Skype to VoiceMeeter to Audacity for podcast

I have guests calling from cell phones or land lines to my Skype number. I have recorded straight into Audacity
with the following specs: Skype – Samson mic and Samson output (speaker) and then, Audacity – Samson mic and Realtek Spakers. There is a hum I hear and the guest is low volume but not distorted.
I need to eliminate the hum and amply guest voice. I tried other combinations – S and R and S and R, etc… but they muffle the guest and give me a hum. tips on doing this straight from Skype to Audacity using my Samson microphone are welcome.

however, I have tried using VoiceMeeter and it has been a failure. I cannot figure out what good it is or how to set the parameters correctly to filter on its way into Audacity. Do I need VoiceMeeter? How does it help? How can I set the controls properly? Please advise.

if not VoiceMeeter, is there some other software our forum recommends instead as the go between from Skype to Audacity?

Or is Skype a fool’s errand and I need to get some other service that will provide clear input to record from a podcast guest phoning in. And that is the key thing: my guests are not tech savvy (neither may I for that matter). I don’t want them having to go to a website or computer or app. I want them just to dial a phone number that will take them to wear I can answer and record them.

I thank the community for any assistance they can offer.

Patrick

I tried other combinations – S and R and S and R, etc…

You probably shouldn’t abbreviate or use colloquialisms in a post. Anybody from any location and any age can post an answer and we all have to know what you’re talking about.

is there some other software our forum recommends instead as the go between from Skype to Audacity?

I’m going with no. Everybody wants the one button press to record Skype calls and I haven’t discovered one yet. Even getting Skype to record your show, which is only available if everybody is on Skype, has its problems. Someone posted to complain about sound quality which was terrible.

I do record phone calls and Skype, but it’s not one button press and I don’t do it on the Skype machine or the phone. I use an Olympus TP7 microphone and either a stand-alone sound recorder, or a computer with a mic-in.

I wear it in my ear.

This will work with anything I hold up to my head from a rotary dial telephone to an iPhone 7000.


Skype is a little involved, but that can be done with extra hardware.

The trick, as with the special microphone, is not use the Skype computer for anything but Skype.

This was an engineering experiment, so it looks like a typhoon disaster, but I connected the Skype computer on the right to a sound mixer, and then on to Audacity on the left. The only thing running on the right-hand computer is Skype, or any chat or conference connection.

The computer on the left can be any sound recorder. It didn’t have to be a second computer, but I had an older computer available. Again, remember this is an engineering test.

Denise and I are four time zones apart.

You can’t shove everything into one computer because for Skype to work right, it has to take over all your sound pathways. It’s not optional. That’s how it gets rid of background noises, echoes, sidetone/directional voice leakage, and distortion.

If you find a good way to do it, post back. You’ll be a hero.


Post some of your low volume, hummy voice. We might be able to do something with that. Post ten seconds. Don’t cut it short.

https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-post-an-audio-sample/29851/1

Koz

Oh. Wait. There is one. Since you’re on Windows, there is Pamela.

https://www.pamela.biz/

It’s not free. You’ll be writing checks. I think there is a damaged free version.

A caution, only the top two, Business and Professional will give you two different sound tracks to edit. The other two smash both voices together and what ever the mix is, you’re stuck with it.

Again, post back if you get something to work.

Koz

for those who want to know how this worked out.

I ditched VoiceMeeter.

I route Skype to Audacity. I have Samson microphone that is using the loopback feature from WASAPI. I make my setting starting with WASAPI. Then I choose the input as – not Microphone Samson – but rather, Speakers Samson Meteor Mic. This only shows up as an option if you are set to WASPI

this lets me continue my conversation with my guest who called in via Skype. However, while my guest can hear me, the Audacity program does not record my portion of the conversation. Therefore, it does not pick up me breathing or burping or sneezing or anything. In the edit phase, I go back and record my questions separately and splice them into the episode.

Not the most ideal outcome but it works.

Thanks for the post back.

If you’re wearing headphones (that increases the clarity of your voice for the guest) you could also record your portion of the interview on your phone.

SmartphoneVoiceRecording.JPG
Just like that. Flat on the desk. That may save a ton of post production work. The two sound tracks will have the same show duration, or close enough that you can figure out the miss and apply one “standard” time correction.

I know you’re asking yourself, “How good could that possibly be?”

If you have a quiet, echo-free room, not dreadful.


If you don’t write down the questions, the worst that will happen is you will have a sound track of exactly what you said.

One up from that would be an actual sound recorder in the room with you.

You rediscovered the technique that Hollywood uses to shoot insanely complicated movies with one camera.

Koz