TKO said:
Anyone know of a freeware for recording both sides of a phone conversation?
You need to get the audio from the phone into your computer. That will
require hardware of some kind, usually some sort of adapter that plugs
into the phone (typically into the handset plug) and also plugs into
your sound card.
Once you have the sound getting to your sound card, there are many
recording and playback programs that could be used. See the
pricelessware list for suggestions. Or search
http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search.
I recommend using a program that can record directly to mp3, as it
will save you lots of disk space. The audio quality from a phone is so
limited that you will be able to compress it a lot without significant
degradation. You can, of course, record to wav files and then go back
and compress to mp3 later, but it's more convenient if the recorder
program will record directly to mp3.
Once you have the audio recorded, you also have the question of
playback. For just listening to the entire conversation, you can use
whatever audio player you now use. But I find that I often want to
transcribe the audio (either part or all). What you want here is a
program that will easily pause the playback, and skip back 5 seconds
and start again, easily controlled from the keyboard (not the mouse,
because if you're transcribing, you don't want to lift your hands from
the keyboard). Take a look at ExpressScribe,
http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/. I haven't used it, but it looks very
good for transcription work. You can control playback with keyboard
shortcuts, and even vary the playback speed (without changing pitch).
Be aware that depending on where you are located and where the person
you are speaking with is located, it may be illegal to record the
conversation, or you may be required to get permission from everyone
who participates in the conversation.
Terry
