Recording A Cell Phone Call

[ryevick]

I have a BOSS PS-5 Pitch Shifter pedal I use with my guitar and I want to use it to prank call/play a joke on someone I know (haha... you'd have to know them... and I'm really bored)... anyway I want to record it on my Olympus VN-4100PC Voice Recorder... I bought a Radio Shack Wireless Phone Recording Controller 17-855 on ebay to record it but the problem I'm having is the headset I have has 2 1/8" output cables... one for the microphone and one for the headphone/ear. I need to be able to run the mic cable through the pedal (1/4" input and output) and then bring it back together with the ear cable, run them both into a Y adapter (2 1/8 female to 1 3/32 male) so I can input it into the Recording Controller. I haven't bought my adapters yet but I'm starting to doubt whether the layout of this will work when they get merged back together as the go into the controller and the into the phone. Any suggestions or ideas? Thanks!

Just FYI the jack sizes are:
3/32 stereo male from the controller to cell phone
1/8 mono male from the controller to recorder
3/32 stereo female input for the headset
both headset cables are 1/8 stereo male
both input and output on the pedal are 1/4 mono

[steve]

The main problem that you will have (apart from finding all the necessary adaptors) is that there is a huge level mismatch between the headset and the stomp box. Guitar effects are designed to work with signal levels much higher than a microphone signal. Also, if the headset uses an electret microphone (very common) then the microphone will require a voltage to work (normally supplied by the recording device).

Are you wanting to add the effect in "real time" (live)? Audacity does not do live effects.

[Trebor]

... prank call/play a joke on someone ... Any suggestions or ideas?

https://encrypted.google.com/search?q="voice+changer"

"Autotalent" is a free pitch changer plug-in which works on Audacity, but like Steve says Audacity doesn't work in real time, (i.e. live).

[ryevick]

The main problem that you will have (apart from finding all the necessary adaptors) is that there is a huge level mismatch between the headset and the stomp box. Guitar effects are designed to work with signal levels much higher than a microphone signal. Also, if the headset uses an electret microphone (very common) then the microphone will require a voltage to work (normally supplied by the recording device).

Are you wanting to add the effect in "real time" (live)? Audacity does not do live effects.

I have a plenty of microphones. I suppose I could run one through the pedal with a high z cable but I still need to get the mic and headphone cables merged back together into a 3/32 in the same way a cell phones headset's jack is wired. That I think may be the biggest problem, not sure. What do you think?

[steve]

I'm still not totally clear about what you are trying to do.
Are you wanting to record a funny voice that you can then play down the phone to your friend?

[ryevick]

I'm still not totally clear about what you are trying to do.
Are you wanting to record a funny voice that you can then play down the phone to your friend?

I'm wanting to use the pedal I have displayed above to modify the pitch of my voice in real-time.

[steve]

I suspect that the microphone will not work directly into the stomp box, so it's probably best to check that first.
Do you have some sort of amp and a guitar?
If so, connect your guitar to the stomp box and stomp box to the amp - check that it works correctly.
Now unplug the guitar and use a 1/8" to 1/4" jack adaptor to connect the microphone to the stomp box.
My guess is that it does not work.