Lessons learned
Feb 1st, 2007 by Perry
Our conference call last Sunday went reasonably well, I suppose. However, after listening to it, I discovered that all three of the other parties on the call were combined on one stereo channel and my end of the conversation was recorded on the other. So I was unable to separate out the two guys who were on the phone (Forrest and Bob) and the other one (Phil) who was also using Skype, and the reason I was trying to do that was that Phil on Skype came through much more loudly than did either Forrest or Bob.
It is normally possible through software to increase or decrease the volume of one channel or the other, but since the three of them were combined on the one channel, I couldn’t balance their relative volume levels. That was a bit of a disappointment. It underscores, I suppose, the necessity of exercising a modicum of discipline, something we are not known for, by avoiding talking over the other person when they are talking. If we were all on Skype, the relative volume of each participant might be more equal.
Another thing I learned was that even though I had muted my mic while recording, I can’t talk to someone else here in my house while the recording software is running because even though the other participants didn’t hear the things I said while I had the mic muted, the recording software did.
Further experimentation and learning are apparently needed to yield a satisfactory result on a future call if we choose to do this again.