Using OS X Yosemite: Recording issues using Skype

[mshowell]

I recorded a podcast while on Skype using Audacity. My voice is fine but my guests voice sounds "Tinny" like she is talking into a tin can with a high pitch. Is there any way to select her voice and mellow it out so it doesn't drive every cat in the neighborhood crazy?

[steve]

"Call Recorder for Skype" by ecamm gets good reviews from what I see. They do a free trial version.
It's very difficult to get decent Skype recordings without specialist Skype recording software because of the way that Skype controls the sound system.

[kozikowski]

You are probably recording the Skype error content, not the actual voice. Skype does not "Play Well With Others." I did it with two computers and an analog sound mixer. Most people are going to want a purpose-built app.

Koz

[mshowell]

I did install ecam and set it to record automatically when a Skype call began, but it didn't record or if it did I can't find it. I guess I'm stuck with a badly recorded interview.

[kozikowski]

I guess I'm stuck with a badly recorded interview.

Is this the first time you tried a capture?

Recording Skype is not fun.

Set the whole thing up as if you were going to do a production and have a friend do a test call from the garage. That should tell you the file structure, locations, process and pitfalls of the software.

Even if you do all that, it still might not work. Skype constantly changes their process, protocols and voice management. For a brief time, the Windows Skype capture company lost the upgrade battle and they just told everybody to sit and wait until they caught up.

I know you were chuckling when I said I used two computers, but that's the only sure way to get a clean recording because you're not depending on software shenanigans and upgrade races.



Once you get bubbly, honky, wine-glass voices, that's the end of the world.

Koz

[mshowell]

Is this the first time you tried a capture?

Yes it was.

Which recording software would you recommend?

I have been recording my shows using free conference call.com but once again my voice is fine but the guest's voice is not so great.

I also have a Presonus Fire Studio Project but I have yet to see its advantage.

Thanks for your advice and help!
I appreciate it!

[kozikowski]

Thanks for your advice and help!

We haven't been much of either so far.

I found the sound test I did with the two-computer setup. I'm in Los Angeles and Denise is somewhere in New Jersey. Four time zones. Her voice sounds slightly funny because all she did was open her tiny laptop, accept the connection and started talking. Her microphone is going through a little voice processing.

She's also wearing headphones—required.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/clips/De ... lyCut3.mp3

Two notes: This is a non-rehearsed first-time-out test. I included the music to illustrate what you can do when your music playback, the Audacity record and the Skype connection are all separate and don't interfere with each other.

It's not unusual to do it this way. That's what's happening here on the Pando Podcast.



There may be others.

Nobody's shocked that you can record your own voice. That's a service of your own computer. The far side is a service of Skype and they do not like to share.

Nobody is likely to pop up and tell you a foolproof method of self-recording both sides. As above, that's only going to work until Skype decides to change something.

It's not hopeless, however. You can do a Skype podcast without going through Skype. Each performer records their own voice, saves a high quality WAV of the performance and then posts it to you to jam together into a single show.

That's what this is.



This was a little heavy and crazy because it was a broadcast radio production, but I recorded the Los Angeles portion in that conference room and shipped my sound file to somewhere in another state to integrate with the interviewer—who was recording their own voice.

As you noted, it's not hard to record your own voice, so have each performer do that.

I understand if you're doing free-form interviews, different each week, that's not going to work. But then you're not doing a "simple" podcast any more, either.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Nobody wrote you need to record on Audacity. I've produced respectable voice recordings on an iPod.



That's being obsessive. It works parked face-down on the desk, too.

I have a tiny USB Memory Stick that happens to have a microphone in it. That quality isn't great, but it's probably better guest voice than what you were doing.

http://www.tmart.com/8GB-UR-08-USB-Digi ... fgodVWIHeA

Koz

[mshowell]

Nobody wrote you need to record on Audacity.

My poor recording which started this post was recorded on Audacity, and I was wondering how to fix a poor quality recording.

I like the separate recording idea and, but I don't trust my guest to get it right.

[Gale Andrews]

If you are going to quote someone, please make it a quote, or we can't tell who is saying what.

Post a sample of your unmodified bad recording if you like: How to post an audio sample.


Gale