VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Rob Ellis]

To make Skype work as a phone patch, does it matter whether the other person is on Skype or not? I had an easy time making it work a few months ago, but can't remember if the other person was on Skype or not.

If you're calling out to a non-Skype phone, do you have to rout the audio in some way so that they can hear you? In testing on my own non-Skype outside line, I can hear it fine in my headphones, but it doesn't seem to be able to hear me.

Help! Session at 2:30 EST . Thanks

[sirmelja]

Hope this worked out well for you, Rob. I've never tried a Skype patch calling out, much less to a non-Skype phone. Wonder if it would be different if it was the phone calling in? Let us know how you did.
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[Jacob Ekstroem]

Rob, maybe too late but....

it should not matter whether the other person has Skype or not.

In general, think of the soundcard you use with Skype as a regular hybrid phone patch. The "INS" and "OUTS" are exactly the same. Meaning, you should hook it up to your mixer just as you would do with a hybrid like the JK Audio or whatever.

The problem may lie in routing correctly if you try to use the soundcard in your DAW. That is why I always suggest the use of a separate PC for a Skype phone patch. Install it on a cheap secondhand laptop, they can be found for peanuts, hook it up to a cheap USB soundcard like a Behringer (that's what I use) and connect everything just as you would if the USB soundcard was a JK. Works like a charm.

So Rob, are you familiar with working with a regular phone patch, I mean setting up an "AUX Send" in your mixer?
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Regards,
Jacob - Danish Voice Overs (try it... it sounds really funny, too!)

[Rob Ellis]

Thanks everybody.

Jacob, I have a second laptop that I could use as you are describing. Would I still need to hook it up to a mixer? (I have a Mackie 1202). I also have a
JK Audio Hybrid but I'm not fond of using it.

All I know is, about three months ago, I did a session through Skype and to the best of my memory, all I had to do was dial the # through Skype, and as soon as we connected I could hear him through my headphones, and he could
hear me talking into my mic, clear as a bell.

Not so this time, so I just went with a wireless phone headset and did the session. It went fine, but I would like to figure out Skype for future reference.

[Jacob Ekstroem]

What kind of soundcard do you have in your PC?
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Regards,
Jacob - Danish Voice Overs (try it... it sounds really funny, too!)

[Jacob Ekstroem]

The main reason why I use a mixer, is flexibility. I like to be in total control of what I do, not to be controlled by the limitations of having a simple interface. It may not be the easiest way, but it certainly is the most flexible.

It IS infact possible to use Skype for phone patch witout a mixer, but I haven't tried and never will. But no one explains tech-stuff better than George W. so I suggest you go here and let him walk you through it:
http://eldorec.com/storage/docs/George_Whittam-Skype-Oct2010.pdf
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Regards,
Jacob - Danish Voice Overs (try it... it sounds really funny, too!)

[Rob Ellis]

Apogee Duet or MOTU Ultralite

[georgethetech]

Rob:

Simply assign the same input and output for Skype and your recording software, that's all you should have to do.
If your recording levels seem to have a mind of their own while using Skype, you may need to do as explained a few weeks ago in this post.
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