Phone Patch

[adam43]

Hey everyone:

Can anyone explain how a phone patch works. Does it go directly into someone else's board? What do I buy on my end and how do I connect it?

Lastly, can you recommend a particular model and is it dependent upon what the other guys equipment is or are they universal?

Thanks again

Adam

[Smithcok]

What do you mean by "phone patch"?

[Audio Criminal]

Sorry to see your question sat here so long without an answer. I just found this site today and you gave me a reason to register. Lemme see if I can give you a satisfactory answer.

Phone patch is the old school term used to describe a Telephone Interface. Its job is to connect your audio gear to the telephone in a technically correct manner that doesn't damage your stuff or create problems for you with the phone company. It also does good stuff like optimizing the audio circuit and reducing or eliminating hum.

Let's say you are interviewing a rock legend and he's in his hotel room talking to you on the phone. Whatever quality of recording you make is what you'll live with forever more because he won't do it again because your recording sucks. What you'd like to have is the absolute cleanest, most pristine audio that's possible within the limitations of a phone line. That's the primary purpose of the phone patch.

They come in handy anytime you want to record the content of a phone call. I've used them for years to gather "sound bites" for journalistic and advertising purposes.

In addition to making recordings on your end of the phone call, most phone patches allow you to send your previously recorded audio down the phone line. Forget about holding the phone next to a speaker. Here, what you're doing is directly piping your audio to the phone line. We call this electrically coupling the audio signal as opposed to acoustically coupling. It's usually makes for a much cleaner audio product reaching the person on the other end. Field reporters have been known to unscrew the mouthpiece of telephones while coupling electrically to keep any extraneous noises from appearing at the far end.

Probably in the more info than you want to know category: Top of the line units are used in broadcasting, very prominently in talk shows. Those machines do fancy signal distribution to smooth out the audio that goes to air while controlling what the caller hears.

If you search Telephone Interface you'll find all sorts of info and there are numerous manufacturers. IMHO as an independent audio producer and former broadcast technician, the JK Audio Inline Patch is the way to go if you are looking for professional results without getting into the really expensive units. I sold mine a year ago and I've regretted it ever since.

Good Luck!