A lot of times, the most convenient option for a guest to record an interview is to do a phone call. This video was a great resource for me in learning how to set this up
Here are my notes:
Gear:
- 3.5mm male mono to 1/4” male mono cable. One end is much like what you plug into a typical headphone jack, the other is thicker, and made to plug into your recorder. This is the piece I needed to be able to do this kind of call
- If you don’t have one, get an external recorder (like Adam, I use an H6 Zoom REcorder). Probably there’s a way to record directly on your computer (You can do this over Skype with the “Call Recorder” App by eCamm Movie Tools $30)
- Decent pair of headphones (these are just so guest can hear you, don’t impact actual recording)
- Mic Stand (so you don’t hear that rubbing sound as the mic shifts in your hand)
- Microphone (point it at your face, this determines sound quality)
Tips (or What I Learned From Playing Around With This Setup)
- What your guest hears is determined by your headphones, not your microphone.
- What gets recorded is determined by your microphone. Your guest will sound roughly the same in your ears as they do in the recording
- Sound quality is decent when the guest uses just their phone. Sound quality is best if the guest uses a nice pair of headphones while on the call with you.
- Turning up and down the volume/gain dials of your own set will change the recording, not what your guest hears. You can kind of hear when your voice gets too loud, so it’s nice to be aware of this. Likewise, you can dial your guest volume up and down to get what you want. I had the H6 dials tuned to about 5-6 for this purpose. As always, monitor how loud it sounds to you
- You can monitor the quality through your headphones. The stuff you hear is how the recording will sound.
- Finally, tell your guest that you’ll be calling from an weird number (you’re using Google’s number, not your own).