk back is heavily processed using very expensive machinery so I was wondering what my post record options could include.

Recording via PC to HiMD

But heres' another question which I've thought about. Is there a way that I can record a computer phone interview on HiMD directly.? Is there a way to set up my hardware so that I am attached to the MD ( earphones and microphone) and talk through that while the exchange is then handled through the MD into the computer and ,say, a Skype call.

I want my Skype phone call to come from the pc to the MD and I talk through the MD into the call rather than relying on the computer's microphone and audio/earphone setup. I want to avail myself of the HiMD technology in preference to what is on offer from my computer.

later I guess I should experiment with the Griffin iMac....to see where that will take me. But obviously for the tiem bing I'm trying to do all this on the cheap.

[bobt]

There used to be a suction type magnetic pickup that you affixed to a phone headset that plugged into your tap recorder, Radio Shack may still have a variant that would work, or else you could get a splitter cable and put one end into the MD.

Good luck,

Bob

[A440]

The suction cup is way too old-school, but Radio Shack does have a number of gizmos that connect directly to a telephone. One, for wired phones, simply goes between the curly cord to the headset and the base unit. They also have things that work with cordless phones. $20-$25

Once you have the recording, good old free Audacity has lots of filters and effects you can try.