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How to Record An Interview?

by matthewd
22 replies
I am setting up an interview to record. I was planning on doing it via Skype so that it would be easy to record, but what if they don't have Skype?

Does anyone know how I can record phone calls from my cell phone?
#interview #record
  • Profile picture of the author Ernie Lo
    Tell them to download Skype

    You can then use free skype recording software like call graph.

    another one is called record anything, which records every sound, I used it recently and worked fine. I guess you could use that with any chat program, such as MSN messenger/AIM.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dennis Sim
      You still can use Skype. For those who don't have Skype, you just call their mobile phone. You still can record the conversation.

      Recommended Plugin: Pamela!
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      • Profile picture of the author lakshaybehl
        Originally Posted by Dennis Sim View Post

        You still can use Skype. For those who don't have Skype, you just call their mobile phone. You still can record the conversation.

        Recommended Plugin: Pamela!
        I recommend Pamela too.

        But when you call someone on their cell via Skype, there is a bit of time lag that you have to deal with.

        instead get them to download Skype. That would make it much easier.

        -Lakshay
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      • Profile picture of the author Quentin
        You can buy skype credit and then ring any phone and record but obviously if you can get them to download then it will be free.

        Quentin
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        • Profile picture of the author jhongren
          Some tips to share from my last interview with Reed.

          I was supposed to call in a teleseminar line.

          But I cant get though as it kept on denying entry.

          I turn to Skype and use this program call PowerGramo to record.

          => Skype Recorder - Record skype and do a lot more!

          Always test out calling the interviewee if possible cos you never know what will happen.

          The interview got delayed by 1/2 hr but Reed was nice to wait and push on cos he said the "show must go on".

          Call up the interviewee to say hi and build rapport.

          Anyway, it is always good to test. =)

          Cheers,
          John
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          • Profile picture of the author Stanley Tang
            I used InstantTeleseminar.

            Regarding cell phones, many of them should have the recording function included. For example, mine does. There's a big button which says "Record" on the panel. With the iPhone, there's also a record button. Although to be honest, I tend not to use them as sometimes they can get unreliable, or your phone runs out of memory.
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            • Profile picture of the author jhongren
              Originally Posted by Stanley Tang View Post

              I used InstantTeleseminar.

              Regarding cell phones, many of them should have the recording function included. For example, mine does. There's a big button which says "Record" on the panel. With the iPhone, there's also a record button. Although to be honest, I tend not to use them as sometimes they can get unreliable, or your phone runs out of memory.
              Hi Stanley, Do you have any experience that it is not possible to call in from Singapore?

              I tried it last week but kept getting the message "You do not have permission to access"

              John
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              • Profile picture of the author onlineleben
                Just a question regarding quality:
                is there a difference in quality when using Skype to Skype vs. Skype to normal phone?
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                • Profile picture of the author Stanley Tang
                  Originally Posted by jhongren View Post

                  Hi Stanley, Do you have any experience that it is not possible to call in from Singapore?

                  I tried it last week but kept getting the message "You do not have permission to access"

                  John
                  John, you mean you can't call the instant teleseminar lines from Singapore? That's strange... it's just like every other ordinary US telephone lines.

                  I've called from Hong Kong and NEVER had this problem. I'm guessing it's something with your long distance provider.

                  Stanley
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                  • Profile picture of the author jhongren
                    Sigh, I think I better check with my friends who were able to do that. Thanks Stanley =)
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                    • Profile picture of the author calvin69
                      My main gig is recording interviews...

                      ... And I've tried just about everything under the sun.

                      The best solution (bar none) is TalkShoe.com. I discovered it several months ago and I wish I knew about it years ago. The best part is it's totally FREE.

                      To see it in action, look on the left-hand side here:
                      http://www.stumpmarkus.com

                      Any other TalkShoe users here?
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                      • Profile picture of the author Josh Anderson
                        Here is a video about how to get incredible recording quality using skype:

                        http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssp...388936660724-2
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                        • Profile picture of the author onlineleben
                          Josh,
                          thanks for the link - really helpful presentation.
                          Next step is going to get a decent usb headset and then tune my skype settings.
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                          • Profile picture of the author Heather Vale
                            One thing with using Skype is it can randomly disconnect in the middle of an interview... I used to use it in the early days, but one too many times it did that (3 is one too many for me) and the quality of VOIP just isn't there yet. You'll get echoes sometimes, robotic distortion sometimes, audio cutting out... if you're just starting out and don't have a budget, fine, but I never use VOIP anymore.

                            Also you should never call a mobile phone unless it's an emergency and/or you want to convey that "so and so (my guest) is so busy that I couldn't reach him except on his mobile phone... he's currently driving to a seminar where he's about to speak to 25,000 people!" (or whatever). The sound quality of mobile phones still isn't there either (I used to work in the mobile phone industry and used it for EVERYTHING... except recording interviews!)

                            Landlines are still your most reliable for sound quality, especially a hard-wired one rather than cordless.

                            You can record with a voice recorder attached, or a little recording device from RadioShack. I use a full broadcast studio (JK Audio Innkeeper, little Behringer mixer, PreSonus Inspire to input to my computer via FireWire) but you need to be doing a lot of interviews, and be looking for CD quality, to go that far.

