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I've been listening to enough poor-quality phone/Skype podcast interviews, and figured that someone should build an interview tool that will setup a real time c

I've been listening to enough poor-quality phone/Skype podcast interviews, and figured that someone should build an interview tool that will setup a real time conference, exactly like Skype, but also record the audio in high quality at all remotes and then transfer the recordings afterwards and mix them together with correct timing, so it sounds like all parties are in the same studio. Perhaps even do some magic to mix out the latency, even though there would be some weirdness to work around when participants speak over each other and go "sorry, go ahead".

CharlesW 9y ago
This is a common way to record remote interviews (since the mid-1900s, I think), and is called a "multi-ender" (or "double-ender").[1] They're straightforward to do manually. All parties participate in a recorded "1-2-3-clap" at the beginning and end of the call, and the claps are later used for sync. There are also many "assisted" solutions, including Cast[2], Cleanfeed[3], Ringr[4], and Zencastr[5]. Some folks find them useful, but the additional dependency also means more things that can go wrong. Anybody using them has learned (or will learn) that they must record the live/VoIP portion of the call as well, as backup. [1] Wikipedia calls this a "phone-sync" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone-sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone-sync), which is not a term I've ever heard people actually use. [2] https://tryca.st/ https://tryca.st/ [3] http://cleanfeed.net/ http://cleanfeed.net/ [4] https://www.ringr.com/ https://www.ringr.com/ [5] https://zencastr.com/ https://zencastr.com/
- mseebach 9y ago
  Excellent, I'm happy (and feel validated) that this exists. As this would replace Skype (or whatever conferencing tool you're using), it's not really an additional dependency, is it?
  - CharlesW 9y ago
    > As this would replace Skype (or whatever conferencing tool you're using), it's not really an additional dependency, is it? It is in the sense that those solutions are not only replacing the realtime part of the call, but additionally must do separate source-quality call recording and post-call file transfer sessions for each participant. I've lost calls (or would have, if I hadn't recorded the realtime part) with more than one of those solutions because of unrecoverable errors on participants' sides. I'm reluctant to name them since (1) they in turn depend on browsers and their WebRTC implementations, and (2) in my experience different podcasters will swear by and swear at the same solution. Here's how I'd order the reliability of common remote recording scenarios, from most to least reliable: (1) Landline-to-landline (2) Landline-to-mobile or mobile-to-mobile (3) SkypeOut-to-landline/mobile (4) VoIP-to-VoIP — Skype, Discord, whatever. (5) Manual multi-ender — Can be done very reliably if remote participants are reasonably comfortable with recording audio. Still requires a POTS, mobile, or VoIP call for the realtime part. (6) Assisted multi-ender solutions — Generally way less reliable than manual multi-enders. In my experience and from talking with other podcasters, expect 1/20 calls to fail.
eropple 9y ago
These exist. What doesn't, and what I'd pay nontrivial (but not vMix Call) money for, is a tool that separated out individual audio and video streams into separate NDI streams for video mixing and composition.
user5994461 9y ago
I've found Skype to have a great quality. It's normal phone calls that are terrible, especially mobiles and across continents.

CharlesW 9y ago

This is a common way to record remote interviews (since the mid-1900s, I think), and is called a "multi-ender" (or "double-ender").[1] They're straightforward to do manually. All parties participate in a recorded "1-2-3-clap" at the beginning and end of the call, and the claps are later used for sync. There are also many "assisted" solutions, including Cast[2], Cleanfeed[3], Ringr[4], and Zencastr[5]. Some folks find them useful, but the additional dependency also means more things that can go wrong. Anybody using them has learned (or will learn) that they must record the live/VoIP portion of the call as well, as backup. [1] Wikipedia calls this a "phone-sync" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone-sync https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone-sync), which is not a term I've ever heard people actually use. [2] https://tryca.st/ https://tryca.st/ [3] http://cleanfeed.net/ http://cleanfeed.net/ [4] https://www.ringr.com/ https://www.ringr.com/ [5] https://zencastr.com/ https://zencastr.com/

mseebach 9y ago
Excellent, I'm happy (and feel validated) that this exists. As this would replace Skype (or whatever conferencing tool you're using), it's not really an additional dependency, is it?
- CharlesW 9y ago
  > As this would replace Skype (or whatever conferencing tool you're using), it's not really an additional dependency, is it? It is in the sense that those solutions are not only replacing the realtime part of the call, but additionally must do separate source-quality call recording and post-call file transfer sessions for each participant. I've lost calls (or would have, if I hadn't recorded the realtime part) with more than one of those solutions because of unrecoverable errors on participants' sides. I'm reluctant to name them since (1) they in turn depend on browsers and their WebRTC implementations, and (2) in my experience different podcasters will swear by and swear at the same solution. Here's how I'd order the reliability of common remote recording scenarios, from most to least reliable: (1) Landline-to-landline (2) Landline-to-mobile or mobile-to-mobile (3) SkypeOut-to-landline/mobile (4) VoIP-to-VoIP — Skype, Discord, whatever. (5) Manual multi-ender — Can be done very reliably if remote participants are reasonably comfortable with recording audio. Still requires a POTS, mobile, or VoIP call for the realtime part. (6) Assisted multi-ender solutions — Generally way less reliable than manual multi-enders. In my experience and from talking with other podcasters, expect 1/20 calls to fail.

eropple 9y ago

These exist. What doesn't, and what I'd pay nontrivial (but not vMix Call) money for, is a tool that separated out individual audio and video streams into separate NDI streams for video mixing and composition.

user5994461 9y ago

I've found Skype to have a great quality. It's normal phone calls that are terrible, especially mobiles and across continents.