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Recording Skype Audio for Broadcast?
Jennifer Leonard asks: "I'm in desperate need of securing a way to record my Skype phone calls at broadcast quality. I just purchased a Plantronics Audio.85 headset with noise-reduction mic and 32-bit DSP ('enhances the audio signal for superior stereo sound and speech recognition') and used it for a phone conversation that's intended to be played for a radio show. What I got was totally unacceptable: the audio quality is horrible! There's a constant droney hiss sound over the entire track, which just ruins the interview. Unfortunately, my radio station doesn't have the capacity to do pre-recorded phone interviews. This is why I've had to go about doing it on my own. So far, what I've tried...sucks. Does anyone know how I can get broadcast quality audio by way of recorded Skype conversations?"
"Unfortunately, my radio station doesn't have the capacity to do pre-recorded phone interviews."
Your mother's basement is not a radio station.
It's a voip voice codec, not a broadcast quality one.
Where is the hiss coming from? Do you hear it while you're on skype, or is it only after you've recorded? Do you hear it when you record straight from your microphone, with no skype involved? What is the setup on the other end - do they have a good microphone and quiet environment to record in?
At this point for all we know, you're trying to do this while sitting in the middle of a field on a windy day, or next to your 8-harddrive 12-fan full-tower PC.
Figure out the exact source of the hiss, then figure out how to get rid of it.
Speak before you think
I reckon you should try asking at www.gamerswithjobs.com two guys there used to do a High Quality Pod cast Show together, via Skype.
Jennifer, you basically have two options. One would be to record it on your computer (which I assume is a Mac because that's what the Audio 85 is designed for) using a utility like Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba. The other way would be to use splitter cables for both the audio in and out and use a separate recording device, like a minidisc player or another computer, to record.
I'm curious though, what method for recording were you using before (that resulted in the hissing)?
Take off every sig. For great justice.
If you're using a mac Audio Hijack will let you record the audio at whatever quaility you want.
--aiee
Try using Gizmo instead of Skype. Gizmo has the built-in ability to record conversations to disk.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
there is a program that records every sound, emit from your speaker, or passing through your soundcard. find a program like that one. go download.com and search "sound record"
Er...
"I'm in desperate need of securing a way to record my Skype phone calls at broadcast quality."
Which bit of Voip, on a non-Free software source, over the public Internet, with (at best) semi-pro mikes/cans doesn't work at 'broadcast quality'? So much to choose from...
What's not to like? Remember -
'down the line is fine, in the studio is better' - and this on Skype?
If it's that important, look at Asterix/ VPNs/ Qos/ decent mikes/ leased lines/ non-live TX - don't blame the (crappy, closed, but still not your major issue here) software
You need 2 soundcards.
.90) and finally the Sennheisers. (no Altec Lansing) The Senns clobbered the other 2 so much, it's not even funny. Trouble is I'm not sure if they make them anymore. If you're serious though, please, get real equipment.
Soundcard 1:
- Speaker out: Not necessary
- Mic: Primary microphone (your best!)
- Line in: From Soundcard 2
Soundcard 2:
- Front out: To Soundcard 1
- Rear out: To Headphones
- Mic: Secondary microphone (your cheapest!)
To record:
1. Setup Soundcard 2 to use 4 speaker mode to output to both Soundcard 1 and your headphones.
2. Have Skype use Soundcard 2 to record from mic. Your chat people won't care if they have a crappy mic nearly as much as your audience.
3. Record (using Audigy / Garage Band / etc) using "What U Hear" or "Stereo Mix" on Soundcard 1. Make sure you have Line In and Microphone unmuted in your mixer.
4. If you need a wide range of volume control (I know I do), you can also use front/rear balance on Soundcard 2 to do it.
For those who need the explanation:
Soundcard 2 outputs the Skype conversation not including yourself. This goes to your headphones for talking, so you don't hear yourself. It also goes to Soundcard 1. Soundcard 1 then takes that and mixes it with your quality microphone to produce the mixed recording of both you and the people you're having a conversation with. The people you're conversing with will have a worse mic, but since it doesn't wind up in the end recording, what does it matter if they hear a little static?
THOROUGHLY TEST YOUR VOLUMES BEFORE ACTUALLY RECORDING. Get at least 2 or 3 other people to test it! Skype will normalize the other users' voice, but you need to make sure that the master recording (your good mic + Skype) is on the same level or it will be weird and hard to fix!
