Recording a phone conversation

[Paul]

Hi,

> Hi, I want to be able to record a phone conversation from a phone
> plugged into a generic external modem. I have a mixer control for phone
> in the gnome sound mixer, but I cant get anything to record from it.  

You won't - it's a serial device. It should be technically possible to
intercept the demodulated output, but I'm not sure if it would be
usable. A loopback device is what you would need (something as simple as
a audio out to audio in lead!). Can't g/tee the quality.

> Any pointers on where to start looking would be welcome.  Thanks

I found one post which describes how to do it, though it does look like
it needs to be recorded via voicemail.

First, either get hold of a clip microphone or a unidirectional
microphone. Don't bother with a condenser mike. If it's a unidirectional
mike, remove the top so you just have the mike bit. Clip mikes tend to
cost about 30 UKP while a cheap unidirectional one can be bought for a
couple of pounds and it doesn't matter if you wreck it really either as
it's cheap enough. 

Place the mike onto the phone, directly over the speaker part. I tend to
seal it in with blutack or sellotape to keep the mike in one position. 

Use something like audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) to do the
recording. Don't alter the volume from the phone, just ramp up the mike
pickup. If you're using Windows, you can do it on the sound settings,
Linux has something similar - I personally put the +20dB gain on.
Audacity also has the ability to remove hiss from recordings. Nothing
wrong with using CoolEditPro/Adobe Audition, but hey, I'm a linux bod
and use free software! I also don't like Audition... 

Play the tape and record. 

Next, encode it. Again, I tend to use LAME and have it set at mono and
at 32kbs. It gives a very good recording with a smallish filesize. 

An alternate method (which means you can record at the same time as
listening) is to open the phone receiver up and connect the microphone
leads directly onto the speaker out lines. It's an easy enough job to
do.

TTFN

Paul

-- 
"I don't know how World War III will be fought, but I do know World War
IV will be fought with sticks and stones" - Einstein
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