Very technical question (telephone landlines and podcasts)

Report · May 13, 2019

This may seem strange but this is what I would like to do. I want to take my old landline phone handset and use it as the microphone so I can do live podcasts with a caller on that type of phone with that type of phone. cost does not matter. I know there is a way via USB but getting it to the phone is the issue.

Thank you

Report · May 14, 2019

The quality of telephone microphones is complete crap - they are designed to do a very basic job, and very often they can't even do that properly. The 'technical' solution in the past for POTS (plain old telephone system) was to use a TBU (telephone balance unit) on the line, which meant that you could use a decent mic and headset at your end, and then you only had to put up with the slings and arrows of the telephone network and the dodgy microphone at the other end. Yes you can still get them, but they are not cheap. I realise that you said that cost doesn't matter, but are you really prepared to shell out several hundred pounds/dollars for one? Because that's what they cost...

And beware of the 'cheaper' solutions. Most of them simply don't balance properly, and you end up having to do massive kludges to get anything to work at all. This is in part why the proper ones cost so much - they actually work, rather than just promising to.

It's much, much easier to use Skype - even to an old landline (unless they've stopped that working - it always used to). Even mobile or cell phones make it easier than direct links into a landline, quite frankly.

I realise that it's probably not the answer you want to hear, but take it from an ex-broadcast engineer - that's how it is, I'm afraid.

Report · May 14, 2019

In the podcast I will be doing I want the listeners to realize that the other person is on an old phone or has called into the show. I am not looking to make calls or or take calls. I merely want the sound effect to sound like an old phone. I thought the easiest way to do that was with an old phone that I simply hook up as a microphone and talk into giving the complete effect that someone has called into the show when actually they have not..

I will be doing the on air talent on the main mic source and then switching to the phone microphone and then back and forth. not reall looking for quality in the way of sound but trying to complete the effect.

My problem is that I have no idea how to hook it up to the computer since all telephone have the old phone jacks.

Report · May 14, 2019

thomash93813917 wrote
I merely want the sound effect to sound like an old phone. I thought the easiest way to do that was with an old phone that I simply hook up as a microphone and talk into giving the complete effect that someone has called into the show when actually they have not..
I will be doing the on air talent on the main mic source and then switching to the phone microphone and then back and forth. not reall looking for quality in the way of sound but trying to complete the effect.
My problem is that I have no idea how to hook it up to the computer since all telephone have the old phone jacks.

I wouldn't do it that way at all (it won't work anyway - see below). You can create a perfectly fine telephone distort in Audition using the parametric EQ to limit the bandwidth, and the distortion effect. You might also want to add a bit of compression as the first thing in the chain. You can set the whole lot up as a chain in the Effects Rack and use it wherever you want.

Your difficulty with using the actual microphone is that a) they aren't all the same b) the really old ones are carbon mics, and you stand no chance at all with those. Your real problem though is that it won't achieve what you want it to. This is because the characteristics of a telephone call aren't created by the microphone handset, but by the bandwidth-limited and distorted transmission chain the call goes through - which is what you have to simulate using Audition.

Report · May 14, 2019

If cost is no issue then Audio Ease - Speakerphone - real speakers in their natural environment is the answer. It is a plugin used by many film and television post production companies to reproduce all sorts of poor quality audio comms devices.

Report · May 14, 2019

D&R TELEPHONE HYBRID-1 INTERFACE Single channel analogue - TBU

Check out ipDTL (IP ‘down the line’) for the ability to dial out to ISDN and POTS.

otherwise Zencastr good software option (with Loopback to get to Bluetooth iphone)

or look at Ringr, Source Connect, Zoom.us, Cleanfeed.net...

let us us know how you get on.

EQ surely easier if you just want to match POTS handset.