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CommentsThe folowing is a short guide to record phone calls on a mac computer for free.
These are preliminary instructions, feel free to post clarifications or problems.
b Requirements:
• Mac Computer With Modem
(Not all modems may work, my testing was done on a 12′ PowerBook)
• Phoner (Mac Freeware)
Direct Download Link:
http://akwairc.online.fr/phoner.tgz
• Wiretap (Mac Freeware)
Direct Download Link:
http://www.extremesims.com/downloads/ambrosiasw/WireTapPro.dmg
Note: Wiretap asks for registration, but for our purposes, all necessary functionality remains after trial period
b Additonal Requirements:
• Phone
Must not have dial keypad on handset. Dialing pad must be attached to phone base.
• Telephone Cord Splitter
1 plug to 2 plug telephone splitter.
• 2 Telephone Cords
b Procedures:
Step 1:
Plug telephone 2-way splitter into telephone socket.
Step 2:
Attach 2 telephone cords to open sockets in splitter
Step 3:
Attach one of these cords to the modem port of your computer, attach the other cord to the main input on your phone.
Step 4:
(Assuming afore mentioned software is allready installed on computer)
Open Phoner and Wiretap
Step 5:
(May be unnecessary for those with a lot of RAM)
Close as many other open programs as possible, the Wiretap recording and Phoner take up a lot of RAM, if your recording starts ‘echoing’ too much (i.e. recording falls too far off track from actual phone conversation) consider closing more programs or buying (yikes! money!) more RAM.
Step 6:
Plug in monitering headphones (absolutely necessary to eliminate echo)
Step 7:
Begin recording using Wiretap, dial phone number using Phoner. As Phone dial sounds come from your headphones, pick up the telephone handset. Have your conversation.
Step 8:
Finish your call. Hang up phone normally. Stop recording with Wiretap. Quicktime will pull up. This is your opportunity to review your call and save it.
• Echo caused by speakers when recording without headphones plugged into headphone jack
Cause: There is a delay between the time Phoner plays the call over the computer speakers and the actual time of conversation. If you are making the call close to your computer speakers, feedback from the speakers will go into the phone microphone. Although this may be fun to make weird wailing noises with your unsuspecting phone-call-recordee, it’s not generally very good radio work.
Solution: Plug headphones into headphone jack. Use headphones to moniter sound levels and stop strange echoing.
Potential Alternative Use: Use echo to fake bad cell phone reception.
• Wiretap Records System Sounds
Cause: Wiretap records all audio traveling through your computer at the time of recording, including the liitle beeps and ‘notifications’ that every program seems to make these days.
Solution: Spend some time wandering through system and program preferences to turn all of these noises off before making important recordings.
• Wiretap or Computer Freezes During Recording
Cause: The longer the recording, the larger the chance for computer crash or freeze. Wiretap in it’s unregistered mode records in .aiff files (uncompressed) which take up a lot of room. Sometimes a computer can crash under these conditions.
Solutions: Make sure there’s enough recording room for Wiretap on your hard-drive. Also, if at all possible, stop multiple times during a conversation to save Wiretap recordings. As a whole, Wiretap is very reliable, if there’s any problem it probobly comes from Phoner or the massive size of the files.
• Sound Levels on My Side of the Conversation are High
Cause: Shut up, you talk too loud. Not really, this is just a difference of telephone noise. If you listen to your own voice when your talking on the telephone, you’ll notice that you sound louder than the person who your talking to.
Solution: Talk softer. Seriously, I havn’t figured out a way to boost the volume on the other side of the call, or lower the volume on my side, so just try to talk softer, then use a sound-editing program to boost the volume on all sides of the conversation.
b Closing Statement:
This setup works fairly well, and extreamly well for something virtually free. There still are problems, and if anyone finds another solution, or problem for that matter please respond to this post. Thanks for reading, and Happy Recording!
