I’ve always been a stickler for documenting what I do. Partly because it’s simply more effective: I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Partly because documenting what I do is an invaluable source of material for information products.

I’ve been doing audio recordings for years but it’s always been a slightly cumbersome process: I record phone conversations using an Olympus DS-30 digital recorder. It’s a terrific little recorder and it’s still great for recording live events.

But turning those recordings into downloadable mp3 files requires several steps to get the file from the recorder to an MP3 uploaded to my web server.

And I’ve tried recording phone calls directly to my PC & skipping the recorder step but the sound quality sucks.

So I’ve invested in a couple services which will make it just about seamless to record and distribute audio:

1. Callburner

I use Skype for about half of my calls. To record Skype calls I use Callburner.

I started with a free trial version of the full-featured Call burner which will record any call through my Skype connection.

If you choose not to purchase the full version of Call Burner after the 30-day trial, you can continue using the free version of Call Burner which will record Skype to Skype calls in which all parties have Call Burner installed.

When the full version period expired I decided to purchase the full version license (about US$65) because the recording quality was excellent and Call Burner produces a labeled MP3 file I can easily upload.

2. FreeConference.com Unlimited Recordings for US$9/mo.

I’ve been using FreeConference.com’s free plain vanilla services for years. They’ve always been fantastic when it comes to offering a reliable conference line.

They just recently added an unlimited recording feature for US$9/mo which my colleague Jim Brosseau recommended.

I used FreeConference.com’s recording service yesterday doing an interview with Eliana Gilad (Voices of Eden). The service worked without a hitch and FreeConference emailed me a link allowing me to download the recorded call.

Even better I don’t have to upload the audio file to my own server to make it available to others. I simply send them the email with the link information.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 8:16 am and is filed under Product Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.