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Recording Voice mails to hard drive

Aganack1

Senior member
Hello my parents have 30 saved voice mails on there messaging service we leaves space for 3 new ones, and they wont delete any of them. is there any way we can save them to their hard drive... if so what equipment/software do i need?
Thanks
 
Well, there's probably a better way, but I can't think of it, so here is what I know works:

Get the cheapest phone you can find. Tear apart the handset and find the wires running to the speaker. Clip the wires and attach a mono mini jack plug in place of the speaker. Plug this mini jack into the line-in (or microphone input) on your computer's soundcard, and plug the phone into the wall. Dial into the voicemail system (probably easiest to use another phone on the same line for this) and use your favorite recording software to record the voicemails as they play.

Ok, so this is lacking in elegance to the point that I'm embarrassed to post it, but if you want to go to the trouble, it will work.

Cheers,
Warden
 
You could try the duct tape approach. Or maybe just do it by hand.

Find a old set of nice headphones. Maybe one with 1 speaker broken.

If you take a speaker and plug it into a input on a sound card you can talk into it and record yourself.

Pull one side off, and the press it down on the phone speaker. Maybe wrap a towel or something around it to mask the ambiant noise. Duct tape it all together if you don't want to sit and hold onto it.

Plug the end of the headphone jack into the mic input on your sound card. Turn the gain (or whatever) up on the mic input because it will act as a unpowered mic.

Maybe if you have one of those old phones were the end caps screw off you can do that so that the phone reciever's speaker will be realy close to the headphone speaker (which is now acting like a pick up on a mic).

Bet it would work. Sound quality can end up being crap, or may turn out suprisingly good if you use a high-quality headphone setup and everything is nice and quiet. Maybe also try using the regular input on your sound card instead of the mic input...
 
I was wondering if there was a way to use a voice modem to call the phone systems and record it that way?
 
Oh ya. I almost forgot.

The technically correct method is to use a very nice Data/voice/Fax modem. You should be able to easily use a nice modem to record phone stuff.

there are even software to turn you computer into a nice answering machine if you want.

The trouble is that your run of the mill winmodem probably won't be that hot at it.
 
Yeah, been a long time since I used a modem as well. I think, however, that most any voice modem will work if you have the right software. Check here for some ideas. :light:

Cheers,
Warden
 
My solution is not nearly as creative as The Warden's. I will have to try that someday.

I record calls to my PC on a regular basis for work. And yes, I always do notify the other party.

Here's the recording control device that plugs in between wall and phone. It then plugs into your sound cards Line In port.

For software, I use this.

Basically, I simply fire up the software, and click record and the conversation or voicemail goes straight to MP3 or WAV.

I have tried the modem route but was not satisfied witht the results.
 
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