Here’s a link to another guy’s recording setup
(But it isn’t free haha)
http://www.eugraph.com/record/
Also a link to another mac phone dialing program
Using this it may be possible to record using a Bluetooth cell phone (but I’m not sure)
http://homepage.mac.com/jonn8/jpt/
For you lawyers, a guide to legal telephone recording
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/
Alex, it’ll be interesting to see how well this works, but in the meantime, we’ll send you a Transom T-shirt. Thanks!
Alex, thanks for this post. Let’s all experiment with these ideas, there might be some tweaks that help it.
One thing jumps to mind: using Audiohijack (not free, but pretty cheap) would eliminate the system-sound problem, you can specify which apps to record from.
Similarly, I’ve been having some problems with getting Soundflower to work correctly, but it’s supposed to be able to route audio internally, so you could theoretically specify that the sound from the phone tap app would input into Audacity or Garageband, or whatever…
The problem of the local voice being WAY louder than the remote voice is the single biggest problem with phone recording. The really expensive digital hybrids control this, but the standard couplers and more basic hybrids are still plagued by this phenomenon. It is, as Alex mentioned, inherent in phone system design, a little bit of your voice is routed back to your earpiece, which unconsciously feels much more natural and reassuring.
That’s not really practical with cell phones, there would be a delay, which would make it almost impossible to talk coherently… I’ve read that the lack of that feedback of your own voice in your earpiece is one of the main reasons that people talk so loudly into their cellphones. Don’t you always wonder why that lunatic is practically yelling into his cell? "Dude, it’s a PHONE, you don’t have to scream across the valley!!" But I suspect we all do it….
Speaking quietly on your end of the conversation is an interesting tactic, and might get you closer, as long as the person on the other end can still hear you! If your phone allows you to mute the handset while the other person is talking, it does clear things up a bit. And as mentioned, compression and volume riding in your digital editor is the ultimate fix.
I’ve been experimenting with some reasonably-priced hardware boxes for recording phone conversations, and getting decent results with some JK Audio products, but I also like the idea of doing it for free, or close to free, via the computer. I’ll try to make some comparisons soon.
Thanks Jay, indeed I think Alex earns a T-shirt for sure!
Can you email me your mailing address to info@transom.org and Ill have my assistant fairies pack you up a t-shirt.
thanks for a great post.
Hi to everybody.
Your site is great and interesting
About mac phonecalls recording, i get PHONER .But when i opened PHONER i saw only a address book and no buttons or menus for recording.
About Wire tap:i know this software ,people can record online radios and phone calls (but you can record only voice of person you are talking with) Wiretap DOES NOT RECORD YOUR VOICE EVEN IF YOU USE A headset with microphone).I tested with skype calls..
Phoner (Mac Freeware)
Direct Download Link:
http://akwairc.online.fr/phoner.tgz
Phoner itself does not record phone calls by itself. You must use phoner to route phone calls through your computer’s audio circuitry, then you use wiretap to record this audio. Use phoner to dial the numnber you wish to call, then use wiretap to record the audio going through your speakers (your phone call)
Hope that helps.
-Alex
(as for wiretap recording only the voice of the person your talking to, this may be a problem with the telephone your using to talk through, it’s recorder both sides for me before- be sure you’re using a telephone reciver without a keypad on the handset.)
I followed this process on my 12" iBook, and it seems to work fine except that I have an enormous amount of static through the line. So much I can just barely hear the voice on the other end. Not like electrical static, but a white noise kind of sound, like the modem is talking to something. I do have hi-speed internet through this line, but there is a filter on the cord going to the iBook. Just to be be sure , I attached a phone to that cord, and it sounded perfectly fine. Any ideas?
Garrett
I’m not sure about this one, I remember I always used to get static recording phone calls through my little radio-shack converter, but you said the sound was like the modem was working. I would also try unplugging the computer while you try this, as sometimes the power cord can cause white noise in line-in recording.
This all probobly won’t work, but I had to say something didn’t I?
