Date:21/06/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/ew/2004/06/21/stories/2004062100310401.htm

Back For smooth recording

I occasionally record my telephone conversations on my answering machine and later transfer them to my PC. But I've found that there's a lot of disturbance and noise in the output. So please suggest a solution whereby I can use the USB interface for connecting the phone line to the PC. A few engineers whom I've consulted recommend using a modem. In which case I would like to know if I could use the same modem that I currently use for my Internet dial-up connection for the purpose without it disrupting my Internet connection. Or would I need a new modem? Please explain. - Krishnamurthi

You can have any number of modems installed on your computer as long as you have free COM ports and slots to add them on to. If you want to do a phone recording you will require a Voice Modem to record the phone conversation. A voice modem is one that has voice input and output capability or, in other words, you will have a sound interface drive installed along with the modem for recording purposes. Once this modem and its sound drivers are installed you can record your voice conversation using any voice recorder by selecting the input source as the modem sound driver.

One simple way to identify a voice modem is looking for the MIC in and Audio in/out ports on the modem. Assuming you have installed the Voice Modem and its respective drivers, you can use any voice recorder to do the recording. Please download a few numbers at the following URL:

http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/gmm/fwaudiorecorder.html.

One outstanding pick among them is "Audacity". Once this is installed, start the program and select your recording source by going to File menu -{gt} Preferences and under the heading recording select the "Device" as the modem sound driver. Next dial the number using a phone dialer and press record on the recorder to start recording. If you want a product with dialer and integrated recorder, which does auto recording, please visit the following link: http://www.concelsys.com/voice_modem_software_call _recorder_logger_apr.htm.

Please e-mail us at eworld@thehindu.co.in if you have queries on computer usage or if you find an interesting way of using a computer.

Solutions by G.Rajah