016 – The Podcasting Gear Show – You Don't Need To Mix Minus Skype Calls - Rob Walch from The Feed Discusses An Alternative Skype Setup

In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain wrote, "she...knew more than one way to skin a cat." This phrase might seem gruesome to our modern sensibilities, but the essence of it rings true, especially when podcasters talk about recording Skype calls when co-hosting or conducting interviews. It seems that you can't go a week without hearing some way or someone talk about alternatives to recording Skype on your computer.

Many of podcasters rely on recording Skype using using programs are plug-ins, appliactaions, and programs that work with the Skype program. Audio Hijack Pro, which we talked about in this show, is one such program. While many podcast is find such programs to be satisfactory, the reality is that such programs can be very CPU intensive. Not only do you have Skype running in the background, but you've also have GarageBand, Audacity, or Adobe Audition. And then you have the program using the capture the call. This can use a lot of system resources and becomes a real big problem when fans kick it in on your computer. There are many ways around this.

Rob Walch, from the 411 Podcast, Today In iOS Podcast, and The Feed Podcast as well as a representative for Libsyn.com, a  really well-known podcast file hosting service, talks about his Skype set up and how you can record Skype calls without ever recording on your computer. While there are many alternatives to the equipment he uses to complete such a feat, it is the way it is set up that is important to note. I've included a diagram below of his detup that he graciously said I could share on this website. I encourage you to listen to the show. Let me know what you think of this set up. Do you use a similar setup? My setup is quite similar to Rob's although I use different equipment to accomplish the same purpose.