: Hey, welcome to Episode Four. Today we are going to talk about how to record Skype calls for your podcast.
: But, first I'm going to highlight a tool today that I think is really cool and it is called Cleanfeed, and it's actually considered a Skype alternative. And what it is, is it allows you to record remote calls or interviews. And it's all done through the Internet and it's a completely free service, so that's really why I wanted to highlight it, because someone actually asked me on Facebook. They said they're on a budget and they want to do a podcast with a friend that lived two hours away so they could really be together. And they said, "The equipment will be at one place, so what can we do for remote recording, Skype or something like Skype?" And they didn't want to sacrifice audio quality too much, and that's a big kind of downside with Skype, as their audio quality is just not great, and it's not designed for really recording interviews, so if you can avoid it I would.
: But there are a lot of benefits to it as well, so I understand. It's easy, a lot of people have it, and you know, if you can get some software to record or, we'll talk about that in this episode, but there are times where it is useful to use Skype. But I'm talking about Cleanfeed right now, and it is at Cleanfeed.net and it's really simple it's free to sign up, and then you will basically send a link or a URL to the person that you want to talk to, and you can set it up so that it will save both ends of the conversation separately for you. Or it can save them as one file if you don't want to worry about the editing stuff. So there's kind of a couple of options there. And it's used by big broadcasters and radio networks and stuff like that already.
: So, in a future episode I'll actually talk about some different options, double-ender options, as they're called, to record remote interviews. But for now we're just going to highlight that one, and we'll get into the content about how to record your podcast interviews with Skype.
: So we are going to talk about a few different ways to record Skype calls, and there are some different options for both Mac and Windows PCs. And then there's another option where you can use a mixer. So we'll kind of run through these, and the easiest option to record Skype calls is with call recording software. And so we'll start with the Mac option, and the most popular one is eCamm Call Recorder for Skype, and it's a forty-dollar one-time purchase. And then from there, you have it forever. And actually they raised the price on this somewhat recently, and I think that's because of its popularity and ease of use. It just works really well.
: I've used it several times in the past and it worked great. It gave me both sides of the conversation and separate files, and I could put them in to my audio editor and kind of sync 'em up or mess with them from there. So if you want to check that out you can go to setsailpodcasts.com/ecamm that's E C A M M. Yeah, you just install it, it'll give you a little record button right in the Skype app and you can record video as well as audio so you can, it's kind of nice, it gives you the option to record, you know however fits your workflow or your kind of content style.
: And they also have a couple of other really cool apps. They have a call recorder for FaceTime, and that one, it's pretty self-explanatory: it records FaceTime calls. And then they also have a tool called eCamm live and that lets you do Facebook "lives". But it gives you some really cool functionality to share your screen or add lower thirds or different images really quickly, and it's simple and seamless so, that's another one that's really awesome. So I would definitely check those out if you're on a Mac.
: And there's another piece of software called Piezo by Rogue Amoeba and it lets you record basically any source on your computer, any app. But the downside to it, is that it only saves a single audio file, it won't record both sides of the conversation separately. So, that same company has another program called Audio Hijack that lets you do some more advanced stuff and route different apps into different channels, and you can kind of do all kinds of crazy stuff. So, [that's] a couple of other options if you don't want to go with eCamm.
: And then on Windows, the most recommended option to record Skype is Pamela, and you'll need the professional version to get more than 15 minutes of call recording. So if you want to try it out you can get the basic version, but just know you'll need the professional version. And I know that some people said, "it's kind of been stopped being supported, they haven't released updates", but I checked recently and they had an update on June 8th of 2017, so I know it's… and yup, that's still the most recent update. So I know it's up to date. Not too long ago I think it said it was 2014 or something like that. So yep, just know that they're still actively supporting it, and they have some other software too. But that's, I think, one of their more popular ones.
: And the next is an option, if you have a mixer, you can send your Skype audio into the mixer, and then you'll need to set up a "mix minus" so that the track that goes back out to the Skype caller subtracts their own voice, so they don't hear a delayed echo. And then you will record your whole main mix in your audio editing program, whether that's GarageBand, or Logic, or Audacity, or Audition, you name it. So I'm not going to get into how to set up the mix minus stuff, I mean it varies a little bit, and I'll actually link to an awesome video by Ray Ortega. He shows an awesome kind of detailed video of how to set that up. But that is a great option if you already have a mixer, and you won't need additional software to do it. You'll just need to make sure you set that up, and you can actually test it.
: Skype has a little test audio section, to test call so you can do that and you'll know if it's working or not before you actually get on a live call. And that actually applies to the eCamm option as well, or Pamela. I would make sure that you test everything out, and the audio's coming through, and in the right formats that you need, and everything like that, but those are kind of the main options to record Skype.
: And like I mentioned in the beginning there's Cleanfeed, is a non-Skype alternative. And then there's some other alternative software that will allow you to record remote calls. But, as far as I know most of the other ones have a cost to them, like a monthly fee. And in a future episode we will get into, I'll list all the different options for that, and kind of give a little more info about those recording options, if you want to get higher quality audio than using Skype.
: So that wraps up how to record your podcast interviews with Skype, and if you have not already, be sure to sign up for the podcast launch contest. You can go to setsailpodcast.com/launch to get the instructions for how to do that, and we'll see you in Episode Five. Oh, I almost forgot. If you want to check out the show notes and kind of written instructions for this episode you can go to setsailpodcast.com/four.
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