Can record Skype call OR myself-not both w QjackCtl Audacity

[steve]

Most times when you do this you're sending the caller back to himself and it creates echo problems

That shouldn't be a problem because Skype is only half-duplex (one direction at a time).

[kozikowski]

Skype is only half-duplex

I don't know that I entirely agree. As far as I got in my tests I was able to establish a full-duplex voice connection with my poor overworked colleague in New Jersey. We were able to interrupt each other and I have clips of us both on line speaking at the same time. At another, later time, I screwed something up and the connection was far, far worse. That one was clearly half-duplex. I could hear English phrase switching and the line would periodically drop dead as Skype path-managed over four time zones.

One thing that messed us up was Skype had a major version upgrade in the middle of our tests.

"Do you still have a green logo over your opening screen?" "No, I have a whole new decision panel there..." "Where [email protected]#$ did they put the phone icon?"

I think they know now when both parties are on headphones or headsets and there's zero chance of feedback and echo damage. Then they let fly.

Koz

[elaterite]

elaterite wrote:
as I've not got it working exactly the way I want, but I'm getting close.

How would you ideally want it? Perhaps I can give some tips/suggestions.
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steve

Steve:

It's an external mixer issue, I think. I should be ale to hear myself in the headphones. I haven't worked on that yet though.

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What does it sound like at the other end of the Skype call? Most times when you do this you're sending the caller back to himself and it creates echo problems. If the caller isn't on headphones, you can get some very entertaining feedback problems.

You are on headphones, right?

Koz

Koz:

Yes, when doing podacst I have always required my co-host and guests to use either a headphone and mic, or a headset. You'll get the echoes and feedback otherwise (most of the time anyway).

I recorded a test call yesterday and all went fine. Haven't tied a Skype conference call as yet however.

But I hear that with Ardour I should be able to record each caller on a separate track. At least one person running KX Studio claimed they could do that. So that's my next steps, but I haven't had a lot of luck running Ardour, it's interface is not nearly as intuitive as Audacity's. But then I missed the whole Audacity configuring thing that Steve pointed out and which was causing me problems in the fist place. There's simply too many different ways to do all of this. It's confusing... o_0

But thanks for all your help guys!

[steve]

I should be ale to hear myself in the headphones.

You mean that you "want" to hear yourself in the headphones?
I presume that you also "need" to hear the other caller in your headphones?

The tricky part of using Audacity with Jack is getting Audacity to connect to the right inputs.
As you will no doubt have noticed, Audacity's "portaudio" connections only show up in QjacCtl when they are active. When record/playback stop, these connections disappear. When you press Play or Record, new portaudio connections are created, so QjackCtl cannot automatically restore the previous connections.

Fortunately Audacity can restore its previous connections - you do this by selecting the required input/output in the Device Toolbar.
Unfortunately, you can only select ONE input device and ONE output device in the device toolbar.

So, here's the trick - use a "dummy" software device. JackRack (available in most Linux repositories) is ideal.

1) Start Jack with QjackCtl
2) Launch JackRack. You don't need to load any effects into it - just leave it as an empty effects rack and it will have 2 inputs that go straight through to 2 outputs.
3) Launch Skype.
4) Use the QjackCtl "Connect" panel to make the following connections:

• Hardware input to hardware output (allows you to hear your microphone)
• Hardware input to PulseAudio Jack Source (allows your microphone to be used by Skype)
• Hardware input to JackRack input 1. (we will record your microphone in the left channel of Audacity)
• PulseAudio Jack Sink to Hardware output (allows you to hear their mic via Skype)
• PulseAudio Jack Sink to JackRack input 2 (we will record their microphone in the right channel of Audacity)

5) Check that the set-up so far is working. Of course, Skype needs to be configured to use PulseAudio and PulseAudio configured to connect Skype to Jack, but it looks like you have worked out how to do that bit You should be able to make a Skype call and hear both your own mic and the other parties mic in your headphones.
6) Assuming that 5) is OK: Launch Audacity.
7) Set the Audacity Device Toolbar for:

• Host: Jack Audio System
• Recording input: JackRack
• Playback Output: Hardware output.
• Number of channels: 2 (stereo)

DO NOT CLICK ON THE RECORDING METER (that will probably cause Audacity to crash).
8) Click the Record button, then Stop, then Ctrl+Z to Undo. Now that Audacity has connected to Jack it should now be safe to click on the recording meter so that you can set your levels without crashing Audacity.

You are now ready to record.
When the recording is complete, you can split the recorded stereo track into 2 mono tracks - one with your voice and one with their voice. http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/sp ... racks.html