Hi!
I am hosting a podcast where I interview people over Skype. I’d like to use my condenser mic (have a mid-range one) and have that come through the audio along with the interviewee’s voice via Skype.
My understanding is that I need a mixer with an AUX-Send capacity.
I currently have the Lexicon Lambda Desktop Recording Studio http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Lambda-Desktop-Recording-Studio/dp/B000FFWZKI - will this allow me to do that?
If not, what device do you recommend? Thanks!
D.J.
Maybe it’s a little more complicated than that.
Skype likes to take over the computer that’s hosting it. That’s the only way they can guarantee all the magic environment suppression, echo cancellation and auto volume controls needed for a good, comfortable conversation. So you can establish a conversation in Skype and connect the headphone or speaker of the computer to one input of a sound mixer and mix that with your voice to record the combination – on the second computer.
You can’t go back into the Skype computer with the mixed show for recording because that’s where your Pre-Fade Mix voice is going so your interviewee can hear you ask the questions without their own voice returning back to them as a very delayed echo.
I don’t know if you ever had a conversation with bad echo cancellation, but it drives most people nuts.
That’s the usual problem when people want to use Skype or other telephone or cellphone recording as part of the show.
You can certainly cheat and do it like the big kids. Do the Skype calls and post production the day before the show and fold them in as simple sound files, either live or as a post, post edit.
When you hear someone doing a “live” interview, it’s only live about a third of the time. The rest of the time, the announcer is reading questions and it’s all cut together in an editor. Please note they never interrupt each other.
I need to stop for a second and look at your equipment lineup.
Koz
I know this is a different world, but I shot a double header a bunch of months ago. A station at the other end of the state called one of the managers here and they had a nice chat on the office telephone about Hollywood animation and production. He was recording his voice with a studio sound system and I was recording our manager with a studio sound system – and Audacity, of course. I saved my sound file and posted it to him. He combined both files and the show sounded like the two were having a nice conversation over a cup of Starbucks.
The voice on the telephone was completely irrelevant except for coordination.
Of course that takes planning.
Koz
If you use two computers, one for Skype and one for recording, then the the Lexicon Lambda Desktop Recording Studio would probably be an excellent choice.
An ideal solution would be to wear a headset microphone that is plugged into the Skype computer.
Your condenser mic and the output from the Skype computer would be plugged into the Lexicon Lambda.
The Lexicon Lambda would be plugged into the recording computer.
The recording would then have a high quality recoding of your voice on one track, and the other person’s voice (in “Skype quality”) on the other track.
This is the “professional” way of doing it and it should work extremely well.
Trying to do everything on one computer is problematic because you are trying to split audio streams to different applications and Windows does not have that capability built in.
An alternative method that requires just one computer is to record with a dedicated Skype recorder such as “Pamela”.
Thanks!
I can definitely do the two computers setup - and that makes perfect sense.
If I use Pamela (their website isn’t totally clear), will I accomplish the same effect?
In other words, between the options (two computers vs. one computer with Pamela), what would you prefer? Or would it be exactly the same?
For the first reply, thank you for the thoughtful response. I’m not yet to a point of doing a re-ask of questions to make it smooth (NPR style), but it’s a heck of a good idea and if my interviews get all jumbled, I’ll definitely do that.
D.J.
Personally I’d go with the two computer method if that is a practical option (you have two computers available).
This is a more flexible set-up and easier to manage because each computer is doing just one thing. You can tweak each computer to do that one thing as well as possible.
There is a trial version and a free version of Pamela. http://www.pamela.biz/en/download/
The free version is limited to 15 minutes recording time. There may be other limitations.
Pamela will record the two sides of the conversation on separate Left / Right channels (which is what you want - you can then split the stereo track into two mono tracks with your voice on one and Skype on the other). It may be worth trying the free version, but watch out for Skype changing your recording settings - Skype has a habit of overriding your settings with those that it wants to use - you will need to check and double check the Skype settings to ensure that it is using the microphone settings that you want. If you can get it to work well then you may decide that the (small) fee for the unlimited version (pamela call recorder) is worthwhile.