How do I connect an iPhone and digital recorder to record calls?

October 22, 2015 10:06 AM

I do a lot of interviews by phone. I want to connect my phone (an iPhone 6) to my digital recorder (the amazing little Sony ICD-UX533) so that I'm recording both sides of the conversation. Sounds easy enough, right? Not so fast.

If you use a standard splitter cord that has two male plugs to go into the iPhone and recorder, and one female input for the earbuds (the ones that come with the iPhone, which have a mic), you lose half the conversation because the iPhone and earbuds uses a 4-conductor TRRS connection whereas the recorder uses (I believe) a standard 3-conductor TRS connection.

I think what I'm looking for is an adapter cord that has a male TRSS plug that goes into the iPhone; a female TRSS input for the earbuds; and a male TRS plus for the recorder.

Do you know if this is right? Are you successfully using your iPhone and a separate digital recorder to record calls, and if so, how? The best possible answer will tell me exactly which cord to buy.

Thanks!

posted by bassomatic to Technology (8 answers total)

This is not a direct answer to your question, but is there any reason you wouldn't use one of the apps that allows you to record calls on your iPhone? I've had good results with an app called Call Recorder. IIRC you do have to pay some money to use the service—it's pegged to how long the call is, but I don't remember it being very much money overall.
posted by toomuchkatherine at 10:30 AM on October 22, 2015

I record calls too with a digital recorder like yours (different brand though), but with a landline. And I use a headset. So I have a splitter that links the three things (phone, recorder, headset) together. I may have bought the splitter from this site, but I'm not sure. It might be worth exploring to see if there's something that could work an iPhone.

One issue is the recording records only in one channel, so I use a sound editing program (Audacity) to make the recording two-channel mono.
posted by Leontine at 10:38 AM on October 22, 2015

See my question and final comment here.
posted by sardonyx at 10:38 AM on October 22, 2015

I have used the Olympus TP-8 with great success in recording both sides of phone calls, no wiring to the phone side of things so it's simple to set up.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:10 AM on October 22, 2015

I don't have an answer to your question, but I highly recommend the app TapeACall. You'll have to pay like $10 but it saved your recording to dropbox. It's awesome.
posted by Brittanie at 11:36 AM on October 22, 2015

Response by poster: Is there any reason you wouldn't use one of the apps that allows you to record calls on your iPhone? I prefer to use the Sony recorder for all interviews I do. It's designed specifically for voice recording, so I can do an interview in a car or on a boat and there's no background noise in the playback. Its controls for playback and transcription are really good too.

I highly recommend the app TapeACall. You'll have to pay like $10.... I'd rather not pay a subscription fee.

See my question and final comment here. This looks like the best solution so far! I'm still hoping I can find a cord that will let me use the Apple earbuds, but this could work well.
posted by bassomatic at 11:45 AM on October 22, 2015

Response by poster: I'd hoped to find a cord that would let me connect my iPhone, earbuds and recorder, but despite trying a bunch of different cords and combinations I couldn't get it to work. So I've ordered the poetically named VEC CC-40 Smart Phone Hands Free Headset/Record Adapter from Dictation Warehouse per sardonyx. Thanks all!
posted by bassomatic at 10:28 AM on October 29, 2015

Response by poster: Update: the VEC CC-40 didn't work. Double checked the connection, but while it recorded the voice of the person on the other end of the call, it didn't capture my voice, and the earbud itself is flimsy and uncomfortable.
posted by bassomatic at 4:21 PM on October 31, 2015