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How to Record Your Skype Calls

How do you record Skype calls?

So you want to record your conversations on Skype. Perhaps you are trying to start up your very own podcast, or maybe you just have a weird Nixon thing going on. No matter the reason, recording conversations on Skype is made extremely easy these days thanks to some awesome software out there.

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Tutorial: Recording Your Skype Calls

Depending on how you’d like to record the conversations, either all audio at the same time or each person individually, the software you need changes slightly. So, what is it that you’ll need in order to start recording?

A Good Internet Connection

This is a super important factor that people seem to overlook. If you don’t have a good internet connection, then the audio from your recording is not going to sound good. If your connection can’t handle hosting the conversation you may get audio that drops in and out or the “robot” effect on peoples voices. If your connection struggles, but you have no other way to record, then follow the instruction for recording each persons audio individually.

Skype (Not for Windows 8)

Obviously you need Skype in order to record your Skype calls. The only reason I put this on the list of things to have is that I have found issues with the Windows 8 version of Skype. Just for the sake of ease, I recommend using the desktop version of Skype if you have a PC with Windows 8 installed on it.

MP3 Skype Recorder or Pamela (If you’re recording all audio at once)

MP3 Skype Recorder and Pamela are two very easy to use pieces of software that do a great job recording Skype calls. It is as easy as installing them, then making sure they are already running when you begin a Skype call. The software will just begin recording automatically, saving the file to a location you can alter in the settings. This makes it the easiest option for recording your calls, since you literally just have to have it running in order to get it going. You can’t however do much beyond start recording and stop recording. Plus whenever you stop the recording it will begin recording onto a new file, not continue the one you had before.

Pamela is a bit more customizable and overall a better piece of software, but with the free version you only get 15 minutes of recording time. If you need a longer recording then either drop the $25 to get the full version or use MP3 Skype Recorder. If you are using the software for something like a podcast, then obviously 15 minutes isn’t very feasible. The free version of Pamela is best used for short conversations, just make sure you don’t run over. If you don’t want to pay for Pamela then MP3 Skype Recorder may be a simple and plain software but it gets the job done without any hassle

Audacity (For recording individual audio and editing)

Audacity is probably the best audio editing software you can get your hands on for free. Lucky for us, it also has the ability to record any audio. So, if you are recording all the audio individually instead of as one big group on your call then Audacity works great. All you have to do is make sure that your recording device is set correctly, and hit record before you start. Unlike the other two recorders, Audacity is not going to start recording automatically all on its own. The other big advantage of Audacity as recording software is that you have a lot of options to customize the recording a head of time. The only downside to recording individually is that if each person has different settings as they record, you are not going to have much uniformity in the audio to begin with.

Once you are all recorded you are either completely done, or you need to edit the audio. If you need to edit then Audacity is what you are most likely using. It is free, it is great, there is very little reason to not use it. If you recorded all of the audio separately, then once each person sends you their chunk you can use Audacity to edit it together. Equalize, remove pops, cut out audio, do whatever you feel you need to do to the audio. Once it is all done you can export the file into a type of your choice and do whatever it is you plans to do with it.