-Alex Parker
Nope, that didn’t do it. Thanks for the idea though. It’s odd; I’ve tried it a several times now, and it seems this white noise disappears after varying lengths, some times only a few seconds, but usually after 15 to 20 seconds, but it seems to almost always eventually disappear. After that I can hear just fine, but I get frequent chirps, beeps and tones, again, almost like modem sounds. Might there be some kind of modem initialization that’s not happening correctly? This is sounding like a software problem, isn’t it?
Hi – This looks really good, and I feel I’m so close to getting it to work!
Wiretap records system sounds fine
Phoner dials the call ok
But i hear nothing of the phone dialling sound through the headphones
I have the phone call
Wiretap records silence.
It looks like the modem is not relaying the sounds it hears through the Mac Audio output. Is there something i need to change in the configuration of the modem to make it do this?
I am using a Powerbook G4 15", with internal modem.
Any suggestions much appreciated.
Jack
Jack Thurston
The Bike Show
Resonance 104.4 FM
bikeshow.blogspot.com
I checked on the Mac support site and it says the following:
……..
Mac OS X: How to adjust the modem’s sounds
You can turn on or off the sounds a modem makes when it dials another computer or the Internet.
If your computer makes peculiar sounds as it connects to the Internet, modem sounds are probably turned on.
Open System Preferences and click Network. Choose your modem configuration from the Show pop-up menu, click the Modem tab, and turn sound on or off.
…….
I made sure that the Sound tab is ‘on’.
OS X 10.3.8 ; Modem is Apple Internal 56K Modem (v.92)
Your Phoner/Wire tap setup works like a charm. It is by far teh best solution I’ve seen on the Net for recording interviews.
thx
Finbarr Wilson
Without fail after a few seconds of your above method working beautifully, my modem keeps hanging up inexplicably and recording in WiretapPro resultingly discontinues. Has anyone else had this problem and in there anything else I can do? I’ve also tried dialing directly using Mac Preferences->Network->Internal Modem==>Connect and it also disconnects after a few seconds. Thanks for any help!
- robjohn
Mac Dual 2 Ghz Powermac G5, 3 gigs Ram, internal modem
Hi, it works great until about 50 seconds of recording, then the Phoner app stops the sound, but wiretap keeps going. Is there a resolution to this? Thanks
Same problem here – any ideas? I’m using Amadeus instead of Wiretap, but that shouldn’t make any difference.
John the Skeptic
(This is going to sound like an ad, but I don’t work for gizmoproject, I swear. I just really like the way their program works)
There’s an easy way to record calls with a Mac or a PC for really cheap. The Gizmo Project (www.gizmoproject.com) is an "internet telephony" company that allows people with computers to call each other over the internet for free. But here’s the thing: it also allows computer-to-telephone calls, and they’re easily recordable, right onto your own computer. It’s easy to set up, and is capable of pretty good quality. If this is a little new to you, it’s not surprising. Internet telephones are the next big thing.
You need a computer, a high-speed connection, a microphone, headphones, and $10 US. The $10 buys something like 2000 minutes of computer -to-telephone phone calls.
If you can convince your interviewee to install gizmo, you can interview for free–and the sound quality is better. In fact, the sound quality is sometimes very good. In fact, it’s so good that Gizmo seems likely to replace the very expensive studio-to-studio arrangements the big boys use.
The recordings are saved straight to your desktop, and there is none of the ‘I’m loud, you’re quiet’ problems, as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, they’re 8-bit, but they sound pretty good to me. I’ve posted a clip online at http://www.baffledexperts.com/derek.mp3
Adam.
Sorry.
I realized that I probably haven’t made this computer-calling-a-telephone thing very clear. Here’s how it works:
-You plug a mic and headphones into your computer
-You make Gizmo call your interviwee using an on-screen dial pad
-Somewhere, somehow, ‘the internet’ rings the phone of your interviewee.
