For the longest time, many (most?) podcasters recorded shows using a combination of Skype (that we all love to hate) and Ecamm’s ingenious Skype Call Recorder (that we hate to update, seemingly once a week). It seems that between continual changes with Skype and Apple’s release of Apple Silicon, Ecamm has decided to stop updated Skype Call Recorder. Jason Snell has the full story. This really represents the end of an era for folks making podcasts.

So for the first time in a long time, I’m looking seriously at podcast recording tools again. For several years now, I’ve been using Audio Hijack as my primary podcast recording tool. It, in effect, relegated Skype Call Recorder to a backup system for me. (But when it comes to making podcasts, backups are good!) Below is my Audio Hijack setup for recording the Mac Power Users.

When I took the above screenshot I didn’t have my MixPre (Audio device) or fancy headphones plugged in, but you can get the idea. I’m able to make three simultaneous recordings in Audio Hijack with 1) me alone, 2) everybody else on the call without me, and 3) a combined audio file. Usually, I only need that first recording but if the other person’s recording fails, I can use that second recording for a separate edit track. The third, combined, recording can be used to sync audio.

I can’t recall Audio Hijack ever failing me. Nevertheless, I really felt good knowing I had that Skype Call Recorder backup. With its demise, I can make a backup of me alone using QuickTime, but it’s really not the same. I’m not capturing the entire call. I’ve been talking to other podcasters about this dilemma and the collective wisdom seems to be leaning toward moving the entire recording process over to Zoom. Zoom allows you to make a recording of the entire call as the backup. Audio Hijack will remain the primary recording, I’ll just point it at Zoom instead of Skype. I’m not alone in reconsidering the workflow. I think Ecamm’s abandonment of Skype Call Recorder is going to end up changing the way a lot of podcasts are recorded.