Cellphone to Mixer for Podcasting?

[SoulOfJonas]

Anyone have any experience with an adapter like this:

iPhone 1/8 inch line-level audio input and headphone output adapter - 3.5mm 4 conductor TRRS Male to 3.5mm Headphone and Microphone Jacks with built-in Line-Level Attenuator

My cousin is asking about the cheapest way to add phone call capability to his shoe-string budget podcasting setup. I work a lot in AV and have used pro units by Gentner, ClearOne, JK Audio, etc. but those are all way out of his budget. After some searching I found the adapter above and figure, in theory, it should work. The big question is, though, would this also pick up that shitty cell phone interference like one gets putting a cell near a mic?

I know some other low cost options exist (below) but he wants to keep it as cheap as possible:
- cell http://www.jkaudio.com/daptor2.htm
- land line http://www.jkaudio.com/that-1.htm

-JV

[Cyan421]

a lot of people use skype for podcasts. why not that?

[GooberNumber9]

At first I was going to ask why you want to know ahead of time, just pick it up and mess with it. Then I clicked the link and noticed it's $30. You could try a Radio Shack run and see if they have a breakout cable for a 1/8" TRRS cheapter than that.

I made a shoestring podcast with a cable almost just like this and it worked great for guest stars connected by phone. It was before the popularity of smart phones, so I can't speak about any possible interference problems, which is really your question.

If there's a return policy, maybe $30 isn't too much for an experiment, assuming no one around here knows more.

[Gregg Juke]

Interesting. It would make sense if something like the iPhone or Droid was capable of something like that out-of-the-box (but watch out for the Droid; notoriously bad output jack problems).

I tried something like that a few years back with a similar adaptor, to no avail (but I've got a cheap and simple Verizon cell-phone).

The least expensive JK Audio interface is about $200, but well worth it. That's the route I'd go (went, actually).

GJ

[SoulOfJonas]

So I ended up telling my cousin to try out that adapter cable and if it works out, great. If not, then he'll probably have to invest in one of those JK Audio boxes.

Also, great point on the Skype calls. If they have access to another laptop then that might work out best for him and thankfully it would be the same type of i/o connections for most laptops and that adapter cable anyway (1/8" mini).

-JV

[SoulOfJonas]

So I ended up telling my cousin to try out that adapter cable and if it works out, great. If not, then he'll probably have to invest in one of those JK Audio boxes.

Also, great point on the Skype calls. If they have access to another laptop then that might work out best for him and thankfully it would be the same type of i/o connections for most laptops and that adapter cable anyway (1/8" mini).

-JV

[fossiltooth]

I would +1 Skype for this purpose.

I'd also mention that Google Voice allows you to record incoming calls. I use that for all my phone interviews. The only drawback with GV for podcasting is that both the interviewer and interviewee sound like they're on a phone line.

Skype is great for this though - You can even use one of your fancy pants studio mics and interfaces along with it. Hell, if the interviewee is using a computer rather than a phone, so can they.