Comments on: Recording a Podcast on your Mac using Skype and Audio Hijack Pro

By: Hernandez

Hernandez — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:04:06 +0000

I use SkypeCap too.It’s one of the best Skype recorders I have had to deal with. Highly recommended.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:40:20 +0000

OH… hmmm… well if you are on the Mac and using Audio Hijack Pro to hijack the Skype stream, instead of piping it out to a WAV file, I *think* you could probably select the “Mic” input source and pipe audio into that source, which Skype will feed back to the folks on the other end.

This is all in theory, I haven’t actually tried it… but I’d be really curious to know if it worked.

By: James Gregory

James Gregory — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:12:36 +0000

Great summary Riyad. Any suggestions on how to pipe music through your skype call such that the person(s) on the other end can hear it?

By: qwert

qwert — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:55:35 +0000

I record conversations with SkypeCap for Mac.. I think Must help…

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:43:09 +0000

Queen,

Glad I could help! When I tried to do some podcasts on Windows Vista, I was amazed at how hard of a process this way to find a really fluid solution for it — on the Mac it’s definitely a walk in the park mostly thanks to Audio Hijack — that’s a great piece of software.

Happy recording!

By: Queen of Norway

Queen of Norway — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:46:32 +0000

Thank you! Kudos to you! Lots of it!
This is what I have been looking for. I have been trying to find out how to record the Skype call on two tracks using Audio Hijack Pro, and I have had to do it with VoiceEmotion on my PC – because there you have a choice to record on two channels. Now I can get back to my beloved Macbook Pro and do the same thing!!! I can’t wait to test it out! Thanks again!

Love and Peace,
Queen of Norway

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:06:07 +0000

That is an honest answer. Thanks, I’ll check around. You have been so helpful already!

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:45:13 +0000

Bridgette,
I’m glad to hear you got things working… as for the volume, when I started working with audio records (I’ve been doing screencasts for the last year) low-audio has been one thing that has popped up from time to time and I have no idea how to figure out what levelling needs to be done to stop ti from happening.

The entire podcast series I did, each time I published a new one the company I did them for asked “Could you make them louder?” and I couldn’t without blasting the audio (like you found out).

So for the series I did, I just let folks turn up their speakers… sorry I know that isn’t much help, I just don’t know.

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:00:59 +0000

another question please. I have the first podcast up. It took some time, even though I have recorded several I was waiting for music and an introduction from a friend. Anyway. I have the first podcast up and the levels are so low. I was wondering if you have had that problem? I’m doing just as you said, Skype, audio Hijack and garage band. I can’t seem to find a way to get it any louder without going into the red. any suggestions? THe podcast can still be heard but the listener will have to turn up their volume.

Thanks in advance

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:19:01 +0000

Bridgette, that’s awesome I’m glad it’s working for you now!

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:38:29 +0000

I was able to get my voice track by itself. It might have something to do with the extra little program that audio hijack kept asking me to download. It also appeared like it was saving it as the same file, so I made a separate folder for my voice and save it there. I can not however get my voice off of the skype call. I’ll keep poking around. any suggestions?…

Got it ! I had to go into the advanced hijacking options and set plays inputs through and switch that to mute! Then everything worked. I posted my work around so that if others finding your post can see what was done. Thanks again!

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:00:28 +0000

O.k. I tried to open two, and it still recorded as one. I must be doing something wrong. I also need to turn of my own voice in my headphones because it drives me crazy. I will figure this out. any suggestions. By the way I am no doing skye to skype

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:50:48 +0000

Bridgette,
The reason, at least back when I did it, to setup two record sources is that you are recording output audio from the Mic and Application… Skype doesn’t replay your own audio from your mic back out, that’s why you need to record both and then put them together.

Also I did do a podcast with 3 or 4 people, and as long as they are all on Skype (or you are calling them using SkypeOut) it doesn’t matter, you still only need the two recording:

* Mic
* Skype

it’s really slick.

The only trick is that since both streams start recording at different times, when you drop them into Garage Band, you have to line up your Mic stream with the Skype stream correctly, but you should be able to do that easily enough by listening to both of them play together and adjusting them a few seconds off from eachother so your questions/talking lines up with the folks on Skype.

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:25:53 +0000

Sorry i should have said that last post was by me,

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:25:13 +0000

I think I got it, originally I did not see the difference in the two screenshots. Question. Doesn’t your mic come through on the skype application side? Doesn’t it hear your voice and tape it as well?

I would assume everything is still heard through the skype by the participant or in my case participants.

also any suggestions since this is a conference call, 3 party podcast? Thanks for answering these questions I’ll be trying this shortly . Also check out this video it is great. http://www.digitalpodcast.com/podcastnews/2007/12/25/how-to-record-a-podcast-using-skype/ and have you used the levelator that they recommend.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 04:12:36 +0000

Bridgette,
You’ll have to bear with me, I no longer have a Mac so I’m doing this from memory.

Also as a tip, if you click the screenshots above in the post, they will enlarge, which should help you identify different screens more easily.

As for how to use AHP, the basic idea is to setup AHP to record the audio coming out of two sources:

1. Your mic (for what you say into Skype)
2. The Skype application (for what the person or people you are talking to are saying).

You then use Garage Band to overlap the two audio streams on each other.

In the two first screenshots I show the recording tab in AHP, and how to add those components to record from.

I think if you play around with AHP it’s pretty easy to figure out, if not, try and follow some of their help on how to record audio from a Mic and how to record audio from an application.

Sorry I can’t be more specific, I did sell my Mac almost 2 years ago, so just going from memory.

I hope that did help some though.

By: bridgette Mongeon

bridgette Mongeon — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:27:19 +0000

Thank you for this post. May I ask if you could go into detail a bit further. I have AHP, and garage band and want to set this up for a phone podcast, but I have no idea what setting to use or where any of this goes? I am not an audio tech person, just an average person trying to figure all of this out. I have been using garage band on my videos. http://www.creativeendeavors.blip.tv. but have no idea how to begin to use AHP. When said you set up two tracks one must have been in the recording and one in the input? more assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Bridgette

By: hockeyshooter

hockeyshooter — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:03:49 +0000

Yes, it is absurd that GarageBand can’t make MP3 files. How very “Microsoft” of Apple to create software that ignores existing standards.

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:44:32 +0000

Very cool, I’m glad it helped.

By: DougUp

DougUp — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 20:08:15 +0000

Thanks so much for the posting on converting GarageBand to MP3! Helped me tremendously just now!!!! Great post!

By: Riyad Kalla

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:22:21 +0000

I’m glad it helped. I was really surprised when I originally searched how little consistency there was out there on how to do this whole thing. I hope I’ve been successful in consolidating it all down into a “read this, then go make a podcast” set of instructions.

By: Emirates Mac

Emirates Mac — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:53:08 +0000

Thanks for the instructions. I’m struggling with much the same issues so it helped a lot to see someone having some solutions.