Recording Skype or Yahoo Conversations for Podcasting

The question came up today about recording Yahoo or Skype audio conversations for podcasts. Both Yahoo Messenger and Skype have the ability to call and talk to people over the internet, but neither have the ability to save those conversations. So, with a few cheap tools, you can record your conversations and turn them into Podcasts.

Step 1: Get Yahoo Messenger or Skype installed on your machine. Both are free. Myself, I prefer Skype as Yahoo Messenger with audio doesn’t work on a Mac and Skype doesn’t have ads.

Step 2: Get Audio Hijack (Mac) or Total Recorder (Windows). Total Recorder Pro is about $40 and Audio Hijack Pro is $32. I’m not sure if the non pro versions will still do the job.

Step 3: Start the audio recording application first. Then start Messenger or Skype. Read the recording application instructions as each differ in how they record audio. But neither should be to hard to operate.

Step 4: Start recording, call a friend and talk! When finished, hang up and stop recording.

Step 5: Save out the audio conversation from Audio Hijack or Total Recorder to your hard drive. Aiff files are good and so are wav files.

Step 6: Use iTunes to convert the large aiff or wav file to an MP3. iTunes is free and works on Mac and PC.

That’s it. You have the audio for your Podcast!

– Thomas 

The Maiden Voyage – Let the podcasting begin!

Okay, I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, at least since I started Global English Salon. I’m currently calling in to World Talk Radio once a week or once a month as it’s been lately. They have a recording studio with the latest techno gear so it sounds really good. I decided to try my hand at podcasting since I wanted to have more control and add English lessons whenever I felt like it. Anyway Thomas set up this blog and told me to get off my you know what and just do it!

I signed up with podomatic because I searched for free podcasting and they came up. Free is a good thing. Then I went out and bought a Logitech USB desktop microphone. It’s Skype enabled which means nothing to me since Skype is banned in China or “blocked” as it were, but that’s a post for another blog another time.

I got up this morning and decided to run the maiden voyage . Plugged in my mic and tried to record on my computer and nothing, nada, total silence. Now I’m no geek but you think all I had to do was plug in the mic usb and go to town, but noooooooooooo! Hey, there’s a button on the mic and when I push it I get a green light. Wow, almost foiled by an on off button.

At podomatic I log in and click on the podcast tab. There are other tabs too but I don’t have time to check them out. Maybe later but so much to learn so little time. I then see a big graphic that says Welcome and Create your first podcast and Click Here. Now that’s easy and I like easy. On this page is a form to fill out with Title, tags, category (arts, education, etc.). Next is a place where you can add a picture (maybe next time). The next portion is where you can import, record or mix (let’s you add music). I’ll just record this time and play with the other buttons later. There’s also a place to add comments.

So I hit the record button and ramble on for about a minute. Then it I do the preview. Not bad! I don’t mean the content but the quality. After the preview I hit the publish button and maiden voyage complete. I think I’ve found something here and will keep at it. Perhaps I’ll try other podcast sites or dig deeper into podomatic. Now, get off your you know what and start podcasting. Podhead Dave