I put together a video guide on how to record an interview using Skype or Discord, so they can be exported as separate audio tracks for more control over editing. This article will provide a text guide to further detail the steps needed to set up your recording.
We’re going to need a few things before we begin:
- Voicemeeter or Voicemeeter Banana Download HERE
- Virtual Audio Cable Download HERE
- Audacity Audio Recorder or Something Similar Download HERE
- Skype or Discord
- If you don’t already have Voicemeeter or Voicemeeter Banana installed, grab it from the link just above as well as Audacity, and Skype or Discord.
- Install Voicemeeter and Virtual Audio Cable (both will require a restart).
- Set VoiceMeeter Output as default recording and payback devices.
- Set Voicemeeter Output as input device in Audacity and Voicemeter Input as the playback device in Audacity.
- In Skype Or Discord Set Voicemeeter Output as your microphone and Cable Input as your speakers.
- In Voicemeeter set your Microphone as Hardware Input 1 … Cable Input as Hardware Input 2 and your default sound device as A1 (what it will be listed as will vary depending on whether you have a sound card, USB headphones, on board audio etc.
- Using the Intellipan fucntion, you also want to set the audio position to the left for your microphone and to the right for your Cable Input. This will make Audacity think they are two separate audio channels.
- Hit record in Audacity and begin your call as normal. Be sure to check your audio waveform to make sure that audacity is only capturing your audio in on one channel and the Cable Input (Discord/Skype) in the other. I highly suggest utilizing the Echo/ Sound Test Service that Skype has built in, it simulates a call which will allow you to test your settings.
- After your recording, duplicate the audio track by going to Edit > Duplicate in the menu or by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+D
- Similar to what you did in Voicemeeter, assign your audio to the left using the audio balance slider. You can do this with either audio track, however I suggest making the top one the left channel so you know for a fact that track 1 will be your audio after you export.
- Now you can export both your audio tracks by going to File > Export Multiple or using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+Shift+L
- Name your file, and Audacity automatically number your tracks in descending order (top to bottom)
- That’s it! You’re done! You can also export a master audio file with both audio tracks embeded and synced up by deleting the duplicate channel and going to file export in the menu. Just make sure to move the audio balance back to the center or you’ll only export one side!
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Hi Nero! This is the first time I have been able to get Skype to sound good in Audacity recording. Sadly it is making my mic sound very quiet. Is this common or am I just missing something perhaps? Thank you, Paul
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Hey there! Good to hear you improved your quality! As for the quietness… Mind telling me what mic you’re using? It could be one of a few things.
Most commonly that occurs when the mic is set to be both input and output, so make sure you’re mic is only set as the input device.
Also, hop into Windows audio settings to make sure you have Voicemeeter VAIO set as the default recording device.
Lastly, double click your actual mic source to make sure the output levels are high enough (this setting gets changed sometimes when new audio drivers are introduced)
Hope that helps, report back either way, and we’ll get thru this! 😀
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Hi Nero! Thank you kindly for the quick reply! I checked the settings you recommended and still have fairly quiet mic. Even with level pushed up to 12db. My mic is the CAD GXL2400 USB mic. It usually sounds great for my podcast. Anything else you would recommend? Thank you again for your help.
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Hmm, if the levels and settings are right then the only other thing I can suggest is to maybe reinstall the drivers, and be sure to restart after each install. Sometimes the audio drivers conflict with the current ones.
Also it’s possible that the latest version of Windows 10 could be blocking it. If I remember correctly, VM needs to have low ish level access in order to do what it does, and recent Windows 10 updates have been known to block or cause issues with things that it may see as a threat. This happened with both my mic and webcam with various updates. So if you’re in doubt try reverting to a previous build of windows and see if that helps 🙂
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If you set Skype’s mic as the voicemeeter output wouldn’t that make your skype callers hear feedback of themselves?
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I use that very setting ll the time and have yet to run into this on an actual call, but this is still a great question. I’ll keep an ear out for it moving forward.
Thank you!
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In Audacity you could use [Split Stereo Track] . Audacity automatically split them into left track channel and right track channel. After that [Export multiple…]. That is used when you want to edit, mix and master final audio.
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You just saved me a step in my process, many thanks! 😀
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