Follow these steps to record Skype calls, using your choice of format and bitrate. (These steps assume you have Skype and CallBurner installed).

1. CallBurner defaults to MP3, 32kBit/s, 24kHz. You can alter this to use other formats and bitrates supported by the codecs installed on your machine. (Windows comes with a number of codecs preinstalled. Other products you may have installed on your PC may have installed other codecs. You can also obtain codecs – some for free, and some for a fee – from other vendors/web sites.)  

Note: This article is based on the codecs that were present based on a clean install of Windows XP with no service packs applied.

To alter the format and bitrate, click the CallBurner “Configure” button:

then click the “Recording” tab and the following will be displayed:

2. Click the “Audio Format > Change…” button to display the following dialog:

3. CallBurner comes with the following preset configurations.  To access these presets, click on the drop down button under the ‘Name’ title in the above ‘Select an audio format’ window.  When the drop down button is clicked, you are presented with these presets:

Note that the preset options are:

• CD Quality
• Radio Quality
• Telephone Quality

If you click on each of the presets, you can see the relevant recording format and attributes for each.

4. If you click on the drop down button next to the ‘Format’ title in the ‘Select an audio format’ window, you will see the following range of format options.

Note: this list will vary depending on which codecs you have installed on your computer:

Note that MPEG Layer-3 (or MP3) is the default selected format.

5. If you click on the drop down button next to the ‘Attributes’ title in the ‘Select an audio format’ window, you will see the following range of Attribute options (note: this list will vary depending on which codecs you have installed on your computer):

Fine tune the “Format” and “Attributes” settings to the format you desire, then click OK.

Note: not all formats are able to be converted from the Skype audio format. If the format you select is not able to be converted, you will be told when you click OK below. If this occurs you will need to select a different format.

6. Record Skype calls using CallBurner as you normally would – calls will now be recorded in the format you selected.

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

CallBurner has built-in “Anti-Drift” technology to keep both sides of the call synchronized.

Often, the speakers and microphone device drivers on a PC have their own separate internal clocks.  Although these all run at approximately the same speed, there are slight variations.  These variations can build up over time and on long calls can become quite significant, causing the recording from the microphone (your side of the call) to drift out of synchronization with the recording from the speakers (the other side of the call).

If you are recording long interviews, e.g. for podcasting, this can be a significant problem.

To overcome this, CallBurner has “Anti-Drift”, which monitors the clock speeds and automatically adjusts for any variations, by making small, virtually undetectable changes to the audio recorded for either side of the call.  You can see if this is occurring on your system by going to the “Stats” tab and looking at the “Pads” and “Trims” statistics during a call.

“Anti-Drift” is enabled by default – there is no need to turn on any options.

Got a question about Anti-Drift?  Leave a comment on this post and we will get back to you.

Follow these steps to record each party on a Skype call to a separate file.  You can use this CallBurner feature if you require each party to have their separate audio track.  One reason for recording each party to a separate file would would possibly be in the event of an interview (such as on a podcast for example) where the interviewer would like to edit the conversation in a later stage during post-production. Having each party in a separate file, gives you a lot of control and flexibility when it comes to editing the call later (i.e. one side of the call could be a too loud or too quiet and you can easily adjust the volume levels to make the overall conversation more audible).

These steps assume you have Skype and CallBurner installed. Do you need help with installing CallBurner, or perhaps installing Skype?

To configure CallBurner to record each party on a Skype call to a separate file, follow these steps:

1. Click on the CallBurner chilli icon in the system tray to bring up the CallBurner Call Monitor window as shown below:

2. Click on the ‘Options’ tab (4th tab from the left) as shown below, and then click on ‘Configure…’:

3. When you see the ‘CallBurner Options’ dialog, select the “Recording” (as shown below):

4. Note the ‘Advanced Recording Options’ panel of the Recording Options dialog.  In this dialog, you can configure audio encoding options, audio format options etc.  More information on audio encoding and audio format options.  To configure CallBurner to record each side of the call separately, you need to check the ‘Store raw audio in addition to the audio recorded in the format above’ checkbox.  When this option is checked, CallBurner will record a single file with combined audio to the file format specified in the ‘Audio Format’ section, and an additional two .wav files – one for your side of the call and one for the other side.  The separate wav files contain raw audio (as in, uncompressed audio) which can be then edited in your post production software of choice.