                            Instant Teleseminars gives a fairly good .wav recording that I use as my backup; a lot of free conference lines give crappy recordings, but you can dial into ANY teleseminar service with Instant Teleseminars, so if you want certain features that the provided free line doesn't have, use whatever line you like (we used to use Basement Ventures, formerly Live Office, but now we use Free Conference Pro) and record using the Instant Teleseminars interface for the best results (you have to set up an event but it only takes a few minutes).

                            Always clean up your audio recording with a program like Adobe Audition though (or Audacity if you can't afford Audition, but Audition has very nice noise removal functions), and use the Levelator to fix the levels (free at ConversationsNetwork.org -- scroll to the bottom of the main page to download).

                            Hope this helps!

                            Heather
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                            Top Online Interviewer-For-Hire (for Qualifying Clients)
                            Conduct Profitable Content-Rich Interviews with Interviewing Unwrapped
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                            • Profile picture of the author calvin69
                              Originally Posted by Heather Vale View Post

                              Always clean up your audio recording with a program like Adobe Audition though (or Audacity if you can't afford Audition, but Audition has very nice noise removal functions), and use the Levelator to fix the levels (free at ConversationsNetwork.org -- scroll to the bottom of the main page to download).

                              Hope this helps!

                              Heather
                              Sweet tip Heather. I just downloaded Levelator (pleasently surprised it supports OS X, too) and tested out my latest interview. Very awesome.

                              The only downside I see is it's not blazingly fast (maybe I'm doing something wrong)... but for the price, you can't beat it. Thank you for this, Heather.
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                              • Profile picture of the author Heather Vale
                                Yes, the Levelator takes a few minutes depending on the size of your file -- but it's doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make your audio optimal!

                                One note, I have had a few times where it came out echo-y (and I don't know why) after the Levelator process... in those instances I just manually normalized the audio with my editing program of choice and it didn't echo.

                                But that was probably 1% of all the times I've used the software... for the most part, it works great!

                                cheers
                                Heather
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                                Heather Vale Goss, "The Unwrapper"
                                Top Online Interviewer-For-Hire (for Qualifying Clients)
                                Conduct Profitable Content-Rich Interviews with Interviewing Unwrapped
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                                • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
                                  Skype can be great if you have a great internet connection at both ends but often you don't.

                                  You can have the Skype connection constantly falling out, big gaps in the audio before you hear the other person speaking etc etc.

                                  It's worth trying but I wouldn't depend on it as the sole way of recording interviews.

                                  Another "free" option is freeconferencecall.com

                                  Just costs whatever you pay to call the number (regular calling rates no fees).

                                  Kindest regards,
                                  Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author cowrob
    I have had good success with FreeConferenceCall.com - two keys combination starts the recording, hanging up ends the recording.

    Heather is correct - you want to avoid cell phones. Sometimes they work, many times they add a ton of noise to your recording.

    One plus for FreeConferencePro -- I believe they customize your welcome message, so when people call in (for large group teleseminars) they receive a recorded message: "Welcome to the phone conference line for [ the name of your business ]. Just a nice touch.
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    • Profile picture of the author Heather Vale
      Yes, that's exactly why we like FreeConferencePro... the customized message is very professional sounding, especially if you're hosting live teleseminars.

      One caveat is, their MP3 recordings really suck! (That's why I record through the Instant Teleseminar interface if I'm doing a backup recording). They also give you a .wav file which is much better -- but if you end up converting it to MP3, you're back to a pretty crappy sound (the Instant Teleseminars .wav has the same specs but for some reason ends up much better sounding).

      Also, the .wav from FreeConferencePro usually doesn't work with the Levelator; it just stops in the middle. I'm not sure what they're doing, but their recording function just doesn't have the quality required for a product.

      cheers
      Heather
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      Heather Vale Goss, "The Unwrapper"
      Top Online Interviewer-For-Hire (for Qualifying Clients)
      Conduct Profitable Content-Rich Interviews with Interviewing Unwrapped
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        I use the Radio Shack gizmo (part #17-855) and jack it into a semi-cheap digital recorder. Afterwards, the recorder plugs into the USB port and downloads the audio for editing.
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        • Profile picture of the author Josh Anderson
          Heather,

          If you have not done so allready you may want to watch that video that I linked to in my post above...

          It shows some things about Skype that very few people know about that effect call quality and reliability of the connection.

          You will likely be surprised that the people from the broadcast industry that created that video actually state that they dropped their studio setups for skype in some recordings because of the quality they get with these settings that 99% of skype users are not aware of like switching your skype from a TCP connection to a UDP connection to eliminate latency.
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          • Profile picture of the author Heather Vale
            Thanks, Josh,

            Yes, definitely it seems Skype has come a long way with the quality, and I like the way they're recommending recording to two channels -- one thing I like about my studio setup.

            It does seem quite complicated to get the right settings; but then again, it was complicated to get my studio set up too (but I'm really happy with how good I was able to get it sounding, and I can use it for all my recording needs).

            But it is nice to remove the phone "compression" sound, more than the hybrid already does, although the Skype still has a slight echo like they're both in a big can -- but still, sounds great.

            I wonder if this setup would remove the annoying fact that Skype will sometimes disconnect in the middle of an interview?

            cheers
            Heather

            BTW these are the guys who make the Levelator that I recommended...
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            Heather Vale Goss, "The Unwrapper"
            Top Online Interviewer-For-Hire (for Qualifying Clients)
            Conduct Profitable Content-Rich Interviews with Interviewing Unwrapped
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