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Communications Media Music

Recording Skype Audio for Broadcast? 71

Posted by Cliff from the you'd-think-something-like-this-should-be-easy dept.
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?"
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Recording Skype Audio for Broadcast? More

Recording Skype Audio for Broadcast?

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  • Identify the source of the problem before solving (Score:4, Informative)

    by gregmac ( 629064 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @09:39PM (#15796005) Homepage
    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.
    • 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 reco

  • Ask at Gamerswithjobs.com (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lucan Varo ( 974578 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @09:40PM (#15796007)
    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 (Score:5, Informative)

    by eobanb ( 823187 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @09:40PM (#15796010) Homepage
    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 [rogueamoeba.com] 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 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by eobanb ( 823187 )
      Actually, I just thought of another idea, which would be to just use a splitter cable and record the audio on your own machine from two sources at once (one from the USB audio in on the Plantronics set, and the other being one side of the splitter cable redirecting the audio out from Skype back into the analogue audio in on your Mac).

    • Re:two options (Score:3, Informative)

      by Kadin2048 ( 468275 )
      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
    • 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.
  • If you're using a mac Audio Hijack will let you record the audio at whatever quaility you want.

  • Gizmo! (Score:5, Informative)

    by tb3 ( 313150 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @09:42PM (#15796017) Homepage
    Try using Gizmo [gizmoproject.com] instead of Skype. Gizmo has the built-in ability to record conversations [gizmoproject.com] to disk.
  • 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"

  • Two Soundcard Solution (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27, 2006 @09:45PM (#15796034)
    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.

    • You need 2 soundcards.

      You need no such thing. There is always more than one way to solve problems, especially with computers. Here's two ideas that popped into my head with two minutes of thought:
      1) Hardware: Get a headphone splitter and a male-to-male headphone cable. (Oddly, I have the male-to-male cable, but not a splitter...) Put the splitter in the computers speaker port. Then your headphones/speakers in one split, and the male to male in the other. Plug the other end of the male-to-male into the wa

  • Lots of tools (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27, 2006 @10:05PM (#15796101)
    Ok, there's a bunch of ways to do this... here's a couple easy ones:

    Skype + Podcast Recorder
    http://www.henshall.com/blog/archives/001056.html [henshall.com]

    and for the Mac, Call Recorder For Skype
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/email_chat/c allrecorderforskype.html [apple.com]

  • superior stereo sound (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    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!

  • Get rid of Skype (Score:3, Informative)

    by Oliver Wendell Jones ( 158103 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @10:07PM (#15796107)
    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 [ventrilo.com] 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. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jacques Chester ( 151652 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @10:16PM (#15796142)
    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.
    • one can use the Sound Recorder applet that ships with Windows to record anything coming off the system-wide Wave Out device

      How?
      • These are the steps for Windows XP. The actual process varies slightly for different operating systems and different sound card drivers.
        1. Open Volume Control. (It's usually in Start - All Programs - Accessories - Entertainment; alternatively, Start - Run - sndvol32)
        2. In the Options menu, click Properties.
        3. Click the Recording radio button.
        4. Make sure "Wave Out Mix", or your equivalent, is checked.
        5. Click OK.
        6. Make sure the appropriate channel's Select check box is checked.

        Now, most apps that try to accept sound will

      • It's possible to record anything coming off the system-wide wave out device using the excellent open source and cross-platform Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]. Audacity will also allow you to edit the recording—including removal of noise.

        --
        "When you see one of your old ones trip and fall down, do you not point and laugh, just as we on Earth do?"
  • 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 [sourceforge.net]. You highlight a section of the file that has no talking to take a profile of the noise. Then apply to the entire file.
    • I came here to post exactly that.
      It's the most obvious solution without spending hundreds (or thousands) on fancy equipment. With the best will in the world no equipment is going to magically make VoIP anywhere near FM quality broadcast material - all you can do is filter out some of the crap.

      As the parent suggested, get an audio processing package, grab the noise profile, and strip it. You'd be surprised how good the results can be.
  • 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 [sourceforge.net] 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 [hawaii.edu]). 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.

  • I am the admin for a live online station... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shadwwulf ( 145057 ) on Thursday July 27, 2006 @11:01PM (#15796304) Homepage
    ...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 [wideawakesradio.com] 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
    • While this is decent advice for streaming and whatnot, what precisely does this have to do with recording long-distance interviews? Are you suggesting that she ask her guests to set up an astrisk telephony environment in their home or place of business? I can see how that might be an improvement, but it's a bit much. Even if she sets up astrisk in her home and the guest calls in over the POTS, it still doesn't answer her question about how to record it.
      • To answer your question, Asterisk is capable of using either hard (physical) phones or soft phones, much like the Skype client. There is also the option of bridging the POTS lines in via a FXS/FXO interface or getting a phone number through a VOIP provider and peering it into Asterisk.

        As far as recording it, once you have Asterisk setup, it is highly trival to record a conversation. As I mentioned in my previous post, streaming to an Icecast server is directly supported for live broadcasting and a multitu
  • Having many failed recordings from my garage-band days I'd suggest that the hissing is a symptom of an audio source that has a very weak signal/low volume and a recording device that's got its gain turned very high.

    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.

  • skype-rec [sourceforge.net] works great.
  • Jennifer,

    Over the last two years many of the members of the Association of Independents in Radio [airmedia.org] (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 a
    • Be sure to contact him and join AIR if you need spam/condescension. No doubt AIR will solve all your hiss problems...you're probably not dealing with a hardware/software problem that people who regularly do sound engineering on computers would be able to help you with anyways. Since you're a student you can go pay AIR $35 to help you with "broadcast" advice; like how far you need to stick the microphone up your ass.
  • Weigh the hassle, and messing around with hardware and software to fix Skype against just making an ordinary phone call over a normal wire.
  • 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 soluti

  • You have many software options aside from the hardware ones.

    For our podcast we decided to use Hot Recorder [hotrecorder.com] 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 p [powerinpractice.com]

  • 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 [usr.com] and hi-fi [usr.com] quality.

    Shameless product plug: USRobotics USB Internet Mini Phone [usr.com]
  • 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) [musiciansfriend.com], or the Nady CM-100 (excellent value for the price) [musiciansfriend.com])) will genuinely and dramatically improve the sound of voice. Also, usin
  • 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
  • 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

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