Friday, November 11, 2005

Recording Skype calls over OS X with Audio Hijack Pro

I will try this for a work meeting Skype recording this Monday coming. Report to follow. Note -- I will be recording with permission.
Rogue Amoeba - Audio Hijack Pro for Mac OS X - Features

Podcasting is the newest fad to hit the internet, and Audio Hijack Pro will help you get in on it. A podcast is simply a radio program you create and post online. Once you do this, people around the globe can download your show and have a listen. Thousands of people are creating their own shows and tens of thousands of listeners are tuning in.

With Audio Hijack Pro, you can rapidly create your own programs and then share them with the world. From simple microphone recording to much more complex shows containing music clips, multiple hosts, and even voice chat (from applications like Skype or iChat), Audio Hijack Pro is the perfect way to create your podcasts. Download Audio Hijack Pro and see the 'Recording Podcasts' page in the manual (under the Help menu), then get podcasting!
Update 11/14: Groan. A debacle all around. In no particular order:
  • My Logitech USB (or OS X) headset has an odd bug. When you first plug it in, the headphone doesn't play any sound. You have to go into sound preferences and click mute on and off again. This bug caused about a 30-60 of wasted debugging time.
  • Audio Hijack doesn't record Skype, only AudioHijack Pro. This not specifically documented anywhere and it doesn't appear on the product comparison list. You must infer the lack of support by the absence of a specific mention of iChat or Skype. [correction 11/16: This is in fact the last row on the comparison table. Unless it was just added I missed it. So my main complaint about AH is unjustified.] I bought AH then bought AHP. Same total cost as they credit the AH purchase, but I probably wouldn't have bothered with all this for the $32 cost of AHP. AH support felt this really wasn't an issue.
  • AHP's documentation on how to do this is inconsistent (documented twice, somewhat differently) and incorrect (tells you to start Skype first, which is wrong unless you have installed an optional framework I prefer to avoid, one version of the documentation doesn't mention you have to monitor output ...).
  • Even if it did work, the procedure for doing this in AHP is complex and trouble prone for most of us.
  • Finally, and most painfully, when I got this to work I ran into two problems with Skype. I couldn't use the toll free number (Skype has an odd area code) and when I dialed the toll number the AT&T conferencing system didn't recognize the key tones Skype generates.
  • At one point in my testing either Skype or Audio Hijack crashed OS X hard. Completely dead. No response to anything. I had to power cycle.
In other words, a complete failure!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds painfull, I'm Pc user and had some problems with trying the best skype recording software. Finally i choose SkypeCallRecorder for one's quality and complitelly free download.