After recording:
Use your sound editor to clear out hissing noise or apply other filters to make yourself sound better.
In my experience, the best cheap PC microphone you can get are the Sennheiser PC series. (PC-130 or PC-150) I tried Logitech, Plantronics (the
Ok, there's a bunch of ways to do this... here's a couple easy ones:
c allrecorderforskype.html
Skype + Podcast Recorder
http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/001056.html
and for the Mac, Call Recorder For Skype
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/
enhances the audio signal for superior stereo sound and speech recognition
Wow, so it enhances the sound from both your left mouth and your right mouth!
Skype is noisy - period. If you listen to most podcasts that try to carry on "phone interviews" over Skype, you'll soon realize that they're all noisy, too.
Try downloading a copy of Ventrilo and running a small server and allowing your guests to log into that. It's a little less convenient than Skype, but the audio quality is limited only by the quality of your equipment.
Some MMORPG friends and myself use Ventrilo as our voice chat method. We tried using Skype the other night and not only is it adversely affected by the presence of other net traffic and high CPU use, it was N-O-I-S-Y, and so after about 3 minutes we switched back to Ventrilo and it was blissful.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
On Windows one can use the Sound Recorder applet that ships with Windows to record anything coming off the system-wide Wave Out device. On Mac OS X one can download programs that do similar. On Linux there're probably two or three godzillion programs for this purpose.
Although you are recording for a radio show, others ought to bear in mind the laws related to recording such conversations. In Australia at least it is an offence under the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth) to record a conversation conducted via telecommunications devices (including VOIP) without all parties giving their express or implied consent (s 289, 290). Check with your lawyer (since IANAL) to be sure of your position.
Oh, unless you're the NSA. In which case, do what you like, the judge won't care.
Classical Liberalism: All your base are belong to you.
You need to get Virtual Audio Cable (http://nrcde.ru/music/software/eng/vac.html). This emulates a virtual sound card that will let you record Skype calls.
I have had decent results with a little utility called Virtual Audio Cable.
I haven't used it specifically with Skype, but I have used it with half a dozen other audio applications.
You could use the noise reduction filter in something like Audacity. You highlight a section of the file that has no talking to take a profile of the noise. Then apply to the entire file.
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Systems Administrators: We read the manual so you don't have to.
I use an M-Audio Delta 44, and can broadcast Skype calls live to an Icecast stream server, works excellently. This uses the Winamp Oddcast v.3 dsp plugin. The plugin uses the cards mixer out, and since the card has 4 channel simultaneous input, I can play music AND talk on Skype when necessary. Also, Winamps disk writer plugin can write wav files of the calls to disk.
Audacity has a noise removal effect that was able to remove a really horrible hiss after a hybrid decided to stop behaving before an interview (shameless plug for University Radio Hilo). It takes a sample segment that should be the noise by itself and can then be applied to the rest of the file. It won't improve the source quality, but it might help with the hiss, especially if it's really constant.
What I got was totally unacceptable: the audio quality is horrible! There's a constant droney hiss sound over the entire track, which just ruins the interview.
If your broadcast is interesting and insightful, the poor audio quality will not prevent you from getting early converters.
Tat Tvam Asi
the sound could be coming from your microphone. the #1 best thing you can do for yourself is buy a USB microphone, it will eliminate virtually all mic noise
Skylook: http://www.skylook.biz/
Unlike other techniques such as Virtual Audio Cables, records the direct digital sound stream.
New beta version (1.6) records directly to PCM Wave files (one channel for each side of the call) - contact them for a copy of the beta (it's currently private).
...and in my opinion, the first thing you need to do is drop Skype and get something more robust such as Asterisk.
I am the system admin for Wide Awakes Radio and we use a combination of Asterisk and Icecast to make our streams work. Asterisk is capable of DIRECTLY sourcing an Icecast server so it's an all digital audio path.
I highly recomend you check it out.
MTW
I don't know Mac so good but I'd look for a master audio applet, and check if the volume control for your WAV output is set too low, and check the microphone applet's volume control for being set very high.
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
skype-rec works great.
I don't know how high quality this is going to be for you, but it may be a start. http://sf.net/projects/skype-rec/ It will record the calls for you, and can then convert them to mp3 or anything else sox can handle.