Note: CallBurner names each of the wav files with the following names, in the directory specified in the ‘Folder to store recordings in’ setting:

• ‘This side.wav’ – This file contains audio only from your side of the Skype call
• ‘Other side.wav’ – This file contains audio only from the other side of the Skype call

CallBurner can record ecah party to a separate file on the the following types of Skype calls:

• Skype to Skype (computer to computer)
• SkypeOut calls
• SkypeIn calls

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

Follow these steps to record calls made from an ordinary phone (landlines and cell phones) to your SkypeIn number. These steps assume you have Skype and CallBurner installed. Do you need help with installing CallBurner, or perhaps installing Skype?

1. You will need to purchase a SkypeIn number if you don’t already have one.  A SkypeIn number is a Skype feature which allows people to call you from a normal phone.  SkypeIn works just like a standard phone number – i.e. for the USA, you could have a SkypeIn number such as +1 987 555 5555 for example.  When someone calls that number from an ordinary phone, it rings through to your computer where you are signed in on Skype.

Tip: On the SkypeIn page (link above), you can select from a range of different SkypeIn numbers in different countries.  The best part is that you can select a local number in your local exchange so that people can call you on Skype for the cost of a local call.

2. Click on the CallBurner chilli icon in the system tray to bring up the CallBurner Call Monitor window as shown below:

3. Click on the ‘Options’ tab (4th tab from the left) as shown below, and then click on ‘Configure…’:

4. When you see the ‘CallBurner Options’ dialog, select the “Recording” (as shown below):

5. Note the ‘SkypeOut and SkypeIn’ subheading on the above dialog. The following options pertain to both SkypeOut calls (calls made from Skype to ordinary phones), and SkypeIn calls (calls made from ordinary phones to a Skype account):

• Record my voice only – This option will only record your side of the call (as in, your voice) in the event of a SkypeIn call with another party calling your SkypeIn number. If you select this option, you will only be able to hear your voice during call playback. This option is sometimes used by sales companies who want to record their side of the conversation for training purposes.
• Record all voices – This option records both your side of the SkypeIn call and all of the other parties in the call.

6. This dialog also allows you to configure advanced CallBurner options such as which audio format to record to, which audio encoding to use etc. See our How to record Skype calls using your choice of format and bit rate page for more information on these options.

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

Follow these steps to record Skype calls to ordinary phones (landlines and cell phones).  These steps assume you have Skype and CallBurner installed.  Do you need help with installing CallBurner, or perhaps installing Skype?

1. You will need to purchase Skype Credit to make Skype calls to ordinary phones if you don’t already have credit.  The term for making calls to ordinary phones with Skype is known as SkypeOut.  SkypeOut calls are relatively inexpensive compared to making calls on ordinary phones (especially when it comes to making international calls).  Here is Skype’s list of SkypeOut calling rates for your convenience. Tip: On the SkypeOut calling rates page, be sure to select your local currency from the “Show rates in” currency drop down box.

2. Click on the CallBurner chilli icon in the system tray to bring up the CallBurner Call Monitor window as shown below:

3. Click on the ‘Options’ tab (4th tab from the left) as shown below, and then click on ‘Configure…’:

4. When you see the ‘CallBurner Options’ dialog, select the “Recording” (as shown below):

5. Note the ‘SkypeOut and SkypeIn’ subheading on the above dialog.  The following options pertain to both SkypeOut calls (calls made from Skype to ordinary phones), and SkypeIn calls (calls made from ordinary phones to a Skype account):

• Record my voice only – This option will only record your side of the call (as in, your voice) in the event of a SkypeOut call with another party, or a multi-party Skype call (i.e. a Skype Conference, SkypeCast etc).  If you select this option, you will only be able to hear your voice during call playback.  This option is sometimes used by sales companies who want to record their side of the conversation for training purposes.
• Record all voices – This option records both your side of the SkypeOut call and all of the other parties in the call.

