Recording from a phone line

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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Yada on February 7, 2009 at 5:19pm

I call the phone via Skype and use Call Recorder for Skype on Mac: http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/. It's something like $15. I used it twice and it works great for what I had to do, however I haven't had to use the latest version heavily yet. I once produced a weekly transcontinental radio show with Skype, but that was on PC and using a plug-in called Pamela. It was buggy but did the job, eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on February 8, 2009 at 1:46am

Thanks Megan and Suzanne. I just signed up for a Skype account the other day -- seems pretty cool. I'll have to check out Call Recorder and Cabcast.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Jusko on March 11, 2009 at 5:52pm

I'm totally going to display my ignorance with this question, but so be it....It sounds like you are trying to get away from exactly what I am using, a digital recorder that plugs into the telephone headset and gives me a wav file of our conversation. What is the drawback of that?

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Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on April 1, 2009 at 10:55am

None. What are you using, Jill?

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Permalink Reply by Jill Jusko on April 17, 2009 at 12:39pm

I take that back. My Olympus VN-4100PC doesn't plug directly into the headset. It plugs into a little RadioShack device that is attached to the headset. But it's easy.

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Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on April 17, 2009 at 12:49pm

Ah... I was looking at one of those Radio Shack gizmos online the other day. How's the sound quality? Sounds like a simple solution.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Jusko on April 17, 2009 at 1:57pm

You know, sound quality is so subjective. Seems pretty good to me. Better than the last recorder I had (and I can't remember what that was).

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Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on April 17, 2009 at 3:30pm

I just picked one up at Radio Shack. Unfortunately, it looks like it only works with recorders that have a mic AND remote input as you need to plug it into both. Out of the four digital recorders I've got kicking around, none of them have a "remote" input. They had another one that was a cheaper version, but I think that one had a larger jack on it. Pain in the ass, I tell ya.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Jusko on April 17, 2009 at 3:34pm

I don't even know what a remote input is. Mine plugs into my mic and that's it.

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Permalink Reply by Jill Jusko on April 17, 2009 at 3:37pm

Then you plug into the handset and the connect the phone cord. (Unless by 'remote' you mean a microphone input. You do need that.)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff McMahon on April 22, 2009 at 1:52am

Yeah, Noah, you may have gotten the wrong one. Radio shack sells two versions. The one with two jacks is for a traditional tape recorder. That being said, I never found I actually had to plug in both jacks. They have another one that works with a single minijack.

Here's a blurb on it: Wireless Phone Recording Controller: Using this device is probably the best way that you can record your cellular phone calls. The only requirement is that you have a 2.5mm jack on the phone and a hands-free headset. This device plugs in between the 2.5mm jack and your handsfree headset. You plug the other end into your tape recorder, stereo or PC. It works great and makes perfect quality recordings. As good as the quality normally is on your cellular phone, anyway. You can buy this at Radio Shack for $21.99. The part number is 17-855.

Here's what I do: I have a headset that normally goes to my cell phone. I put the radio shack tap between headset and cellphone and plug the cord from the tap into my computer. I record it on the computer, a Mac, using WireTap Studio, which is completely cool audio software that's easy to navigate and lets you edit the file, trim it, mark it, etc. Best of all, the audio file is on your computer, which makes for easy transcription. You can store it in the same folder as all the other files for that story.

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Permalink Reply by Noah Bombard on April 22, 2009 at 7:35am

Thanks, Jeff. I went back and picked up a different one, which worked ok, but didn't even see the one you're talking about. I just found it on their Web site, though. The one you're talking about is exactly what I need. The one I bought plugs into a standard land line headset and picked up a wicked high-pitched whine I couldn't seem to filter out. Besides, I don't have a land line at home and neither did the reporter I was trying to setup with this, which limits you to office calls.

Here's the recording we ended up getting with it.

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