Recording online with two persons in audition

Report · Jun 22, 2020

I would like to record an audio fragment with my friend online. Both are in another city and using our own computers and microphones. Is this possible in audition?

Report · Jun 22, 2020

It is, but it's easier not to, as there's a fair bit of setting up to do, and there are easier ways to achive what you want. One of the issues with this is that a lot of computer manufacturers don't like the idea of you being able to record what is streaming over the internet, and make it as difficult as possible to do so. If you are going to use Skype, then fortunately there are a number of Skype recording apps (some of them are free) - there's a typical list here but I'm sure that there are others too. These apps do a bit of tunneling in your computer, locate the incoming streams directly, and record them, giving you a file of the conversation.

The neat trick then is to get your friend to record their side of the conversation at their end at a higher quality than the Skype transmission, and send you a file of it. At your end, you need to do something similar. As well as feeding your mic to Skype, you feed it to Audition too, giving you a higher-qualty recording of your side than the Skype recorder one. If you place the Skype recording onto a single track in Audition, it's then relatively easy to line up both of these other recordings with it. Now, if you remove the Skype recording, it sounds as though your friend is in the room with you, resulting in a much better-sounding interview. So you mix that down to a single file, and edit it.

Report · Jun 22, 2020

Thanks a lot, will try that! You mean that my friend has to record the conversation aswell? And what do you mean exactly by that my friend has to record with higher quality and send me the file at the end? Is this because maybe her quality of the conversation is better?

Thanks in advance

Report · Jun 22, 2020

Yes, she has to record it as well. The quality of Skype is nowhere near as good as making a local recording - it's also likely to break up, as the Internet is not much better than a piece of wet string when it comes to being a communications link. Think telephone line... so her sending you a copy of her end of the conversation gives you a much better chance of hearing all of it.

Even if your friend uses the mic built into a laptop, it will sound better if she records it locally. That's not the recommended way of doing it - there are plenty of good cheap USB mics around now, and she doesn't even need Audition - Audacity would do fine. All she needs to do is make sure that the mic is set as the recording device for both Skype and whatever she's recording on. Yes, you really can do this - I've tested it and it works fine.

Or, as I suggested earlier, she could use one of the free Skype call recorders - the local part of the conversation should record fine on those too - for the same reason; no wet string involved!