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?"

Comments

Re:Really

[dottedlinedesign]

If you're running this on a Mac, try Audio Hijack Pro. It's the best recording tool I've used for recording audio from applications. http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

Identify the source of the problem before solving

[gregmac]

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.

Ask at Gamerswithjobs.com

[Lucan Varo]

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.

two options

[eobanb]

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)?

Re:two options

[Kadin2048]

Why not do both?

Record using Audio Hijack, but also put a splitter on the line out jack and run it into a tape recorder / DAT / MD / whatever. That way you have a backup -- if I was doing some interview over Skype that I was really concerned about getting a recording of, I'd make damn sure I was recording it in more than one way.

(Actually I probably wouldn't use Skype in the first place for anything that important, I'd just use a copper POTS line since I think it's more reliable and there are fewer failure points ... but that's a separate issue.)

If you grab the line out from the computer via a tape recorder, you won't get the whole conversation; at most you'll get the other party's responses at full volume and then your own at some very reduced volume (by design, the sound of your own voice from the mic is suppressed in the output to the headphones), but what they're saying is the most important thing to record. You can always re-record your questions, if you're doing a Q&A style interview. Actually this is basically SOP in the commercial radio/TV world: you concentrate on recording the guest during the actual interview, and then you go back and re-record the questions if any of them were muddled, etc. It can get into ethical gray areas at times (I've seen it go way beyond 'gray'...), but it's how it's done. When you see an interview on 60 Minutes, those shots of Dan Rather looking all interested and concerned, shown while the other guy is talking, are likely as not probably just some B-roll they took when the guest wasn't even in the room.

Your best bet when doing an interview, just as a general technique point, is to get the guest to repeat back the question as part of their response, and put it as a statement. So instead of this:
You: "Why do you like foo?"
Them: "Well, because of bar and baz, of course."
You have it go like this:
You: "Why do you like foo?"
Them: "I like foo, mostly because of bar and baz..."
The advantage of the latter is that you can easily cut your question and only play their response to the audience, whether video or audio, saving a lot of time. And, in the case of the whole Skype/VOIP recording, it only requires a record of the incoming half of the call.

Gizmo!

[tb3]

Try using Gizmo instead of Skype. Gizmo has the built-in ability to record conversations to disk.

Two Soundcard Solution

[Anonymous Coward]

You need 2 soundcards.

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 .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.

Get rid of Skype

[Oliver Wendell Jones]

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.

Record from the wave-out.

[Jacques Chester]

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.