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I will be recording interviews and producing spoken-word CDs. What do I need to record phone calls so that I can get a WAV file to edit in RealBand?
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Best to use something like voipstunt or Skype and use the pc for making your phone call. In your volume properties, select options, properties, record and select stereo. Press record in whatever audio software you use
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If recording from a standard telco-line telephone, the device of choice is the stick on inductive Phone Pickup. May be getting hard to find these days.
Avoid attaching wires directly from phone line to soundcard, while it may look like the way to go, there WILL be isolation problems as well as the fact that the Ringing circuit is like 90 volts AC. There are audio transformers designed to connect directly to phone lines like that.
What type of phone system will you be recording?
That is important to know before describing the proper way to capture the sound from the device(s).
--Mac
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>>>...What type of phone system will you be recording? ...>>>
I initially told my client that we would need to hire a studio that has a T1 hookup. The local talk radio station offers this service at $150 / hr. Not a bad price, but over budget at the moment.
So I am looking for ways to use the land line and sound card that I already have.
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flatfoot, i too recommend skype in combination with freecorder 4. both are free skype-to-skype. skype gives you the bonus of a video recording of the call as an option. obviously, both parties need to open a free skype account at www.skype.com and start talking. freecorder 4 is a free firefox plugin but i'm sure your browser has an equivalent. of course, you can record with most sound card's mixer, but freecorder 4 adds a time stamp title so you can quickly find it again. hth on second thought (where irishmen excel) you can do it in yahoo messenger or your im app as well. voice quality should be adequate for most needs.
Last edited by Don Gaynor; 06/24/11 07:57 AM.
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I use voipstunt and with that you CAN phone pc to landline. I pay about $10 every 3 months and get free landline calls almost anywhere in the world
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Radio Shack has a stick on phone microphone or a snooping device you hook up to your phone line . Seen em on ebay used for cheap ! We listened to our kids calls and recorded them as they came in on a cheap recorder. Tee-Hee ! Raging Kegger's foiled again Ha ! 
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Thanks everyone. I had one of those Radio Shack things years ago. I had thought these were discontinued sometime back in the Eisenhower administration. I will certainly get a new one today.
I will be investigating Skype too. Thanks again.
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Well God knows I am certainly not affiliated with any policeing organization - but the first thought that came to my mind when this thread was started, and has not been pointed out by anyone up to this point, is be sure to check you local and state laws on wire tapping. i know you california folks are a bit crazy (all the sun)....Just sayin... 
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That just occurred to me, too. In Georgia one party must know that the call is being recorded. In most other places all parties must know. (Don Imus got his start making prank calls on the radio. This legality put him out of that particular business. Listen to "1200 Hamburgers To Go" for an example.) There used to be a requirement that a tone must sound at certain intervals to indicate that recording was in progress, but I haven't heard that in decades.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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>>>...be sure to check you local and state laws on wire tapping...>>>
Thank you for your concern. Of course I will have written permission from all parties before proceeding.
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Mac,
I wonder if an old ham phone patch unit would do it for him.
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The ham phone patch stuff, while it likely will contain some rather nice audio transformers, would likely also have to be modified to work with soundcard input and so would be outside the scope of this thread IMO. Besides that, there is the first hurdle, that of finding one that is still working or repairable, then comes the necessary modifications, by the time all that was done it wouldn't be worth it IMO.
And not all of 'em were designed to do fullrange audio, because they didn't have to do so.
The stick-on rubber suction cup induction pickup would be the simplest way to go here, with an adaptor to connect to an already existing recording mixer into the soundcard. Don't be misled by the low cost of the things, you get the fullrange of the phone without electrically hooking to the phone line, plus you get complete electrical isolation - no chance of Ground Loop prob. there, plus the fidelity is as good as the phone line can provide. These thijgs were used by many a commercial broadcaster back in the day, because they are cost-effective and able to get the job done.
If you really want the inductive pickup to sound GREAT, find an older *original* telephone model to use it on. Here in the states, that would be the Western El;ectric model 500 or equivalent. "Old reliable" as the commercial used to call it, those things are built like tanks and have some really great audio for spoken voice/telephone recording purposes. A plus is you can throw one through a plasterboard wall and pick it up and still use it as a telephone again...
--Mac
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I got one of the induction coils from Radio Shack. Sounds good so far, except it hums a lot when it is near to the computer. The easiest would be to use it with my handheld recorder, but I have to adapt it from mono to stereo.
I cant count on my talent having Skype, or anything else. I like the versatility of the coil and a handheld unit.
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