Recording Audio Interviews Over the Telephone -Sound Forge - PC

Subject:Recording Audio Interviews Over the Telephone Posted by: jimmyg Date:2/14/2003 1:07:45 AM Hi: I'm in the process of lining-up experts to interview on the telephone and I will be making the interviews available on cassettes. 1) What hardware device or devices do you recommend to record the conversations from my telephone into Sound Forge on my laptop computer in order to obtain the best sound quality? 2) Would I be connecting the input for the above hardware into my microphone input or my line in input on my computer? 3) I've sometimes heard similar interviews where the person doing the interviewing is actually not being recorded through the phone line but instead is being recorded through a microphone which produces a much cleaner sound for his voice. What's the best way for me to make this happen? Would I need a software program different from Sound Forge in order to do this? Thanks. Jim
Subject:RE: Recording Audio Interviews Over the Telephone Reply by: rraud Date:2/14/2003 11:37:12 AM In the pro audio realm Gentner www.????.com and JK Audio www.jkaudio.com as well as others, manufacture telephone interfaces to pro and semi-pro audio levels. There are I beleive fax/answering software that let you record phone conversations. Someone else may be able to give you specifics on those.
Subject:RE: Recording Audio Interviews Over the Telephone Reply by: philsayer Date:2/16/2003 3:05:38 PM Hi Jimmy, It partly depends on how much money you have to spend, and what existing equipment you have (or have access to.) 1) What hardware device... to record the conversations from my telephone into Sound Forge...? There are very cheap mikes available which attach to the receiver and will pick up the incoming and outgoing conversation effectively, but the quality will not be very good - you'll both be recorded by Sound Forge in "telephone quality" which has very narrow bandwidth. If you have a mike/mixer/headphones setup which feeds into your PC, you would still be able to record the incoming voice in this way (with your voice going into the higher-quality mike) but ideally you'd buy or hire a device called a telephone balance unit. This is what radio stations use for taking calls to air. It does a number of things - it balances the levels between you and the phone conversation, it feeds your voice (or mixer out - probably the same thing in this instance) to the caller and adjusts the incoming level to avoid feedback - trickier than it may sound. The problem with a mike attached to the phone's earpiece, of course, is that unless the mouthpiece is near you, the interviewee won't be able to hear you - if it's too close, then the sound from the earpiece will be picked up by the mike recording YOUR voice... 2) Would I connect.......into my microphone input or my line in input...? It depends on the mike and whichever setup you'll be using - probably mike in, though a mixer will almost certainhly be line in. 3) .....the person doing the interviewing is... being recorded through a microphone... I've covered that point above, in the second para of my reply to Q1. If you'll be selling the cassettes for profit, it may be worth investing in hiring a pro studio, who will almost certainly get a good sound for you, but they'd need to have a tele-balance unit (TBU) If it's a not-for-profit project, though, and resources are limited, try the "sucker" mike idea. Please don't be tempted to connect wires from the phone's earpiece to the input of your sound card - not sure about where you are, but here in the UK, there's a meaty 50 volts DC floating around in there...! In essence, though, the sound quality on a phone is very poor, for all sorts of reasons, and there's nothing you can do about the interviewee's contribution. But I think the overall effect is more listenable if your own voice is recorded with a decent-quality condenser mike. One final option - again, only if budget permits. A device called an audio codec (a piece of stand-alone hardware, not to be confused with the codecs processing various sound files in your PC) will give studio-quality speech at any distance, using digital phone lines (ISDN) If your interviewees could find a local studio or voice-over artist thus equipped, they may allow your guest to use their facilities for a modest sum. The drawback is that you will need one, too - and ISDN lines! Most voice-over people and commercial producers have an ISDN/codec set-up - if you're in or near a major city, you could ask around if you could use theirs, and ask how much.... I have let people use my studio in this way, but usually in the evenings. And I make sure they pay for the ISDN call - it's two calls, remember - one for each digital line!

Hi Jimmy,

It partly depends on how much money you have to spend, and what existing equipment you have (or have access to.)

1) What hardware device... to record the conversations from my telephone into Sound Forge...?

There are very cheap mikes available which attach to the receiver and will pick up the incoming and outgoing conversation effectively, but the quality will not be very good - you'll both be recorded by Sound Forge in "telephone quality" which has very narrow bandwidth.

If you have a mike/mixer/headphones setup which feeds into your PC, you would still be able to record the incoming voice in this way (with your voice going into the higher-quality mike) but ideally you'd buy or hire a device called a telephone balance unit. This is what radio stations use for taking calls to air. It does a number of things - it balances the levels between you and the phone conversation, it feeds your voice (or mixer out - probably the same thing in this instance) to the caller and adjusts the incoming level to avoid feedback - trickier than it may sound. The problem with a mike attached to the phone's earpiece, of course, is that unless the mouthpiece is near you, the interviewee won't be able to hear you - if it's too close, then the sound from the earpiece will be picked up by the mike recording YOUR voice...

2) Would I connect.......into my microphone input or my line in input...? It depends on the mike and whichever setup you'll be using - probably mike in, though a mixer will almost certainhly be line in.

3) .....the person doing the interviewing is... being recorded through a microphone... I've covered that point above, in the second para of my reply to Q1.

If you'll be selling the cassettes for profit, it may be worth investing in hiring a pro studio, who will almost certainly get a good sound for you, but they'd need to have a tele-balance unit (TBU)

If it's a not-for-profit project, though, and resources are limited, try the "sucker" mike idea. Please don't be tempted to connect wires from the phone's earpiece to the input of your sound card - not sure about where you are, but here in the UK, there's a meaty 50 volts DC floating around in there...!

In essence, though, the sound quality on a phone is very poor, for all sorts of reasons, and there's nothing you can do about the interviewee's contribution. But I think the overall effect is more listenable if your own voice is recorded with a decent-quality condenser mike.

One final option - again, only if budget permits. A device called an audio codec (a piece of stand-alone hardware, not to be confused with the codecs processing various sound files in your PC) will give studio-quality speech at any distance, using digital phone lines (ISDN) If your interviewees could find a local studio or voice-over artist thus equipped, they may allow your guest to use their facilities for a modest sum. The drawback is that you will need one, too - and ISDN lines!

Most voice-over people and commercial producers have an ISDN/codec set-up - if you're in or near a major city, you could ask around if you could use theirs, and ask how much.... I have let people use my studio in this way, but usually in the evenings. And I make sure they pay for the ISDN call - it's two calls, remember - one for each digital line!