I’m going to be conducting some phone interviews that will last about an hour or so each and we will need to record the conversations so that they can be transcribed for qualitative analysis later on. What type of equipment can I get to do this, assuming I have a standard office phone, a computer and so forth?
(The interviewees will know and consent to have the interview recorded, in case that is a concern.)
You can get a spiffy little phone-to-tape recorder interface from Radio Shack for about $30. You’d need a separate tape recorder to connect, and that’s another $30. I used these to do interviews at home, and this setup works pretty well.
I have not been able to find a direct phone-to-computer device that didn’t cost less than $750.
Robin
Thanks, I think I found that one when I was googling around. I’m glad to hear from someone who’s actually used it. I think we already have a recorder. They did in-person interviews for the first phase of the study before I came here.
That spiffy little $30 device you mentioned will do exactly that; just plug it into your sound card’s mic input, instead (with the necessary jack adapters, if so required). You have to manually start and stop the recording, but so what?
Uh-nuh. The one I has two jacks, one for the mic and one for the remote input. I don’t have a remote input (or anything like it) on my computer. Otherwise, yeah, it would work.
Robin
You don’t need it. All the “remote” plug does is switch the recorder’s motor on or off. Just let it hang loose and it works fine.
I use this hardware/software combo: Personal Logger. I’m a journalist and often have to record phone interviews. I got tired of dealing with microcassettes, and wanted something that would record straight to my hard disk. I did a lot of research and selected Personal Logger as the best of the lot. One of its major advantages for me was that it can tap into the handset of my two-line phone and thereby record either line. But it can also record through a mike input to your sound card or through a compatible modem. (I suspect that the mike option, as well as being rather inconvenient, would not provide the best sound quality.)
Unlike conventional audio recording software, Personal Logger automatically captures and displays date, time, and duration of the call, along with your notations about the content. If you use the line recording feature (instead of the handset or a mike) it can also automatically capture Caller ID of incoming calls, if your modem supports that feature. It records to .au format files, in folders named for the date of the recording, e.g. 20070709. I just checked one file, and a 22-minute conversation is a 10.5 MB AU file.
The playback software is convenient for transcribing. Not quite as good as having a foot-pedal-controlled tape recorder, but easy to use. Of course, the person doing the transcribing doesn’t have to use it: Windows Media Player or almost any other media player will play AU files. (One minor possible snag: the AU files have random numerical names, apparently unrelated to the date. The metadata for each recording is stored in separate XML and DAT files. So handing over just the AU files to someone else may be a little complicated.)
But in short, it’s a great product that should work very well for your described situation. And Hello Direct has it now for only $70.