Taping a phone conversation, part 2

[nancylebov]

When I asked last time, I was told about a thingummy you can get at Radio Shack to send the sound from the phone into a tape recorder. I got one, and it almost works--that is, it records, but so faintly and with so much hiss that the conversation isn't quite audible even with the tape player turned all the way up. I was using 90 minute tape. Should I use noise reduction tape? A new tape recorder? (The one I've got is pretty old.) Something else?

Comments

[madfilkentist]

What you've got is a signal level matching problem. The recorder isn't picking up a signal at a high enough level to get it on to tape usefully. The kind of fixes you mention could get you cleaner sound (which might be enough, depending on what you're trying to do) but not a better sound level. Start by checking if the connections are good, and see if there are any switches you can adjust; but if that doesn't change anything, you need to amplify the signal somehow. Radio Shack might have some kind of cheap signal amplifier for tape recorder input.

Someone who actually knows audio electronics might have better suggestions than this.

[whc.livejournal.com]

Does the recorder have both a line input and a mic input? The Radio Shack device is probably made to connect to a mic input, which expects a low level signal.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about that--it's got a little slot that's labeled microphone, and a round input that's labeled phones. The jack didn't fit into the mic slot, so I used the one marked phones. It's probably a miracle that it recorded at all.

[whc.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's time to take the recorder and phone adapter to Radio Shack and figure out what it takes to connect it to the mic input.