6. This dialog also allows you to configure advanced CallBurner options such as which audio format to record to, which audio encoding to use etc.  See our How to record Skype calls using your choice of format and bit rate page for more information on these options.

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

CallBurner can be configured to store the recorded calls you make on a central shared network file server. If you are using CallBurner in a business with multiple computers, you can configure CallBurner on each computer to centrally store the recorded calls. For more information on what a shared network file server, or a “network drive”, please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308582.

To configure CallBurner to store the recorded calls you make on a central shared network file server, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Options menu in CallBurner and then click Configure.
2. Click the Recording tab and then click on the Browse button on the right side of the Folder to store recordings in text box.
3. Select a Network Drive and path that you would like to store the CallBurner recorded calls on to from the Drives drop-down menu.

The following steps show you how to easily see statistics about a call during and after a call.

1. If you don’t already use Skype, download and install it from here. If you don’t already have a headset or a Skype Phone you will need to purchase one from your local distributor, or you can order one on-line here.

2. If you don’t already have CallBurner, download and install it from here.

3. You will see the CallBurner licensing wizard and the CallBurner Welcome wizard. Follow the prompts to ensure you have CallBurner set up the way you want.

4. The CallBurner call window will appear at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen:

5. Start a Skype call from within the Skype application.

6. Click on the “Stats” tab – CallBurner will look like this:

7. If you are in an active call, the CallBurner stats tab shows the following statistical information in real time about the call that you are on:

• File Size – the size of the recorded call on your hard disk. Tip: The word file is hyperlinked – if you click on the hyperlink, a folder will open up which shows you where that call is being stored on your hard disk

• Recording Health – how well your PC is coping with recording the call

• Time Elapsed – elapsed time of the call

• Time Recorded – recorded time of the call

• Seconds Dropped – amount of seconds dropped in the call

• Seconds Behind – amount of seconds that the recording is behind in the call

• Buffer % Full – depending on the available resources on your computer, a buffer is used

If you are not in an active call, CallBurner will show statistics about the last call.

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

Follow these steps to record Skype calls, using your choice of format and bitrate. (These steps assume you have Skype and CallBurner installed).

1. CallBurner defaults to MP3, 32kBit/s, 24kHz. You can alter this to use other formats and bitrates supported by the codecs installed on your machine. (Windows comes with a number of codecs preinstalled. Other products you may have installed on your PC may have installed other codecs. You can also obtain codecs – some for free, and some for a fee – from other vendors/web sites.)

To alter the format and bitrate, click the CallBurner “Configure” button:

then click the “Recording” tab and the following will be displayed:

2. Click the “Audio Format > Change…” button to display the following dialog:

3. Alter the “Format” and “Attributes” settings to the format you desire, then click OK. (Note: not all formats are able to be converted from the Skype audio format. If the format you select is not able to be converted, you will be told when you click OK below. If this occurs you will need to select a different format.)

4. Click OK in the Options dialog.

5. Record Skype calls using CallBurner as you normally would – calls will now be recorded in the format you selected.

If you have any problems getting this to work, we can help – just email us at callburner@callburner.com for assistance.

Here is how you can record phone calls or PC-to-PC calls on your PC.

1. Follow these instructions to set up Skype if you don’t already use it.

2. If you only need to record PC-to-PC calls, skip this step. If you want to record calls made from your PC to standard phone lines you will need to purchase Skype Credit. You can purchase Skype Credit here if you do not already have some. If you want to record phone calls made from standard phone lines, you will need a SkypeIn number. You can purchase a SkypeIn number here if you do not already have one.

3. If you don’t already have CallBurner, download and install it from here.

4. After installing, you will see the CallBurner application:

5. Go to Skype and start a phone call or PC-to-PC call. (NOTE: Recording also works for incoming calls, conference calls and SkypeCasts).

6. Recording will start automatically:

7. Hang up the call.

8. Click the “Play” button to hear the recording.

9. Previous recordings can be viewed and played back from the “Previous Calls” tab:

10. The recording (an MP3 file by default) is stored in your “My Documents\CallBurner\Conversations” folder.

If you have problems, refer to the troubleshooting tips here.