telephone conversations

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eclips1

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Today an freind came to my studio and wanted me to transfer telephone conversations he recorded using his voice mail on his phone line, and edit them. Said its for legal purposes. After telling him to check w/ a lawyer(which he haden't yet), I told him I won't edit anything out of the recording, but that I could clean it up a little and put it on CD for him.

My question is, what would be the best way to transfer telephone messages from a voice mail box to CD. I figured I could use a speaker phone and re-record the messages through my mic into my pc, or just use the speaker on a regular phone into my pc. I'm wondering if there is any way to take the signal going into the speaker on the phone and run that into my pc instead of re-recording through my mic? Any suggestions???
 
RS used to sell a "phone mic" - a small mic with a sucker on it that you could stick to the speaker end of the phone. I have no idea if it works well or if it's still available, but a short jaunt over to your local Radio Shack will tell ya!

Bruce
 
I'll do you one better.

RS also makes a converter with an RJ11 jack on one end and a 1/8" mono jack on the other with an RJ11 port in the middle.

I've used this myself when recording interviews over the phone.
 
Goto Start/Accessories/Phone Dialer.

Call the voice mail device, and record it into your sound editing program.
 
Or......

You could buy a cheap answering machine (for about $10 - $20) that uses a cassette or a mini cassette.

Call the voicemail number/hit the record button on the recorder/record the voice message/then transfer it from tape to your computer.

Or......

The way I do it is to use a program by RC 500 Technologies (I can't for the life of me remember the name of the program, and of course I don't have it right in front of me, right now :) ).

Anyway.....

I have the program on one of my laptops. So, I plug the laptop into the phone line and have the program call my voicemail. Then, I have Sound Forge record the voice message. Then I put it on a CDRW, so I can transfer it to my studio computer.

I will post the name of the program as soon as I remember it.

spin
 
Bruce; when I said go to radio shack and listen to the microphones there I never thought you would be reccomending them to others.

But that is also probuly the best solution for doing the recordings

The telephone conversation on "Telephone Lines" by ELOwas done with a small diaphram condencer next to a phone, and turned out ok.
 
Sorry Darrin, I have to disagree

I've used those suction cup mics and there are inherent flaws.

Not the least of which is that they will pick up ambient room noise.

What I suggested is superior. The connection goes direct from the telephone's base unit to a tape recorder or other device with a 1/8" phono input. This is a direct recording and I've thrown my suction cup mic out ages ago in favor of this gizmo.

I use it alla time.

;)
 
Im curious

Does it still sound like a phone recording, you know like in the movies, or is it a clear sounding phone sound?
 
How it sounds

Have you ever heard a radio talkshow where the guest was on the phone? It sounds like that. No, not as bad as the megaphone effect that you get when regular listeners call in, but a reasonably clear un-midrangie sound.

If it was for effect, I'd recommend talking in a normal voice through a megaphone, but this is for some kinda court battle, so I would think a noiseless clear sound would be best for the original poster.

:) :) :)
 
I use a hybrid of what's been discussed.

An answerphone; using the speaker in same picked up by a pair of Rodents through a tube pre then S/PDIF coaxial to a CDRW.
Sounds very realistic; i.e true to what you hear through an ordinary phone. And by converting them to lo-fi .mp3 files they don't lose much and become very attachable to an e-mail.

The 21st century blackmail threat delivery methodology is taking shape as I type.
 
darrin_h2000 said:
Bruce; when I said go to radio shack and listen to the microphones there I never thought you would be reccomending them to others.

But that is also probuly the best solution for doing the recordings

The telephone conversation on "Telephone Lines" by ELOwas done with a small diaphram condencer next to a phone, and turned out ok.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm hardly "recommending" Radio Shack mics here - after all, this is simply trying to record a phone conversation - not hi-fidelity by any means!

But actually - I think some of the other methods mentioned here are better - for this particular application, a solid, clean, direct signal via the phone line will be infinitely better than a mic with a sucker on the end of it!

Bruce
 
Thanks for all the feed back

I went and picked up a gizmo w/ a phone jack coverted to a 1/8" jack which I then adapted to a 1/4" and ran it through my pre-amp. I even did a few telephone skits for a couple albums with it and it sounds really good(much more real than recoding through mics and trying to get that telephone effect with plugins). Cost like 20 bucks @ radio shack.
 
What's up Eclpis1, I was about to post you in this thread to see if it worked for you.

But..... I see that it did work. :)
 
I'm actually curious about what he was going to edit in the conversations.

"I did not agree to pay you $1000 for the Behringer 12 channel mixer."

[snip-snip]

"I did agree to pay you $1000 for the Behringer 12 channel mixer."
 
BBB's post is funny! I was thinking the same thing. I'll tell you this - don't do SHIT with it if you're in a state that considers non-consensual phone taping "wire tapping." If its a message on an answering macine, it chouldn;t be a problem. If its an actual conversation, it may be a big problem. Talk to the lawyer yourself so you get the skinny before you make yourself an accessary.
 
Good point! I did chk ahead of time and my state is a one party state, meaning as long as one person on the line knows, its okay.

He didn't want anything edited out, he just wanted the coversations boosted #'d and put on CD.
 
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