Friday, March 1, 2013

Audio & Video recording Skype Calls, what works and what doesn't

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I use Skype to broadcast my live Radio Show in Detroit each week from Chicago and an important function is to record the audio files so that I can upload them for my podcast at Podbean, which is one of the best podcasting services I use so far. I chose Podbean after dropping Libsyn.com, which was far too expensive and had issues. Podbean seems to be most efficient and easy to use.

Up until last week, I was using PowerGramo for Skype to record my calls. Although it is a decent recording system, PowerGramo had some issues. It constantly forced you to upgrade. They were always making changes to it. I don;t mind upgrading but it was always a hassle once I upgraded to have Skype and PowerGramo sync. That didn't always happen automatically. I had to manually instruct Skype to sync it.

But in the most recent upgrade, PowerGramo did something and when I recorded my last two radio shows, although PowerGramo reported everything was recording properly, it suddenly only started recording one channel, not both. In other words, it recorded me when I talked but not the guest on the Skype line or any of the audio coming in to Skype. It just heard me and recorded me -- even though I off course could hear the audio coming in from Detroit.

I was using a conference call feature to call the radio station and a guest or co-host. Skype worked great, PowerGramo did not. After many years of using PowerGramo I deleted it from my system. I can only give a software program one shot to work. Second chances do not come easy.

My first attempt at a replacement was to download and purchase for $36 Pamela Recording Professional. The biggest problem with Pamela is they offer no instructions on how it works. That's the big problem with programmers and computer geeks. They think that just because they get it, everyone else should. It's not intuitive. It has a lot of features with no explanation, one of the worst forms of software I could possibly imagine.

But, Pamela works. 

While looking for some operating instructions and finding a lot of garbage Youtube videos by people 
who also don't know how to communicate very effectively, I stumbled on something called SuperTinTin. SuperTinTin claims that it is far better than Pamela. I mean they brag so much so I figured, ok, I will try it. I downloaded and purchased a registered system for $29.

Boy does SuperTinTin suck. It is one of the most bug-infested software programs I have ever tried. The claim that it is better than Pamela comes from SuperTinTin itself in a very misleading blog that pops up when you look for comparisons between SuperTinTin and Pamela. SuperTinTin trashes Pamela a lot.

But when I tried SuperTinTin, I had endless problems.

First, SuperTinTin recorded a background clicking noise. That was something that the SuperTinTin blog claimed only happened with Pamela.

SuperTinTin has very few options to control your recordings. The recordings are not clean.
OK. I lost $29. But that's ok because this blog brings in a lot of revenue. That's why it is popular. I purchase everything so that you don't have to when the software sucks. And SuperTinTin is terrible.

I recommend not buying SuperTinTin at all.

The truth is that Pamela is just OK but the sound quality is good and it records properly on first installation. But it really needs someone who speaks English and knows how to talk to human beings to develop some basic instruction manuals and user manuals so that normal people -- not idiot geeks -- can use the many features that it offers.

Pamela so far is my best recording option for podcasting and broadcasting with my video camera, too. But that's only because I haven't yet found the perfect recording software.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com