Recording a phone call (advice?)

J

JeffW

Member
Hello. I'm hoping for some advice on recording an incoming phone call on speaker phone. My doc subject is in prison and will be making a phone call (and will be speaker phone). Any advice on how to best record this?

Advice is appreciated.
 
I'm new to this whole thing but this is my guess. (that is if you don't need to film the other person talking) Have the person you are filming get the call or how ever you are doing it and have the person on the other line just talk into a mic hooked up to what ever editing program you are using. That way you capture both audio and apply some sort of filter or change the EQ to the person on the line to make it sound like they are coming through a phone's speaker, somewhat distorted.

I could probably come up with a better idea if you could tell us all what it is you are exactly trying to shoot. Do you want to include the person on the other line, such as split the screen up to where you could see the conversation?
 
Thanks. No, I don't want to show anyone speaking (on either end of the phone). He will be on speaker phone speaking to a group of people gathered to hear him calling in. I'm only looking to capture the best audio of his "call in."
 
if its reality or doc thats not going to work unless you have a lot of time. you can try mic'ing the speaker phone with a lav, can give a decent result if the speaker on the phone is of decent quality.. its done all the time on plenty of doc/reality shows.
 
Thanks, Tim. That's what I am going to do. It should turn out ok.

I'm going to see if any particular speaker phones are better for this. Ex. a conference call speaker phone may be better than a wireless phone, etc. I have a wireless phone, but it doesn't sound so good. I'll look around.

Thanks again, guys.
 
Hi Jeff,

If the conference phone is mandatory on the prison phone and you're allowed to provide the equipment, I'd go with a Polycom if you can afford it. They start about $325 - not cheap but they are excellent units. Here's a site to learn more about conference phones:

http://www.hellodirect.com

However, I wonder if the prison guards would let you do a "double-ender" - if so, any speakerphone will do on his end since you won't be recording his voice over the telephone. Instead, you provide him an MP3 player with a microphone, have the subject record his/her voice during the interview and send you the MP3 player after the interview. Of course, you'll be recording your voice on the other end. Then when you receive the MP3 player, you load your voice one one stereo, the subjects voice on the other (synchronizing them at the start), and finally converting the stereo to mono. If you or a friend can handle these fairly simple technical issues, you should be happy with the results.

Regards, Michael
 
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Thanks, Michael. I appreicate it. The prison phone is an old school phone (w/no speaker phone on his end). He will speak through the phone and we will receive his call on a speaker phone.

And, no, I'm not allowed to provide him with any equipment.

His voice usually comes out clear, but I just want the best sound (obviously). I was actually hoping that I could plug the audio right into the speaker phone, but I should be happy with a good connection.

Thanks, guys.
 
Most pro audio studios and radio stations use devices from a company called Gentner for this purpose. They turn a phone signal into a very high quality line level that can be recorded. You plug the line directly into the unit and then you can route the audio output directly to your recording device and talk via a micorphone or however your setup is. This can be very simple or very elaborate...but for your purposes, I would recommend something simple and cheap like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/GENTNER-MICROTE...ryZ23785QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Good luck!

-Jamey
 
Wow. Thanks Jamey. My shoot is on Thursday. I hope I can find one of these (in Vancouver) before then. I will get on it now.

Thanks.
 
Jeff,

I record conference calls all the time in the form of Web broadcasts, and I use a device call THAT-2 from JK Audio. It hooks up to the phone between the hand-set and the phone (I'm fairly sure you could interface it into the speaker phone the same way) and gives you a balanced XLR out to connect to your camera or recorder. They work great, work with all kinds of phones and are fairly inexpensive. You could probably order it from Trew in Canada and have it overnight. B&H does carry it:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...s&Q=&sku=264974&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

Hope this helps.

Phil
 
I've done this on a few occasions and my best results have been to put a lav or get a shotgun mic and record the person speaking in as high a quality as you can, and then playback that recording through a good speaker/monitor into a phone. Then record the other phone's speaker.

I've even had good results using the mic inputs on a phone going directly out from the player/computer (with the recorded voice), and using another phone's 1/8" out to the recording device. Or, if the person has to use a phone, using my phones 1/8" out directly into a recorder.

