recording phone conversations for training DVD

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joeman

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If anyone can help with any of my questions, I'd appreciate it!

I am researching the best way to create a high-quality-as-possible recording of telephone conversations. These phone conversations will be part of a professionally done training DVD.

I have a JK Audio “Inline Patch” telephone audio interface box that will output the conversation (does JK Audio produce quality equipment? Who is the best in the biz?) (will this do a pro recording for me?). JK Audio Tech Support tells me I should upgrade to their “Broadcast Host” device for a higher quality recording (do you agree?). Tech Support also tells me that using the “Broadcast Host” requires some additional equipment (mike and headphones for the person making the call, and an “Imic” (USB audio interface) between the “Broadcast Host” output and the recorder input, to maintain the nice stereo separation.

And what is the best way to record this? I’d like to stay as portable as possible. I know I can buy a digital recording device (any recommendations that fit my application well?) to record to, or record to a laptop. If I record to a laptop, is the only laptop requirement that it has a sound card, or do I need some special audio recording software such as Audacity, also?

I understand the best final format for this sound track should be a WAV or MP3 file. Should I really end up with a WAV file, or will an MP3 file give me a high quality output? I know a WAV file is much larger than an MP3; is there any problem – size-wise – creating a WAV file that may go on for an hour or more?

Thanks.
 
joeman said:
If anyone can help with any of my questions, I'd appreciate it!

I am researching the best way to create a high-quality-as-possible recording of telephone conversations. These phone conversations will be part of a professionally done training DVD.

I have a JK Audio “Inline Patch” telephone audio interface box that will output the conversation (does JK Audio produce quality equipment? Who is the best in the biz?) (will this do a pro recording for me?). JK Audio Tech Support tells me I should upgrade to their “Broadcast Host” device for a higher quality recording (do you agree?). Tech Support also tells me that using the “Broadcast Host” requires some additional equipment (mike and headphones for the person making the call, and an “Imic” (USB audio interface) between the “Broadcast Host” output and the recorder input, to maintain the nice stereo separation.

And what is the best way to record this? I’d like to stay as portable as possible. I know I can buy a digital recording device (any recommendations that fit my application well?) to record to, or record to a laptop. If I record to a laptop, is the only laptop requirement that it has a sound card, or do I need some special audio recording software such as Audacity, also?

I understand the best final format for this sound track should be a WAV or MP3 file. Should I really end up with a WAV file, or will an MP3 file give me a high quality output? I know a WAV file is much larger than an MP3; is there any problem – size-wise – creating a WAV file that may go on for an hour or more?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Disclaimer... I have no association with any of the websites mentioned nor have used any of the noted gear. All of what follows is portable.

Your requirements are identical to a lot of v.o. professionals. For an association of these people who may be better able to answer your questions consider www.radiodaddy.com.

First, as you know you need a telephone patch. Consider the Circuitwerkes MicTel. It is completely portable, and as an added bonus works with cell phones that use plug-in headsets.

The MicTel inputs analog and outputs analog so you would either need a digital recorder such as the Fostex FR2-LE or an external A/D/A interface to a computer such as a SoundDevices USBPre.

Personally I'd lean towards the USBPre if I was going to be using a laptop.

With the USBPre you would not need a 'soundcard' in your laptop, and if you already had one the USBPre is reputed to be an excellent bit of gear and would most likely do a superior job. It also gives you a lot of control over the audio.

For recording software Sony SoundForge Audio Studio will most likely meet all of your needs. It only records two tracks, which is all that you need. Something like Reaper would be massive overkill.

For maximum portability you might benefit from a battery distribution system. Essentially this bit of gear powers your setup from a common... much larger... battery which eliminates the need for a bunch of small 9V or AA. Strictly speaking it's not necessary but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

Don't forget your headphones.

Lastly, a field mixer bag designed to organize the cables and protect the components from the weather would be of value.

Luck.
 
You DO know that is illegal in most countries.

Why don't you just have two actors read a scripted conversation into studio microphones? The quality will be far better and no one will know the damn difference.
 
appreciate the help

wheelema, really appreciate the time and effort you took to put that together. Thanks.

And yes I realize there are legalities involved.
 
What is illegal about this? Just cause we will be doing this soon.
 
moresound said:
What is illegal about this? Just cause we will be doing this soon.
Click to expand...

The only 'legality' that I am aware of is that both parties must be aware of the recording. And in Arizona as long as you are the owner of one of the phones being used even that requirement doesn't exist!

Heh heh heh...
 
You could try and see if you can do it with Skype. It may be that you can record right to a program like Cubase in your computer using a mic-in input, I haven't looked into it but at the very least you could record out of 1 laptop into another (shouldn't have to tho).

The audio quality of Skype is much better than regular phones, although if you call from Skype to a regular land line phone it goes through the regular phone system at some point so you are limited by that.

