[original post written in 2011, see below for Updates]
Click image to zoom in.
Here's a diagram of how I configure my Mac to locally record voice calls made in Google Talk (inbound and outbound).
I used Soundflower, LineIn and Audacity to record the comings and goings of the Google Talk Plugin.
Be sure to use headphones as this configuration has the potential to cause feedback if you don't.
To record a call, start by opening a new recording in Audacity, and then hit the record button.
Audio from Google Talk Plugin should then start flowing thru to the system speaker output (eg. headphones).
Initiate a call in GMail by selecting the "Call Phone" entry in the Google Talk widget, and the Dialer mole appears at the bottom right of the GMail window.
If you've started a recording in Audacity -- once you enter a number and press "Call", sound should come out the speakers.
If you don't know how to use Audacity -- go read it's documentation -- it's an audio editing program. When you're done recording -- remember to save it.
Notes:
There's a bit of delayed self-echo on the local headphones due to the echo cancellation coupled with a small (25ms?) delay incurred by using the "software play-thru" during recording in audacity, but it's reasonable, and doesn't affect call quality.
When not using Audacity to record calls, I usually either change my google talk plugin mic/speaker settings, or run a second copy of LineIn to bounce from SoundFlower(2ch) to my Internal Speakers.
UPDATE 1 (2024):
Latest free equivalent of Soundflower is Blackhole: https://existential.audio/blackhole/
Latest free equivalent of LineIn is either Garageband or Audacity, just set the input to "Monitor Mode" for play-through to occur.
Latest free equivalent of LineIn is either Garageband or Audacity, just set the input to "Monitor Mode" for play-through to occur.
[1] LineIn -- http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/
[2] Soundflower -- http://cycling74.com/products/soundflower/
[3] Audacity -- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
[4] Google Talk Plugin -- http://www.google.com/chat/video
[5] Garageband -- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785
[6] Audacity -- https://www.audacityteam.org/
Enjoy.
Thank you! This post was super helpful. Any hints on decreasing the self-echo?
ReplyDeleteThanks, glad it helped you.
ReplyDeleteI don't think much can be done to decrease the self-echo, but if anyone knows how, please let me know.
You could try unchecking
Enable echo cancellation (recommended)
in the Gmail Settings -> Chat tab:
https://mail.google.com/mail/ca/u/0/#settings/chat
and let us know if it helped. I don't recall trying it.
My understanding is there's always going to be some local delay since Microphone audio is buffered several times before reaching the speakers (LineIn -> Soundflower -> Audacity).
This is awesome, thanks so much! Any idea if you can get this working with Google Hangouts? It looks like they're trying to merge everything into Hangouts eventually...
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! Glad it helped.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried it with Hangouts, have you?
Hangouts offers the same device settings for audio input/output as the Google Talk Plugin, so I'd assume if configured to use the same input(default), and output(soundflower) it should work the same.