But the best results have been achieved by starting with a good VO. That way, you can switch phones around, record it over a cell network, land line, computer to computer, isp phone service, and any combo therein.

Lots of variations and lots of great results.
 
Jeff,

The quality of telephone quality audio goes:

Poor: Radio Shack

Fair/so-so: JK Audio

Okay: Digital Hybrid w/echo cancellation (I use the Telos One)

Good: VOIP call (as Skype)

Best: ISDN dial-up

Now that I understand your arrangement, you'd never want to voice couple a cheapie speakerphone on your end if quality audio is a priority - that's where the Polycom would make a world of difference.

Have fun, Michael
 
Guys. Wow. Thanks for all of your advice. I'm going to spend some time today investigating these options. Thanks.

I hope at worst I can get good sound with just laving the phone. I may not be able to get my hands on (or test) any of these products beforehand.

Thanks, again.
 
I'm dealing with a similar situation - not prison, but need to record phoned-in interviews.

I have Vonage and am thinking that Vonage's voicemail system creates an mp3 out of the voicemails left, so you can take that right from your computer and put it in your editing system (maybe convert to AIFF in iTunes first).

This is the method I plan on using, but for my situation its not as important to be live and hearing it. I plan on prepping the people on some things to say and then letting them have a go at it.

Again, I think you'd need to have some sort of VOIP for this to work, but for those who do, it seems like a pretty decent option.
 
Matt Grunau said:
I've done this on a few occasions and my best results have been to put a lav or get a shotgun mic and record the person speaking in as high a quality as you can, and then playback that recording through a good speaker/monitor into a phone. Then record the other phone's speaker.

I've even had good results using the mic inputs on a phone going directly out from the player/computer (with the recorded voice), and using another phone's 1/8" out to the recording device. Or, if the person has to use a phone, using my phones 1/8" out directly into a recorder.

But the best results have been achieved by starting with a good VO. That way, you can switch phones around, record it over a cell network, land line, computer to computer, isp phone service, and any combo therein.

Lots of variations and lots of great results.
Click to expand...

You nailed it, with one exception though (no biggie): you lav/shotgun your VO/talent/subject AND record him through a telephone device (as mentioned above - & BTW here's another one: http://www.professionalsound.com/Catalog/ph-tap.htm ) at the same time. Lavs would be better in a verby prison walled environment.

Combine the two (to taste or clarity) later in post. One thing to keep in mind is that a phone "sound" is a bit, by nature lo-fi, so just grab both HQ & Lo-fi and you're set.
 
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bigteethproductions said:
I'm dealing with a similar situation - not prison, but need to record phoned-in interviews.

I have Vonage and am thinking that Vonage's voicemail system creates an mp3 out of the voicemails left, so you can take that right from your computer and put it in your editing system (maybe convert to AIFF in iTunes first).

This is the method I plan on using, but for my situation its not as important to be live and hearing it. I plan on prepping the people on some things to say and then letting them have a go at it.

Again, I think you'd need to have some sort of VOIP for this to work, but for those who do, it seems like a pretty decent option.
Click to expand...

I've had vonage in the past and the quality of the voice mail is terrible. Yes you need a VOIP adapter for this too work.

I think the best solution I've found to this problem of recording a telephone interview is to use one of the telephone conferencing services that can record the conference and let you download the result as an MP3. You can have one, two, three, however-many-people involved in one of these scenarios. Here's an example of one:

http://www.freeconference.com/NewFeatures.aspx

I've tried other solutions like the phone hybrid (I still have it gathering dust) and the telephone conferencing seems to be the easiest solution for most people. I should add that I never tried that particular one I posted the link for. The one I used before doesn't seem to exist now. But looking the page over it seems to have everything you need and it's free too. Looks like they have other options though that they charge for. There are lots of other services like this though and a seach for "800 telephone conferencing" will turn them up.

Sometimes you want the quality to be a little off--it's a telephone interview after all and we expect that to sound a certain way. If it's too perfect, but just a little off because of filtering, it never sounds quite so credible to me. Nothing like that interview with an expert in a far off place to add some credibility to a documentary.
 
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