I am in Skype-learning mode and you can check out what's happened so far. I just picked up phone #2 today, here's the thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=3314032#post3314032
 
legalities of recording phone conversations

My lawyer tells me it's against Florida law to record someone on a phone conversation without their permission upfront. We discussed the possibility of simply getting written permission from the person called, after the fact (that works alot better in what I am doing, as these calls are sales calls). Her judgement was that this would probably be workable, but technically speaking, you could be sued by a person if they were not told/asked at the outset that the conversation was going to be recorded, even if you agreed to destroy the recording.
 
Just include a standard disclaimer that 'all calls are recorded for quality assurance purposes'.

People are used to hearing that line of bullsh... uh... crap.
 
dintymoore said:
You could try and see if you can do it with Skype. It may be that you can record right to a program like Cubase in your computer using a mic-in input, I haven't looked into it but at the very least you could record out of 1 laptop into another (shouldn't have to tho).

The audio quality of Skype is much better than regular phones, although if you call from Skype to a regular land line phone it goes through the regular phone system at some point so you are limited by that.

I am in Skype-learning mode and you can check out what's happened so far. I just picked up phone #2 today, here's the thread:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?p=3314032#post3314032
Click to expand...

Seems that the possibilities of Skype will be endless.
 
moresound said:
Seems that the possibilities of Skype will be endless.
Click to expand...

You might also look into Google Voice / Gizmo5. Gizmo5 has been acquired by Google (just as Grand Central had been acquired earlier) and I expect interesting things in the near future.
 
joeman said:
My lawyer tells me it's against Florida law to record someone on a phone conversation without their permission upfront.
Click to expand...

I've been interviewed by my insurance company over the phone and they had a simple procedure you could use:

At the first of every session, the first thing a guest says is: " My name is Joe Schmo and I understand that this conversation is being recorded". That would be if the person's name was Joe Schmo of course... :o

That should, I think, get you out of any feeling that there was any illegality to it. In the big picture, unless somebody sued somebody none of this would ever come up.

moresound said:
Seems that the possibilities of Skype will be endless.
Click to expand...
I want Skype to come up as an input choice on Cubase. :)

You know, damn near everything I've imagined has come true. I had what Skype is becoming in my head about 25 years ago. I was tinkering with taking apart phones and wiring them into my patch bay, exactly what's going on with Skype.

I've visualized that where the MIDI thing will go is not the shit that MIDI is in everybody's mind. MIDI hasn't happened yet. They had electric guitars a long time before Jimi showed us what they could do. What happened with MIDI is shameful and embarrassing, it wreaks of ignorance. Someone will come along and say "no, you fucks, do this!" and our jaws will drop and we'll say "shit, I didn't know you could do that...".

I've visualized that someday I'll be on stage with 2 droids that will listen and react like good players, and probably when I die, I'll become one of them.
 
dintymoore will live on in a droid performing and recording till the end of time.
 
This is easy!!!

Use a mobile that lets you listen to music/hands free kit, and use the mini jack where the headphones would normally go to hook into the recording unit. At the same time, use a mic to pick up the person speaking into the hands free.

Done.
 
Or, just use a speaker phone and record it all with a mic that way.
 
What about me,i use imcapture. com IMCapture for Skype.It's prog for record audio and video calls.I like this simple prog.
 
Quality and phone probably shouldn't be used in the same sentence. There's a lot of processing that's done to compress the signal. It is illegal without a disclaimer. Old answering machines would beep every 30 seconds if you were recording with one of those. You could do this type of stuff in the old days with a VOICE modem. But most sold these days are DATA only modems. And of course that assumes a ground line which no one really has these days, except for businesses. Skype is probably a good option. Best quality will be two actors in separate booths reading a script. Not that it'd sound much like a phone conversation though.

EDIT: legal or not, I'm sure that you can visit a spy type shop and they'll have the hardware for it. It's quite common for parents to spy on their kids these days.
 
joeman said:
My lawyer tells me it's against Florida law to record someone on a phone conversation without their permission upfront. We discussed the possibility of simply getting written permission from the person called, after the fact (that works alot better in what I am doing, as these calls are sales calls). Her judgement was that this would probably be workable, but technically speaking, you could be sued by a person if they were not told/asked at the outset that the conversation was going to be recorded, even if you agreed to destroy the recording.
Click to expand...

That might cover the actual recording per se.... but what about the intended use of the actual recording - ie. being committed to DVD as a training thing. I'd imagine you'd need a more specific permission structure for that. Most call centres do the "your call may be recorded for training purposes" thing, but training purposes = talking to the rep about how to improve in their job, and training purposes = putting calls on DVD and distributing them are two completely different things, I'd imagine.

Can't help you with the tech aspects, but sounds like El-wheelie knows his stuff..

Cheers
 
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