Can the telephone incoming volume be raised?

[robls99]

Several of us meet weekly for a conference call and it is my job to record the call for later transcription and distribution.

My voice is always much louder than the incoming voices. Is there any way to boost just the level of the incoming voices relative to mine?

[steve]

Several of us meet weekly for a conference call

Is this on a telephone? mobile phone? Skype? Other?
How are you recording it?

[robls99]

steve,

This is on a plain old phone using a phone adapter straight to a computer mike input using Audacity.

[steve]

So the recording is a mix of your voice and the other peoples voices all on the same track?
If so, there's not a great deal that you can do about it, but you may find that "Chris's Dynamic Compressor" helps to even out the levels. http://pdf23ds.net/software/dynamic-compressor/

When you find the link, RIGHT click on it and "Save As". (left click will just display it as text in your browser).
The file should be saved as "compress.ny" and placed in your Audacity plug-ins folder. It will appear as "Compress Dynamics" in the Effects menu when you restart Audacity.
A suggested starting point for settings is to set the "compress-ratio" to 0.7 and leave everything else at defaults.

[robls99]

Steve,

Great, thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.

Rob

[kozikowski]

There is a dramatic jump in cost when you buy telephone equipment that can split up the conversation like in a call-in talk show. Those machines cost multiple hundreds of dollars.

However, if you use Skype or one of the on-line phone services, there are software packages that can record you on the left and the far side on the right, making it really easy to balance the volumes between the two sides.

If you just need it close enough for transcription, then yes, Chris may do it for you.

Koz

[robls99]

kozikowski,

Thanks for the additional info, it's good to know.

Rob