Hi all, I want to record a zoom call, so that I can hear the other persons voice and also my own.
I found that the only way to record both is for me to record the WASAPI and set the recording device to speakers. Then in the microphone settings in Windows enable ‘listen to this device’.
The problem with this however, is that I will hear an echo of my own voice playing through my speakers.
I’ve tried disabling ‘listen to this device’, and then in audacity for the microphone ‘enable silent monitoring’, but it doesn’t capture the microphone.
The machine on the left is recording the mixer composite in Audacity and playing themes, stingers, and other music from iTunes into the show.
The machine on the right is playing the far side voice into the mixer and transmitting my voice and the music to the far side. That’s important because the machine on the right has to think that it’s the only computer in the world. It can’t share or manage sound pathways or services.
This is why Skype, Zoom, Meetings, etc, all designed and offered recording services very quickly when they were new. One of them, I think Zoom, will hand you separate sound files for everyone in your meeting.
Recording both sides of the conversation from home may not be impossible, but it’s close.
The connection software takes over the sound in your machine and you have nothing to say about it. There was one forum poster who dug into the machine and forced it to work, but he destroyed the voice quality for the other participants.
I know that looks like a mess in the picture, but I did a voice test with a friend four time zones away and it sounded like she was sitting on a chair beside me. You would never guess we were on opposite US coasts.
There is a Desperation Method. Set up in a quiet, echo-free room for open-air conversations. Just the laptop. No microphones or headphones. Set your Phone in the middle of the table to record the room. I use Lossless Voice Memo on my old iPhone.
We should remember that Audacity can’t be used for surveillance, law enforcement, or conflict resolution.
There are work-arounds but it’s a Windows limitation. By default, Windows can mix sounds for playback but it only records one thing at a time. That “one thing” can be the playback/monitoring mix… Loopback records everything you’re hearing out of your soundcard.
I’ve never used any of these things, but there is Pamela for Skype which MIGHT work with other applications. VB-Audio also has some tools for digitally routing & mixing inside the computer.
Another note that even with fancy software packages, it can matter which one you use first. There is a little digital fist-fight going on in there who gets to manage the sound channels.
Also, it can matter a lot whether you care what happens to your voice as it arrives at the far end. All these packages are doing direction management, volume setting/matching and echo cancellation. Everything is hooked to everything else. It’s not push this button and everything starts working—unless, as above, it’s a service of Zoom or Skype and you’re using Zoom or Skype.
And don’t congratulate yourself if you do get it to work. The phrase is “you got it to work this time.”
