If you’re a podcaster, and you don’t have any kind of professional-type hardware (a mixer, for instance), and you’re looking for almost the perfect way to record interviews via Skype relying just on software, then this is the solution for you.
Purely by chance, I discovered HotRecorder this afternoon. And let me tell you straightaway – this is HOT! It is perfect for recording both ends of a Skype conversation, so perfect for podcasters doing interviews.
No fiddling with things like virtual audio cables (with which I’ve had nothing but nightmares) and no re-configuring anything in your Windows set up. No tweaking your sound settings. Just install HotRecorder, reboot your PC – you don’t have to, but I recommend it – and you’re good to go.
I’ve been testing it this afternoon, and it works perfectly. Then Shel called me on Skype from the airport in San Antonio, Texas, and I recorded the call. Absolutely perfect! The sound quality is simply outstanding, as good as any I’ve heard by podcasters using professional equipment. It’s certainly far better than the sound quality you typically get with using Skype and a virtual audio cable set up.
HotRecorder is free. But, it records in its own proprietary file format, which of course is useless if you want to take a recording and include it in a podcast, because you can’t.
But there is a solution!
If you pay $14.95 for the Premium version, that also gives you access to a file converter, currently in beta, which lets you convert Hot Recorder files into either WAV or OGG Vorbis files. From there, it’s an easy step to convert that output to MP3 files using, for instance, Audacity.
I’ve not seen any one yet talking about HotRecorder as a podcaster’s dream software solution. Well, I’m talking about it. This really is hot – get it now!
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
