Recording Phone calls

[kozikowski]

Total Recorder and Audacity?

Windows is supposed to be a Multi-Tasking, Multi-User, do dah, do dah, but you quickly find out that isn't nearly as true as it is in the other OSs.

You may be able to get Total Recorder to do everything, but it's not free.

Koz

[JeffB]

Someone's blog reply entry:

Link

BY JOAN MINGUET AT 06/27/06 03:22 PM

I try to phone via VoIP all the phone calls which I want to be recorded and I record them with the free opensource "Audacity".
The pros are basically, that it's easy and that the conversation is already digitalized.
----------------------------------

I have my doubts, though. I haven't seen any one else make the same claim & she doesn't say how she did it.

Another article on the web:

How to Podcast, Record Phone Interviews, and Have Your Own Talk Radio Show (for Less Than Fifty Bucks)

recommended purchasing Hot Recorder for $14.95 to do the recording and then editing it in Audacity if need be.

Yet another web page, Recording Phone Calls with your PC ,was high on Audacity, but recommended a different program for recording the calls, Call Soft Pro

Audacity does have a "Phone" input source. I wonder if it might work through the sound card if you have the phone line and a phone plugged in to a fax/modem card on the computer. It's obviously something that is possible if several other software packages are doing it, and it seems as if the pieces all seem to be in place, or almost in place for Audacity to do so.

[JeffB]

It looks like Google has a beta version of "Grand Central" available now that will allow one to record phone calls.

http://www.grandcentral.com/howitworks/call_record

It is by invitation only, but I applied today and received an invitation today as well. It has some pretty slick features, and I don't know if the recordings have beeps in them or not, but it might be worth a try for someone wanting that particular feature. Audacity, of course, could be used to edit the recording later, ie. boosting or reducing the volume etc.

It's pretty nice in that it will allow you to use one number and have it ring any phone you want and even to switch back and forth between different numbers.

[prouddad]

I use an old, but simple and reliable technique to record teleclasses that I participate in.

I have a second wall jack for one of my phone lines. When I want to record a call, I simply connect a modular phone chord to my tape recorder on one end and plug it into the wall jack on the other end. I then dial my desired number. When the phone is ringing, I press record on my tape recorder and it begins recording whatever is happening on the line that I've used to dial out.

Once I've completed my recording, I connect my tape recorder to my sound card and use Audacity to record the phone call.
I then export Audacity's recording of my tape and convert it to an mp3.

Simple, cheap and effective.

:D

[komikal]

I am using a 100% VoIP phone service through a messenger client. I have tried multiple methods to record the phone conversation however, I do not receive the inoming sound. I can hear the call through speakers/ear phones. However, the recordings are not beign picked up on the computer itself.

When I look at "Recording Devices", I only have 3 options. MS Sound Mapper - Input, Mic, and Line In. Is there a way to get audacity to record sounds coming across the sound card? I'm not looking at recording outbound voice, just the other end of the call.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[kozikowski]

<<<I press record on my tape recorder and it begins recording whatever is happening on the line that I've used to dial out.>>>

That's true up to a point. The audio (and signaling and DSL and battery and ringing current) are available on any standard phone line--in both directions. However, anybody trying this for real will rapidly find that the near phone is enormously louder than the far phone and if the room doing the recording is noisy, the noise will be a significant part of the show. A trick on the older 2500 series desksets (black telephone) was to unscrew the mouthpiece so your breathing didn't record. And don't be holding the phone wires if somebody rings that line. That's 70 volt ringing voltage and it will knock you on your butt.

What kills everybody on internet phone calls is the necessity for the VOIP software to cancel echoes and avoid feedback. When was the last time you picked up a phone and had it scream or howl at you from feedback? Never, right? That's not accidental.

It is required that the VOIP software maintain an iron grip on the sound services to make calls user-tolerable and that usually makes it really difficult to grab both sides of the conversation at the same time.

Everybody noticed right away that there are no How-To documents posted on the internet.

I can imagine a software package like WireTap or Total Recorder grabbing the incoming side and making a sound file out of that, but you're right, a lot of the "Mix Out" tricks used to record internet radio stations stop working with VOIP.

The desperation method is to have a recorder (second computer) and microphone sitting on the desk recording you live and the other computer speaker sound. Those two can be balanced by moving back and forth and adjusting volumes to sound like a normal conversation.

Write back if you get one to work.

Koz