by Glenn Fleishman
http://action.lasso?-database=TEPAuthors&-layout=AuthorDetail&-response=authsummary.html&op=eq&AuthorName=Glenn%20Fleishman&-search
Contact the author at: glenn@tidbits.com
Audio Hijack Pro has been updated to better capture phone
conversations. No, the folks at Rogue Amoeba haven't signed up with
the NSA. Rather, they've recognized the ongoing interest in recording
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, whether computer-to-
computer or computer-to-PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network -- you
know, the real phone network).
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/ audiohijackpro/
Audio Hijack Pro 2.7 bypasses a fairly wacky setup that I described
for O'Reilly Networks last year, and worked with Andy Affleck-Williams
to build into his "Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac" ebook, which
I edited. Audio Hijack Pro is designed to capture sound from any
application or system resource and pass it through. Combining multiple
capture streams enables live mixing, and built-in filters enable live
processing, too.
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2005/10/10/how-to-podcast.html
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/podcasting-mac.html?14@@%21pt=TRK-TB840
The difficulty was, primarily, when recording a podcast or for other
purposes, having the sound on a headset's earpiece totally or
partially suppressed to avoid echo, while still recording each
voice. It was also impossible within Audio Hijack Pro to capture each
side of a conversion separately without recording separate audio files
and mixing them later in another application.
The newest version, a free update for existing registered users, adds
MegaMix, which enables hijacking of both sides of a conversion, with
an added option to record each voice separately. Simply creating a
stream (Session > New) and choosing a VoIP program handles the
details. You can modify the default choice of mixing down both sides
of a conversation by clicking Advanced in the Input tab and checking
Separate Inputs and Outputs by Channel. (Rogue Amoeba has good
illustrations in this blog entry.)
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts/Article/ahp27-tour-2006-07-31-12-00
Solutions already exist for several major VoIP programs. Apple's iChat
AV can record directly to GarageBand 3, with one track per participant
in conference calls. A new plug-in for Skype, Ecamm Network's Call
Recorder, enables multiple track recording within that software. The
Gizmo Project has long provided direct MP3 recording, too.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/ichat/
http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/features/ichatrecording.html
http://www.skype.com/
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/
http://www.gizmoproject.com/screen-shots.html
Glenn Fleishman (glenn@tidbits.com)