Recording Skype Conversation

[shiraz]

Hi Folks,

I just found and have installed Audacity, I wonder if I could record the conversation on chat softwares such as skype. Nevertheless I have tried audacity while testing the conference with my colleague - however, the microphone is being recorded but Audacity is unable to capture the playback, may be I am doing something wrong .
Here are the specs. about my machine:

Audacity Software version: 1.3.12 Beta
Sound: Coexant Sound Card and using Plantronics USB microphone for telephone conferences
OS: Windows 7, 64 bit

Thank you for any help in advance.

Cheers,
Shiraz

[steve]

however, the microphone is being recorded but Audacity is unable to capture the playback, may be I am doing something wrong

No you're not doing anything wrong. Skype automatically grabs the microphone input as an exclusive input, so you can only record one side of the conversation.

It is possible to record Skype using virtual sound card applications such as Total Recorder or Virtual Audio Cable, or there are specialist Skype recording applications such as Pamela, but I'm not aware of any free applications. Recording Skype is a specialist application. There are probably limited demos for these products.

If anyone mentions "SkypeCap" I will ban them without hesitation - I've no idea if SkypeCap is any good or not, but this forum has been thoroughly spammed with this product. The forum policy regarding spam is one of zero tolerance.

[shiraz]

Thanks steve for your prompt reply.
I am really interested in having something which captures but not limited to skype sound but also other voip softwares like evo (used at cern) or go2meeting.
I even can go for commercial solution, do you have any recommendations?
You may send me personal message.

Cheers,
Shiraz

[steve]

Total Recorder is probably the best known, though I've not used it myself (I primarily use Linux).
For other suggestions see here: http://tinyurl.com/yabwhxe

[kozikowski]

One note while you're searching, the capture software packages come in two forms. The simple cheap ones grab all the sound they can reach and jam it into one sound performance. Those are OK, but much more useful are the packages that put your voice on the left and the far voice on the right. You can split the two tracks up in Audacity and clean up and match the two tracks before you make them into a PodCast.

The packages that marry the two tracks die easily. You can't make up for the far side voice being low or damaged.

One serious difference between the two cheap Pamela applications and the two expensive ones is exactly that. Pamela Business and Pamela Professional produce a Near and a Far track for post production.

Koz

[danny007]

As an alternative to skype (and its also free), I've been using oovoo. The big advantage is it has a recording function built in. I haven't tested it with audacity yet, but I'm confident it won't be a problem as I don't think oovoo grabs the microphone for exclusive input as skype does.

[kozikowski]

<<<I've been using oovoo.>>>

Can it talk to Skype clients?

Koz

[steve]

Can it talk to Skype clients?

The same question was asked on the ooVoo forum and the answer was...

Thanks for your suggestion and I will forward it to the relevant people within the company.
It is possible to send an invitation to join ooVoo to your Skype contacts from the 'Contacts' menu and to use web video calls or video chat rooms with people who are not yet on ooVoo.
I'm glad to hear that you are satisfied with ooVoo and feel that the product's quality and features are better than Skype.

Thanks for using ooVoo!

Marvin

Or to put it more succinctly, the answer is "No".

[kozikowski]

We're able to rapidly weed out the balkanizing, walled-off applications by insisting each enthusiastic sales person be able to call our many existing, stable, already installed applications.

It's rapidly getting worse. Each day brings a software package that fixes one small problem in the older systems -- but only talks to its own machines.

Sorry....

Koz

[steve]

It's rapidly getting worse. Each day brings a software package that fixes one small problem in the older systems -- but only talks to its own machines.

The power of the advertising buck - and all of these applications can talk to each other: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Open ... P+Software
Tell me again, why does everyone use MP3 rather than Ogg?