Recording phone conversation with imovie

Question

Hello,
for the purpose of my course in linguistics I have to record convesations for conversation analysis.
At this moment I have found the counter parts agreeing to cooperate, and accepting to be recorded.
I have SKYPE which I find useful and I have Imovie.
BUT Imovie does not render a good sound for the other party. My voice is clear but no the interlocuteur's one.
Also Imovie sometimes records, sometimes does not and I only know that after listening which is very annoying, because some parts of conversations will not be able to be reproduced as I have to record live to get a natural speech.
Well MY 2 QUESTIONS ARE:
1) How can I make imovie more reliable and also how can I make the recording of both speakers equal on the recorded item?
2) if the above cannot be solved, does a software exist to record phone conversation on Mac?
Thank you in advance to those who can answer me.
Kind regards,
Kat

Answer 1

No, you don't really want an iMic if you're using a Skype phone.
An iMic is for using a separate microphone to go INTO the Mac. But you don't need that: you're already using the microphone in your Skype phone.
Maybe you're using the Skype so that you get cheap phone calls, but if you used an ordinary loudspeaker phone connected to an ordinary phone line, then you wouldn't need to record on the Mac; you could simply use an ordinary microphone connected to an ordinary Mini-Disc recorder or cassette recorder.
I can't really give you any more detailed information, as I can't hear exactly what you're getting via your Skype phone, and I don't know what settings you've used on your Mac, or in the Audiocorder software.
All I can tell you is that Audiocorder - or possibly even GarageBand! - should work with your Skype phone ..if you get the volume settings right. If you don't need to use your Mac for the phone calls - via Skype - why not just forget about using the Mac to record things, and use a device which is meant for making simple recordings ..that's to say a cassette recorder, or Mini-Disc recorder, plus a microphone, plus a telephone with a loudspeaker in it, so that you can easily record both sides of the conversation?