Jennifer,
Over the last two years many of the members of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) have been exploring options which would allow them to use VOIP for broadcast purposes. Skype is among the packages that some of our members have worked with.
If you are a broadcast journalist, especially with an interest in Public broadcasting, you should consider an AIR membership which will allow you to join our superb member e-mail list and access our mentorship program.
Seriously, if you need broadcast advice, talk to broadcasters, not computer geeks.
Three Squirrels
Virtual Audio Cable, $30.
Weigh the hassle, and messing around with hardware and software to fix Skype against just making an ordinary phone call over a normal wire.
The problem with skype, is even if you have your recording device set to wav or "what you hear" you will only capture one side of the conversation..
so many people have responded to this question that haven't actually tried recording skype at 'broadcast quality'.. so many ideas.. most of them fail miserably.. I've tested them already..
Skype DOES some strange things that prevent easy recording.. and even after getting the recording, having it sound bad.. I'm not sure what skype is doing yet.. but the "obvious" solutions absolutely fail..
2 soundcards may work.. but I know that skype doesn't like you to change your recording device.. and it will take control and change things on you..
The simplest solution I have found with absolute quality.. is to use a second machine.
Line out from skype machine to line in on recording machine..
or even mic in on recording machine..
it works absolutely..
other solutions have suggested running a recorded file through filters to clean them up.. the reduces quality.. and is a NON-OPTION for live broadcasts..
2 machines works absolutely.. not just theory..
Tip for *ask slashdot* posters - if you're going to submit a question of the form "how can I make my computer do X," you're much more likely to get useful answer if you tell us what kind of computer your using. If you're going to pose a question of the form "why doesn't what I'm doing work?" then you better give us a reasonably complete description of what you're doing.
If the quality you get through your headphones from both sides of the conversation is good enough, then messing around with hardware solutions is just silly - you just need to convince your software to dump your audio to a file. How exactly you do that will depend on your operating system, but it shouldn't be hard. (I could name several trivial ways to do it in linux - will that help you? We have no way of knowing.) If the remote audio isn't good enough, then you'll have to use something other than skype. See other posts for suggestions. If it isn't good enough on the local side, then the problem hasn't got anything to do with skype - you need to figure out what's wrong with your hardware.
Also, if you're in a genuine recording studio, you might want to think twice about starting out with a gizmo that has built-in DSP. Depending on the purpose for which it was intended, you may end up doing a lot of work trying to *undo* the artifacts the device injects into your audio. Using even a very modest studio mic and preamp going into a sound card will probably give you far better results.
I've heard a couple of people whinge about the sound quality on Plantronics headsets, so that might be somewhere to start looking for that hiss. I haven't tried that headset, but I use a Logitech headset for Skype and it seems to work well - I certainly get no problems with noise or hiss.
As for the poster's insistence on "broadcast quality", that's another thing altogether, since it means different things to different people. One shouldn't expect too much from a phone conversation by comparison with a recording made in a proper studio, after all. However, having said that, he might be able to filter the noise out of his recording by using Audacity.
You have many software options aside from the hardware ones.
For our podcast we decided to use Hot Recorder because it "just works",. It also nicely puts my voice on one channel and all the other Skype users on another. This makes later mixing easy if there is a volume mismatch. You can also just use the mix output on your soundcard but honestly its so much easier to use a tool thats made for this its silly to mess with it. For the $29 or so just do it.
If you want to hear an example the latest podcast on "Power In Practice" (warning,. nsfw audio) was recorded this way via a Skype 3 person conference call.
--> Fight tyranny and repression.... read
some key vords for googling:
Pamcasting-ReadMe File
for Pamela for Skype - Professional Version 1.3
Not to troll or astroturf...in full disclosure, I work at USR, but:
USRobotics has a new wideband handset that's Skype certified. I don't know if it will fit the bill for your needs, you might be able to mic up a hi-fi handset and get better results than digitally capturing crufty audio. These wav files reflect the difference between the lo-fi and hi-fi quality.
Shameless product plug: USRobotics USB Internet Mini Phone
I'll defer the Skype aspects of the question to the Skype-knowledgeable.
