Recording an interview

[John Hixson]

My brother runs a semi successful sports blog but unfortunately has spent a lot of time ill over the pst 6 months and so I am looking to help him with it.

Part of what I am looking to do will include interviewing various players and other associated individuals over the phone. What I am looking to do is work out the best way to record these interviews.

So what is the best way of recording an online to normal phone call?

TBH I would also like to hear from UK people the best method of calling that isn't Skype as Skype calls to mobiles can get expensive over the course of an interview and especially if you do a large number of interviews (the blog isn't making THAT much money by any stretch).

[damongreene]

I would recommend freeconferencecall dot com. Everytime you use it you can opt to record the conversation. Quality is pretty good too. Then you take it to audacity edit it down and you have your podcast interview.

[dalvia]

Hey John

I record interviews all the time. Yes, I wouldn't use Skype to call mobiles, but to landlines it's cheap.

I use skype for the phone call to landlines and Power Gramo for the software that plugs into skype and records the call. It does a great job and you can save it in multiple formats. I think it's only about $35 for Power Gramo.

Dale

[David McAnulty]

Hey John,

I would go down to any of your popular stores (Walgreens, Walmart, etc...) and pick up a little device called Magic Jack. It cost around $19.95 for the entire year and an additional $.01 a minute for international calls. The quality is amazing and it is by far the cheapest and easiest way to make long distance calls for long durations.

Google it if you have not already heard of it. I think you will be pleased with this solution.

Regards,
David

[George Wright]

Hi,

If you have Google Voice use it. It's Excellent. If you don't have it, go to Google voice and request it. You will get it in about a week.

Have the person you want to record, call you via your Google voice number. After you answer and when you are ready to record press the #4 key on your phone. The recording will start. Press #4 again to save and stop the recording. I don't know why they made it this way but you can only record incoming calls.

Cell Phones work great for this, however the quality and the possibility of not dropping the call would probably be a little better if you used land lines. Again, Cells work great though.

Sign into your Google Voice account and download the recording to your PC and edit it as per any of the instructions in above posts.

George Wright

[keystothemind]

If you're doing it over skype i suggest paying the $10 or so for the advanced version of Pamela, it rarely let me down.

I did and still do many interviews for my hypnosis blog, the first lot i collected in a big page (here) but then learned they have a much greater impact if each has a separate post to it.
The content of interviews can be pure gold sometimes, so a summary may help too.
Good luck!
Nathan

[Jason Moffatt]

He may only have 2 posts, but I think Damon Greene gave the best advice with Free Conference Call, Phone Conferencing, Teleconferences - FreeConferenceCall.com.

You can't beat the price = free

and,

It's worked great for me for about a dozen interviews. The MP3's are ready right after the call, and did I mention, it's free? Just make sure you are on a land line, and preferably get the interview subject on a land line.

Give them the call in details, hit record, and you're off. It's really easy, especially since many people aren't familiar with skype or don't have it on their computer.

[John Hixson]

Thanks for some great tips

The problem with Google voice and Conference calls etc is I don't want to get them calling in. These are VERY high profile sports stars in the UK and it is hard enough to get interviews... whilst some do the call you thing it is then when they can, not at a set time, whilst others prefer to be called at a time they say.

Anyone know any cheap VoiP solutions for calling mobiles that can be partnered with a recorder?

At the moment it looks like hoping to get a landline and use Skype is my best bet but even then it seems to rely too much on luck.

Thanks again for all your advice.

John

[spearce000]

For recording a landline, I use TRx recorder from NCH (Phone Recording Software - Windows Call Recording, Mac Phone Recording). I've used it for a couple of years now, and have found it very useful. The downside is you have to call from a phone that's plugged into the same socket as your computer modem. That said, it does record everything as a .wav file which is easy to edit and convert to MP3 etc.

[magentawave]

I want to do an audio/video interview where I can see and hear the guys talking head on my computer screen while I conduct the interview. I want the entire process to be super easy for them (no downloading of software). Then I was thinking I would record the session using Screenflow or Camtasia with my face on the screen next to their face.

I would really appreciate any ideas for how I can do this.

Thanks
Steve

[intromaster]

Alex Mandossian is the king of teleseminars and conducting interviews. He has some very good information on the subject. However, I havent heard anything from him recently. He does many interviews with high profile people.

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