Problems with recording from skype

[frk Stang]

Hi all you clever ones!

I am duing interviews with skype and are having problems with the sound..
I have tried to change det settings, but can still not hear the person I am talking with when I am lisening to the recorded interview.
Any good sugestions?

[steve]

Audacity cannot record directly from Skype.
There are a number of commercial programs such as "Pamela" or "Total Recorder" that can record both sides of a Skype conversation - try searching Google - there's several commercial options and a few that offer demo or trial versions.
Alternatively you could try recording with a good ol' fashioned cassette recorder or similar.

[bgravato]

I'm assuming here that you are a windows user...

If by any chance you're a linux user I could think of a fancy way of recording pretty much anything using JACK.

And after writing this I went to check JACK website and looks like they have a windows version now too... If you feel like spending some time trying to figure it out you could give it a try...

[steve]

Unfortunately I don't think that will work.

Jack requires exclusive access to the audio device, and so does Skype. As indicated in this topic, "The problem is, Skype isn't jack-aware".

I've tried to get Skype working with Jack on a few occasions, but no joy - I'd be extremely interested to hear if anyone has got Skype to work with Jack.

Unless Skype decide to update their application for Linux (the current Ubuntu release version on their web site is still for Ubuntu 8.10) or release their code so that the open source community can update it (flying pigs) then I can only assume that running Skype with Jack is not possible. It's a shame because if Skype was Jack aware then yes you could easily route the audio through a recording application.

BTW, Skype works well with PulseAudio and usually sets itself up automatically. On Linux you can record the "answer" side of a Skype conversation quite easily by setting Audacity to record the "Monitor" in the PulseAudio set-up, but the local side is not recorded.

There IS a workaround on Linux, but it requires a fairly quick computer (my Dual-Core T3200 Mobile Processor 2.0 GHz laptop can just manage it).
Use Audacity to record "Monitor" using PulseAudio and run a second instance of Audacity in a "virtual machine" (I'm using a lightweight LXDE Linux based on Ubuntu 10.04 in Virtual Box). The second instance of Audacity can then be set to record the local microphone. When the call is finished the local microphone track can be exported and imported into Audacity on the host machine. I presume that the same method could be used on Windows, but I've not attempted that.

[kozikowski]

"Skype isn't jack-aware".

I prefer the more global "Skype doesn't play well with others."

You can depend on Skype taking over your computer and the normal sound services, both directions. That's what it does to make sure of it's success.

What the recording software packages do is create a new series of sound services in memory "virtual machine" and uses that to manage the performance. It is required that it does not conflict with Skype pathways or services.

So no, vanilla, off-the-shelf sound packages are going to have no idea what to do, or more normally, only record one direction and not the other. We get those people posting here.

Pamela Basic and Call Recorder are crippled versions of the software and most people find them to be not useful pretty quickly. Professional and Business are the only ones really useful. The difference between those two is minimal.

I know nothing about other packages.

Koz

[bgravato]

steve have you tried alsa to jack porting lib? I've managed to successfully use other non-jack-aware apps with jack that way...

On debian you need to install libbio2jack0 (on ubuntu should be something similar), and then add something like this to your ~/.asoundrc

Code: Select all

pcm.!default {
        type plug
        slave { pcm "jack" }
}

pcm.jack {
        type jack
        playback_ports {
                0 alsa_pcm:playback_1
                1 alsa_pcm:playback_2
        }
        capture_ports {
                0 alsa_pcm:capture_1
                1 alsa_pcm:capture_2
        }
}

I haven't use skype on linux for a very long time (I only use it occasionally on the mac).

IDJC, a software that I use for DJing/mixing/streaming, which uses JACK, is supposed to be able to capture audio from skype and put it into the stream... I never tried it, but because the option is there I assumed it would work...

[kozikowski]

The trick is to get the software to put Near on the left and Far on the right of a capture recording. That way you can apply filters, corrections, and volume management to one side without messing up the other. Get them both correct, meld them into one track and Export.

There are software packages that smash both sides of the conversation into one performance for capture and that makes post production all but impossible.

"Can I make the Famous Person's interview voice louder compared to mine?"

No.

Koz

[steve]

On debian you need to install libbio2jack0

Also available for Ubuntu - not tried it yet, but installing now - shall have to have a play with this.

The trick is to get the software to put Near on the left and Far on the right of a capture recording.

The clumsy VM workaround described earlier provides this - just that the "famous voice" and the "interviewer" are on completely separate recordings. They may drift out of sync eventually, but over a 10 minute Skype chat there's no noticeable drift.

[Vinny]

I use very good program to record audio and video conversations in skype. It is ............ I can advise it to you. Try.

[Moderator note: user banned for repeated spamming]

[steve]

I use very good program to record audio and video conversations in skype. It is IMCapture for Skype. I can advise it to you. Try.

No vinny you can't. You have been banned again. Please stop spamming the forum.

We already know that IMCapture is just a new name for SkypCap and that you have been repeatedly spamming this forum for over a year. That is NOT a good advert. Everyone hates spammers so they are unlikely to look kindly on a product that is "advertised" by spamming.

Also, SkypeCap is listed on the ffmpeg HALL OF SHAME for violating FFmpeg's open source license.
http://ffmpeg.org/shame.html