Online audio conversations, one-to-one interviews, on the phone recordings are all the rage now that a large number Internet users can tap into broadband. With a significant increase in Internet speed and amount of data that can be rapidly transferred, downloading a multi-megabyte audio file is not something reserved to a few anymore.

Even in major Indian cities, ADSL is making rapid inroads with a fast Internet line now costing less than USD $ 12/month.

In addition to this is the undisputable fact that audio conversations have a particular fashion about them, not so much for their novelty, but because they allow (where participants let this happen) a more spontaneous, natural and genuine exchange between humans. You can just "feel" it.

When talking in their own voice, from CEOs to geeks express their true characters, without the formal and untainted mask of a clean write up. In writing there are endless possibilities to touch-up, edit, refine and even rewrite any of the questions and answers taking place in an interview.

Not so, with audio.

While audio conversation can be edited to a certain degree, it is very difficult to edit substantial amounts of audio from an interview without making this clearly noticeable.

Even on Doug Kaye own ITConversations.com, you can easily detect Doug's expert hand having cut out pauses, informal interruptions and other not-ideal material from some of his very engaging audio shows. (No, that is not bad practice, and obviously, for an audience that may prefer clean and formal exchanges over eruptive and spontaneous ones this gets as good as traditional talk radio can be.)

The moment for this type of real-time recording application is so ripe, that I have not hesitated one moment in suggesting such feature integration to both Eric Rice of Audioblog.com and to Michael Jones of Userplane.com the dynamic entrepreneurs behind two of my preferred audio (and video) blogging services. What I told them was to seriously think about providing a two-person interface for their nifty audio recording/blogging services, allowing two persons to engage in an online conversation while recording it. From their reactions I guess they didn't take me too seriously.

Truth is that as very few online independent publishers can afford the costs of an audio setup like Doug Kaye's, there is a strong and growing interest around simple and cost-effective solutions that can offer effective audio recording of online audio conversations in formats that can be then easily distributed online.

Here is where Stuart Henshall, Bill Campbell, have gone a bit ahead of the group (as all good explorers do) and have returned with their hunting bags filled with a fascinating discovery for the would-be audio-blogger, online interviewer, independent online reporter.

With the determination, geek nose and patience that characterizes them, the two San Franciscans have brought back to us a true premiere: a full Skype audio recording setup.

To give fuel, momentum and extended interest to their valuable discovery, I have not only decided to give some good coverage to their idea, but also to extend it to include and compare it with my very own preferred solution.

Here are the first two of a growing number of solutions you will see appearing out there:
The Skype Recorder/Skypecaster and the iVocalize online conferencing room.

This is what they offer, how much they cost, where they excel and where they leave something to be desired. Read closely and you will find one solution that you can start using now to record and easily publish your online audio.

a) The Skype Recorder

This is not a product. This is an innovative idea and solution setup that new media communication experts Stuart Henshall and Bill Campbell have researched, tested and put together along with a nice PDF mini-guide that tells you all about how to do it yourself.
I have personally tested this solution with Stuart, and it does work. Quality of the recording may vary a great deal depending on the quality of the Skype connection, setup and configuration of your computer.
You can even play back during a conference conversation whatever was just said! (you obviously need to stop the recording to do that.)
The solution makes use of a little known software called VAC (Virtual Audio Cable), the ability to run multiple Skype profiles simultaneously on the same PC, and of the Windows Sound Recorder utility basic functionality.
System Requirements: The Skype Recorder works only on Windows XP PCs.

Pricing: about USD $ 40 for Virtual Audio Cables software (one-time).
Note: There are quite a few warnings in the installation document
that Stuart and Bill have prepared that clearly indicate that this is not a solution for non-technically oriented-users. Read closely what they have so generously prepared before you decide to dive into this.

Installation instructions: "Skype + Podcast Recorder = SkypeCasters"
http://tinyurl.com/44asj (PDF)
Recording sample: Download file

My solution:

b) iVocalize Online Interview Recorder

This also is not a product. It is my own self-discovered use of what I consider being one of the best VoIP/conferencing solution available today: TheiVocalize conferencing technology.
Though iVocalize is NOT a full-featured Web conferencing system, it is indeed a very cost-effective VoIP, co-browsing, and text chat conferencing system that offers good reliability, ease of use and a hard-to-beat price.
Among its less famous abilities, iVocalize integrates a very effective conferencing recorder which is able to record on separate files both all of the audio exchanges as well as text chat and Web pages viewed during a session. Audio is saved in a very compact .WMA (Windows Media) file, while all the rest is kept within a standard .HTM file.
I have recently published over 10 audio interviews/conversations with iVocalize and I have been very happy with the results. Listen to the recordings yourself.
The new, soon-to-be-publicly released iVocalize version 4, also supports Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
More info: http://www.ivocalize.net/products.htm

Try it out: http://www.ivocalize.com/ft/

Pricing: 3-people room $10/month
How to use it: To record, hit the File Menu, Record Presentation and select a folder/filename for your recording. The moment you click save you will be recording.

