When recording an interview, you'll get best sound quality if all participants are using headphones instead of speakers.
Try to avoid the use of microphones built into earphones (like the Apple Airpods) - these are fine as headphones, but poor microphones.
As host, a microphone that you would use on air, such as the Behringer C-1U, is a good choice. We can't expect our guests to buy equipment, so use whatever they have - but if they have multiple options (such as a headset, webcam mic, or laptop microphone), testing all of them before you start recording may be helpful.
Using the Zoom app on the guest's mobile phone may work well if nothing better is available - and it'll almost certainly sound better than a plaint old telephone call!
Setting up Zoom for recordings
- Connect your USB microphone to your laptop
- In Zoom, click the Settings (cog) icon, then Recording, then Advanced, tick ‘Record separate participant audio files’:
Doing this allows you to ensure the audio levels from each participant are similar during your edit. It also lets you easily edit out any coughs while someone else was speaking. - Now start your meeting
- When prompted tick, Test speaker and microphone to check everything is connected correctly
- Follow the instructions and when you’re happy, click Join with Computer Audio
- Using the audio menu in the meeting, switch to Original sound for musicians:
- Once your meeting has started, press Record
Note; during the meeting you will not hear yourself in the headphones, but you can see an indication of your levels in the green bar inside the microphone symbol above the word Mute - When you have finished, just click End meeting
Zoom will save your recording automatically and prompt you to open it. By default it will be saved as an m4a audio file, so you may need to convert it to mp3.