It is a smart idea to run recordings through something that gives good signal strength. (I'm sure your headset is great for real-time listenting, but voice mics are significantly better at recording good sound and ignoring noise.) If possible, using a true voice microphone (like a Shure SM58 (industry standard), or the Nady CM-100 (excellent value for the price))) will genuinely and dramatically improve the sound of voice. Also, using a microphone pre-amp will actually let you have more flexibility of tone and sound warmth. (I'm not associated with, nor do I have ties with Musician's Friend. I'm just using their links because they have good write-ups, good pictures, and the clientele usually writes good reviews. I also am not an affiliate.)
If you have recordings that have ambient noise, this is caused by a myriad of things. One of these is device self-noise, another is room noise, and another is microphonics, and another is line/proximity noise. If you spend a few minutes reading about these things, and get familiar with noise factors, your recording capability will improve dramatically - even with a small investment of time.
An excellent and easy-to-use sound cleaning (post-production) tool to remove tons of noises from your vocal recordings is Sound Soap. I can't begin to sing enough praises to this software for audio clean up. It has drastically improved many impromptu, non-studio recordings. The basic version of SoundSoap is great for the budget-minded or for the person who doesn't want to have huge, variable control of channels and frequencies for noise reduction (means: it's a great easy-button solution). The more advanced SoundSoap and suite is good for professional applications.
A Passionate Independent Musician
I was looking to do something similar - I ended up just ditching Skype, because the closed nature of it meant it just didn't have the flexibility to do what I wanted. Now I'm using SIP calls, with various programs on various platforms, using a server running asterisk to do the recording (and a huge pile of other things too). When you switch to an Open platform, it's much easier to do things like this.
If you *just* need to record, and don't have any experience with the other tools, it might be a lot simpler to just use one of the other suggestions, but anything going through skype is going to be much more limited than a Free solution.
One other thing to keep in mind is that phone networks just have cruddy sound - I'm sure you know that, but anything on a phone network isn't going to even approach CD quality or anything. This has nothing to do with VoIP, but is the nature of the telephone network that the VoIP service connects to.
(of course, calls going directly over VoIP, with no PSTN termination can potentially get much better quality by using codecs like speex, but that won't help if you need to talk to a landline).
Assuming that the story poster is connecting right through the PC without some weird PC-to-phone stuff (I'm not sure what the plantronics headset looks like), why not just get a soundcard that allows direct audio capture. I know my SBLive card has a "what u hear" option in the recording area, which basically lets you capture all the audio going through the card. This should give the same quality as whatever you're hearing during the actual conversation.
I produce a podcast called Intellectual Icebergs, and have gone through exactly what you're talking about. We've performed Skype interviews across the country and across the Atlantic, and have run into the quality issues that you describe. We purchased Pamela which pulls the audio straight from Skype's audio stream, so you don't have any issues with format conversion. Our guests have been at least smart enough to set Skype up on their personal computers, and used a variety of microphone setups.
Here's the caveats to this setup.
* You have to do a few trial calls to see how their levels are set. Something that sounds perfectly good in your headset may be stored far too quite in the audio files, and the only way to check them is to stop the call and listen to the file.
* Skype calls being stored by Pamela tend to cause severe jitter after about 20-30 minutes into the call. This can be fixed by hanging up and starting a new call.
* The resulting sound quality is still somewhat questionable, largely due to jitter. I wish there was a program that would record the voice on one side, send it over, and store it on both sides in original recorded form regardless of how late the data packets showed up, but that's not how it works.
* People really don't know how to talk into a microphone that's sitting on a desk. They tend to lean forward when they start a sentence, then lean back and talk more quietly (both and at the same time) as their sentences complete. This results in some highly varied volume levels in the resulting recording. Strongly suggest to the guest that they use a headset mike to at least limit the distance to the mouth problem.
The general consensus of the podcasters that I've talked to is that it's just not worth it. If you want to do an interview over Skype, then do this instead.
* Have both people run Audacity instead of Skype
* record both sides of the conversation into their own mono track while talking on a normal phone connection
* Have your guest email their side of the conversation to you
* Splice it together in Audacity.
The two tracks can be lined up fairly easily if you have the guest put the earpiece of their telephone to their microphone while you speak the word "beep" into your handset and your microphone at the same time.
I hope this helps. If you want further suggestions, I'm reachable from the email addresses found on www.intellectualicebergs.org.
-Robert Rapplean
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.