Recording samples: Here.

Who wins?

In my initial draft of this article I had written: "No-one. The world of communication tools should always be looked at in terms of alternatives and options."

I was wrong. The differences highlight the essence of this issue:

a) We badly need adventurous explorers like Stuart and Bill to thrive forward in searching always for moving forward the limit of what can be done, by using your own head. They provide insight, momentum and valuable discussion for
both the industry and the end users.

b) If we can do things with one-click albeit by using a commercial tool, we may save lots of frustrations to the many talented communicators who have no enjoyment for fiddling with the technical side of their computers.

Without taking away any of the merit that rightly belongs to them, which ultimately facilitated this very own article, Stuart and Bill have realized a superb geeky achievement (at least that is the feeling you get by reading their installation guide), though this is not one that can be easily adopted by non-technical users.

c) To be on the cutting-edge, we need not be all geeks.

But again, without their passionate effort I wouldn't be here sharing what I humbly think is a very competitive alternative.

Judge yourself, what may fit best your needs by looking at these critical differences:

Ease of setup: iVocalize gets you up and running in 3 minutes sharp from the moment you decide you want to use it. The Skype recording setup put together by Stuart and Bill requires at least a couple of hours if not a whole afternoon.

Cost: iVocalize is a quite small recurring cost ($ 10/month).
Skype Recorder is a one-time USD $ 40, plus some serious time on your hand to set it up the first time around.

Access: The Skype recording setup works only on PCs (with Windows XP). iVocalize version 4 supports users on PCs (all Windows versions), Macs and Linux machines.

Recording quality: Under ideal conditions the Skype recording is as good as the iVocalize one. Both are set-up by default to use a 16Khz encoding bitrate. Unfortunately Skype calls are nothing close to reliable, and quality may indeed vary from excellent to barely acceptable. Such differences in the Skype recording are generally attributable to PC configuration an setup, quality and speed of internet connection, overall Internet traffic, luck. iVocalize provides instead a smooth and 99% reliable audio quality under any wheather. No need to make another call to get a better connection. Audio quality in iVocalize is only related to the type of microphone you have.

Connectivity: Skype requires a broadband Internet connection to carry out any audio conversation. One-to-one calls can be carried out on a 56K modem, but in most cases, this is not something that I would advise doing. iVocalize on the other hand, can carry out audio conversations on Internet connections as low as a 28.8 Kbps with no degradation whatsoever in audio quality.

Capacity: The Skype Recorder allows for a maximum of four people to participate in an online conversation that needs to be recorded. iVocalize has theoretically no upper limit in the number of simultaneous attendees to an online audio conversation, though the monthly subscription price will increase accordingly. At $ 10/month, iVocalize supports a 3-person audio room capacity.

Audio interaction: Skype Recorder allows full-duplex audio conversation offering participants the ability to talk freely and at anytime they wish. Just like in a telephone call. iVocalize is setup to allow only one speaker talking at a time, like in a formal, traditional moderated session. While this may appear to be a limit, you need to critically evaluate whether it is really one. Even in Doug Kaye's classy interviews, which are carried through traditional phone lines, you will hardly hear two people talking together or intervening when the other one is talking (thanks to Doug preparatory notices to interviewees and to his refined editing skills). So while it is true that extra spontaneity and genuine exchanges are theoretically better supported by the Skype setup, it is also true that good recordings tend to steer away from situations where there are many such simultaneous voices talking, as this creates audio clutter and makes it rather difficult for the listener to understand what is being said.

Recording file format and size: The Skype recording solution records .WAV files, which provide lossless uncompressed audio quality. Files are huge in size. A twenty-plus minutes recording file in this format can easily run above 80 MB. iVocalize records natively in the .WMA (Windows Media) highly optimized and compressed audio format. Difference in quality is not easily perceived and file size for a similar length recording is between 2 and 4MB. Obviously the recording files from both Skype and iVocalize can and should be converted to other, easy-to-distribute, non-proprietary audio file formats like .MP3 before online final release.

Recording playback during online conversation: The Skype recorder allows playback of selected audio sections during an actual online audio conversation something altogether not possible in iVocalize. (It should be noted though, that to achieve this you need to stop the recording.)

Additional features: While the Skypecaster setup records only the audio, the iVocalize recording facility can be used to record also:
a) Text chat exchanges taking place during a conversation.
b) Web pages being collaboratively shown during the event.

Other solutions, ideas, tools?