To Record Telephone Sessions I have found this system works best for makeing high quality CD's

You will need the following:

1. a good telephone (with head set if you prefer.)

2. the Inline Patch from JK Audio below.

3. A 3.5 mm stereo patch cord.  3.5mm stereo (two rings) (male male) on both ends at least as long as you will need to reach from where the Inline Patch box will sit and your computer.

4. Computer with a CD recorder

5. Recording Software  (I use Sony Soundforge 8) but there are many options here.

Optional:

A:  CD Labels and or label printer.

B: Telephone Headset

Each item is described below:

2. JK Audio Inline Patch is the esaiest and cheapest solution I have found.  We use this in Barbara's office with great results.

See how to hook it up below:

Mfg Site:  http://www.jkaudio.com/inline-patch.htm

Best suy at the time of publishing this page is: BSW
http://www.bswusa.com/proditem.asp?item=INLINEPATCH

You will need a 3.5mm male to male cord taken from the back of this unit to the "Line In" input at the back of your computer (Usually BLUE).  NOTE: using the 'Mic In' instead of the 'Line In' will cause a hum in the background all the time.  After doing this you will also need to follow the steps for configuring Windows sound below.

3. A 3.5 mm Male to Male Patch cord to connect the Inline Patch from JK Audio to your computer.

You can usually buy this from Radio Shack but if you'd rather buy online the best place I found tfor these things is Cyberguys.com

12 ft 3.5mm cord here

3.  Sorry but your on your own here.  Laptop or desktop with a CD and or CD/DVD Recorder or DVD recorder will do fine.  As long as it it is less than 4 years old it should be fine.  Available hard drive space should be no less than 2 Gigabytes.

4. Recording Software.

On Windows XP machines go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Entertainment>SoundRecorder

This is a very simple program built into Windows that will record your conversations once you have hopoked up the Inline Patch as illustrated below.

If it does not record then go into Control Panel and open 'Sound and Audio Devices'. (1)  Then click the tab 'Audio' and under the 'Sound Recording'    'Default Device' (Picture of Micropphone) click 'Volume'.(2)  Then make sure the volume is set high and the box underneath is clicked on 'Line In'.(3)

Once you record the conversation save it to a file on your hard drive and then burn that file onto a blank CD in your CD/DVD recorder.  That should do it.

If you like more control and want the capabilities to correct sound levels and even out the sound you can buy Sony Soundforge 8 for about $189 but there is a learning curve. Buy it here>   Or you can buy the Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio for $69.00 here>

A: Optional CD Labelr for ink jet printers

We use Sure Thing for $24.95  http://www.surething.com/ST/Category.asp?CatCode=DEFAULT

B: Option  Telephone Headset

I use one from Panasonic and I love the quality.  They are well made and high sound quality.  I also have many other headsets including several Plantronics that I do not like as well as the cheap ones. I have ones that I paid over $300 for that I do not like as muich as these. 

You can buy the Panasonic KX TCA60 headset (The one I use) here for $7.99>

Belkin has one online here for 20.95>

To make Audio tapes it is much easier:  After a while I got com[plaints from my customers that they did not have any tape players to listen to them on so I switched to CD's which are much better quality as well. 

But if you are interested in making audio cassette tapes of your sessions the easiest way is to get a portable recorder with AUTO REVERSE (a must!) and do one of two things:

1. Either take the out put from the InLine Patch above and put it into the microphone jack of your recorder:  In this case you have no need for the computer or the software.

2.  Replace the entire set up above with a simple but less adjustable system from Radio Shack for $24.95. See the picture at right.   Radio Shack link here>