-She answers her telephone
-You talk to your computer, and she talks to her telephone, and you both hear each other
-The computer records everything you both say.
It’s really, truly, easy. I’ll admit it’s a bit strange to talk to my computer–but c’mon–you’ve done it too. At least this time, you won’t be calling it &*#%!-names.
A.
I was impressed with this service, especially the ability to dial local phone numbers easily from the Internet. The software-only nature of this product will solve many of the common problems with recording static and modem noises. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Gizmo could handle iChat services as well, all out of one program . . .
Because I knew it was possible to get better quality recording than 8 bit with Gizmo, I coughed up some dough and bought Wiretap Pro from AmbrosiaSW.com. It was $20, which seems pretty fair to me. You’ll need to pay for it, as the demo doesn’t cut it.
Wiretap, as is discussed all over the web, allows you to record the audio ‘inside’ your computer. It doesn’t record off the speakers; it records somewhere ‘in there’–off the soundcard inside your machine. Then it writes that sound back on your computer. It’s a little counterintuitive, since, you know, you’re taking sound already in your computer and putting it back on your computer, but that’s what Wiretap does. It excels at taking transient audio (like streaming audio, or in our case a streaming conversation) and nailing it down to a recording.
Wiretap beats Gizmo at recording since Gizmo only records in 8 bit sound. That’s computer talk for ‘not super great quality’. Wiretap can record 16 bit sound, (‘super great quality’) if you let it.
So, using Soundflower (free from cycling74.com), I set up my computer appropriately, with the input coming from the input, and the output coming from my headphone jack on the soundcard. Other combinations didn’t work, but your mileage may vary. Wiretap was very easy to set up; it’s meant to do just this, so it worked with only a couple of clicks. I called my friend on Gizmo, and off we went.
Here is the recording. It’s big, dull, about a fungus, and it’s NOT SAFE FOR WORK (d-word and f-word). Apologies (I deleted the funny stuff by mistake).
http://www.baffledexperts.com/derek2.mp3
The results, as you can tell, are quite a bit better than with Gizmo’s 8 bit recording. $20 better? Er, I don’t know. You decide, as always.
All in all, a little bit more tricky than Gizmo. Setting up Gizmo, I’d say, demanded the computer savvy of a 40 year old. Setting up Wiretap and Soundflower was a job for a 30 year old. Setting up a Nintendo on the TV is a job for a 14 year old, just for comparison–i.e. it’s damn near impossible.
A.
I saw this on Gizmodo today, it’s a USB telephone recorder. Unfortunatly it’s $300.
http://www.akibalive.com/archives/000628.html
Skype.com allows you to make free voice calls to other skype users. And you can sign up for additional service to make and receive phone calls at very cheap rates, too. Since the audio is going through your computer you can use software like Audio Hijack or others to just record the conversation. Works well.
Hi. This is an excellent tutorial.
I use a similar setup on my Powerbook, but I use the terminal emulator ZTerm in place of Phoner, and MicNotePad in place of Wiretap, as follows:
1. select the internal modem as the audio input source;
2. dial the telephone number on the phone handset;
3. start recording with MicNotePad;
4. in ZTerm, type
ATH1 (off-hook)
for the modem to pick up the phone line;
5. in ZTerm, type
ATH0 (on-hook)
for the modem to hang up (that’s a zero).
6. stop recording in MicNotePad.
If the modem disconnects after 50 or so seconds, try setting the S7 and S10 registers to 255 in ZTerm, like so:
ats7=255s10=255
Hello,
I’ve tried to use the phoner / split cable into modem solution to record sound but my modem keeps emitting a beep (eMac internal). I’ve tried turning off its sound without success.
Any idea’s?
Thanks
Richard riscrase@yahoo.co.uk
I turned off the modem noise by typing^after the telephone number. I now have the problem of the modem dropping the contact after 30 seconds.
Ideas anyone?
riscrase@yahoo.co.uk