OT: the current state of telephone hybrids

[Ian Alexander]

My working theory for Ian's less-than-great nulling experience (he has a digital hybrid; it oughta be pretty great) is that there is some kind of electrical difference between emulated POTS and real POTS. The phone may not know, but it seems that a hybrid "knows." Or, at least, for whatever reason, can't do as good a job with the null.

I could be wrong. Hard to find difinitive information on this stuff.

But -- this just in -- I think I'm no longer looking for answers around this because it has occurred to me that my client can do VoIP calls from the computer (Skype, Hangouts) and forgo the phone line, hybrid, and telephone altogether. Duh.

I have used the hybrid for tons of phone patch sessions, but I don't recall ever recording the hybrid caller output. I probably should do that to see how good/bad the null really is. It might sound a lot better in speakers than in headphones. Of course, one could record the host and the phone on separate tracks and edit or if you get lucky, gate the phone.

[Dave Labrecque]

I have used the hybrid for tons of phone patch sessions, but I don't recall ever recording the hybrid caller output. I probably should do that to see how good/bad the null really is. It might sound a lot better in speakers than in headphones. Of course, one could record the host and the phone on separate tracks and edit or if you get lucky, gate the phone.

Well, recording the caller out should sound fine so long as you're not talking. But, yeah, you could try talking and recording it (maybe that's what you're saying -- sorry)

I'd be interested to hear the results of any testing you do, Ian. But if you can hear it in your cans, I wouldn't think that bodes well.

The editing option is not very inviting for hour-long podcasts, I'm afraid. And I would fear inconsistent results with gating. Might be okay. Not as good as Google Hangouts, though.

It's fine for you, though, since you don't have to record both sides of a conversation, it sounds like, typically. Or any side, I suppose, if it's just the client or director listening in.

For a while in the early days of my business, I got by with the ol' "DIY Radio Shack isolation transformer wired into my office phone" approach to provide a signal to my console. Worked fine as long as I didn't have to be part of the recording. I even put a mute switch on my handset, cuz I'm clever like that.