telephone tap/minidisc at DVinfo.net

Paul Bravmann · August 27th, 2004, 05:44 AM

i need to tape some telephone interviews as part of a documentary project. my phone has a headphone jack which i assume i can use as a line out. if so, i'd like to connect it to a minidisc recorder so that i can record a high quality digital file. (if not, i suppose i can use a good old fashioned radio shack wire tap, instead.)

i know that many of the older sony MD players/recorders are off the market. but is there anything still out there in $100-$200 dollar range that might do the trick?

thanks,
phb

Ronald Lee · August 27th, 2004, 01:42 PM

I have done this before, quite successfully.

However, I did it with this, which I bought from a Spy Store.

http://www.roboneo.com/eb7g/images/electronics_for_sale/DSC00905.JPG

It plugs into the PHONE JACK and the other end has a resistor/circuit to convert it into a mini plug.

Works great, worked very well for my documentary.

Hope that helps.

(by the way, I'm selling this as well).

Chris Thomas · August 27th, 2004, 11:47 PM

I have a Sony MZ-NF810 which you can pick up on Ebay for around $150 NEW and well under $100 used. It has great control over the line-in with manual level settings, and a mono recording feature for recording 160min of uncompressed fantastic quality audio. There are also 4 levels of compression that can extend the recording time quite a bit, with limited degradation.

One thing to note, your headphone jack on the phone will likely not capture any audio from the mic pickup on the phone, so your recording will be limited to the person on the other end unless you either seperate the chanels with a splitter into the minidisc, with an additional mic for your end, or use the phone jack adaptor noted above.

Marco Leavitt · August 28th, 2004, 04:23 PM

I did this for a woman at my job a couple of weeks ago. She needed to tape one of her sales pitches. She had a cheap gizmo (like $10) from Radioshack that had a miniplug output, and yes, it did get both sides of the conversation. I think it plugged into the phone, and the phone's handset plugged into it. Worked just fine. I had to output it to cassette tape and needed to really gain it up. It's hard to pick a level when you're recording that won't peak too high. Oddly, I thought the sound quality was better on the cassette recorders that were made for this purpose in the early '90s. I used them in college, and they gave you a nice, full sound. It's almost like the super clean digital format works against you somehow. Everything sounded kind of tinny, and you could hear every crackle in the phone line.

August 27th, 2004, 05:44 AM	#1
Paul Bravmann Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 44	telephone tap/minidisc i need to tape some telephone interviews as part of a documentary project. my phone has a headphone jack which i assume i can use as a line out. if so, i'd like to connect it to a minidisc recorder so that i can record a high quality digital file. (if not, i suppose i can use a good old fashioned radio shack wire tap, instead.) i know that many of the older sony MD players/recorders are off the market. but is there anything still out there in $100-$200 dollar range that might do the trick? thanks, phb

August 27th, 2004, 01:42 PM	#2
Ronald Lee Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Vancouver, Canada Posts: 435	I have done this before, quite successfully. However, I did it with this, which I bought from a Spy Store. http://www.roboneo.com/eb7g/images/electronics_for_sale/DSC00905.JPG It plugs into the PHONE JACK and the other end has a resistor/circuit to convert it into a mini plug. Works great, worked very well for my documentary. Hope that helps. (by the way, I'm selling this as well).

August 27th, 2004, 11:47 PM	#3
Chris Thomas Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Burlington ON, Canada Posts: 118	I have a Sony MZ-NF810 which you can pick up on Ebay for around $150 NEW and well under $100 used. It has great control over the line-in with manual level settings, and a mono recording feature for recording 160min of uncompressed fantastic quality audio. There are also 4 levels of compression that can extend the recording time quite a bit, with limited degradation. One thing to note, your headphone jack on the phone will likely not capture any audio from the mic pickup on the phone, so your recording will be limited to the person on the other end unless you either seperate the chanels with a splitter into the minidisc, with an additional mic for your end, or use the phone jack adaptor noted above.

August 28th, 2004, 04:23 PM	#4
Marco Leavitt Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Albany, NY 12210 Posts: 2,652	I did this for a woman at my job a couple of weeks ago. She needed to tape one of her sales pitches. She had a cheap gizmo (like $10) from Radioshack that had a miniplug output, and yes, it did get both sides of the conversation. I think it plugged into the phone, and the phone's handset plugged into it. Worked just fine. I had to output it to cassette tape and needed to really gain it up. It's hard to pick a level when you're recording that won't peak too high. Oddly, I thought the sound quality was better on the cassette recorders that were made for this purpose in the early '90s. I used them in college, and they gave you a nice, full sound. It's almost like the super clean digital format works against you somehow. Everything sounded kind of tinny, and you could hear every crackle in the phone line.