Anyone know a good cheap way to record phone calls?

[Methlab]

And know I'm not a stalker. It's more of a prank call thing my friend is doing..and he wants me to record and edit the calls...any cool ways to do it w/out spending a lot on the equipment?

thanks

[yardleyone]

i used to do phone interviews for a little indie rock pub and i just bought this cheap thing from radio shck that you plugged the phone into and it converted it to an 1/8 inch plug. I think i paid 9 bucks for it... I only ever recorded it into a very cheap handheld recorded so it never produced much quality, but sent into another device it could be alright. I mean a telephones not exactly a large diaphram condensor, so what the hell.

[vvv]

Try your answering machine.

[PatrickBrown]

If you hold the earpiece to a guitar pickup, and turn it up through the amp, it'll be loud and clear. Mike the amp.

[discs of tron]

i'll second yardleyone's reply. the cheapo radio shack thing works for me. the one i have puts out a mic level signal on a mono 1/8" thing. i use a 1/8" to 1/4" adaptor (also conveniently available at radio shack,) and send that into a 1/4" in on a mackie board, and from that into my computer.

[I'm Painting Again]

you can use a rotary phone with an old walkman headphone cable cut off to expose the wires and leave the 1/8" then strip the ends of the two channels and connect them to the correct screws inside the rotary phone..

[joel hamilton]

I have put a windscreen from a U87 on a cell phone, and taped it to a mic. That was really cheap.

Worked well though. The person operating the cell phone could hear what was going on through the headphones, and respond to the caller that way, with the mouthpiece hanging off the mic.

Ghetto for sure, but sounds perfectly ghetto....

[Rigsby]

Try your answering machine.

We used to have this answering machine that didn't cut out when you picked up, you had to switch it off. A guy who was organising this festival called and we had a little row as he wanted to change our slot to a time when the drummer (who would be travelling about 100 miles that morning to get there) couldn't get there for. I told him i needed to turn the answering machine off downstairs and could he hold on a minute but he wouldn't listen and kept on and on. Though i tried to explain the situation about the drummer he got pretty insulting and abusive but eventually we hit a compromise. Turned up to the gig a few days later and our slot had been cancelled without him telling us, he was afraid we'd use the tape. It was pretty good quality, so might be worth a try.

[Scodiddly]

you can use a rotary phone with an old walkman headphone cable cut off to expose the wires and leave the 1/8" then strip the ends of the two channels and connect them to the correct screws inside the rotary phone..

Clear as a button-hook in well water....

[vvv]

To expand, I have a Southwestern Bell digital answering machine, about US$30, where the ability to record phone calls is an option, not a bug.

[awolski]

I remember prank calls. I had the Radio Shack thing too - the part you attached to the phone was a little contact mic inside a suction cup you could wet and attach to the body of the phone. Totally got that Jerky Boys sound. Now days, practically everybody has caller ID, but you can block it, but then people can block caller ID block (when will the escalation end?!) so you gotta be careful if you're considering a project like that.

[ataraxia]

our poor kids will never have the prank call luxuary.do you have prince albert in a can...is your refrigerator running? my favorite was "is (someones name ____) there" and they go "no...i think you have the wrong number" and we would reply "then why the @@#$% did you answer the phone". MY other fav. call with super crappy headbanger music rockin in the back ground (with the best stoner voice)"dude...is your daughter home".
good times...

[JGriffin]

Keep in mind, it's also illegal to record a phone conversation without telling the person on the other end that you're doing it. Just my $.02.

[JASIII]

My favorite prank call we used to pull was to look up the name "Stoner" in the phone book and when they answered we'd say we were distant relatives, so we got to use lines like "I'm a stoner too" or "I'm in the army, so I'm Major Stoner", etc. Ahh the early 90's were great, before caller id.

[locosoundman]

Really? It was my understanding that only ONE party had to know the conversation was being recorded. The law might vary from state to state.