Impressive (PC-PC) FREE "unlimited talk time" Internet Telephone: Check it Out !

Hi fellow Synthzone members & friends. I recently discovered Skype:
http://skype.com/

an internet telephone software which allows you to voice chat (UNLIMITED & totally FREE) online (PC to PC) to anyone anywhere around the world that has a PC as well. A couple of years back, I had used "Dialpad" for free internet telephone voice chatting, but the poor signal quality (voice delay, echo, static & drop outs), and limited talk time before calls got automatically dropped, soon became annoying.

With "Skype", a fast DSL/Cable speed PC internet connection, and a 'headset w/mic', those annoyances are now a thing of the past. With Skype, you can talk (unlimited talk time & FREE) to anyone anywhere in the world who also has a PC with a DSL/Cable speed connection, and a headset w/mic. The voice sound quality & clarity rivals a regular telephone connection and with no echo or delay to boot. In fact, I recently had an enjoyable free internet telephone conversation with an arranger keyboard buddy who lives in Belgium and it sounded like he was right next door to me here in California. There was no noticeable audible delay or any echo. By adding a Webcam, you can take the internet telephone experience a step further and not only hear the person on the other end play their arranger KB, but WATCH them (on LIVE video webcam) playing their KB as well. What a great way to demonstrate & share playing tips & techniques, etc with fellow SZ arranger keyboard enthusiasts anywhere around the world. Interested in internet telephone chatting? Email me.

Scott

See you Monday evening

Hi Scott,

Yes, Skype is a great telephony program and leaves the others for dead, but I don't think they have the video facility just yet.

Cleon

Arcadia,
you are right, but you can use a webcam with a program like MSN Messenger and use it together with Skype.

Hi, skype works well. You have also another similar application. Look at http://www.voipbuster.com/en/onhold.html

Franky

Hi Scott,

What is the advantage in using Skype over MSN Messenger?

Thanks,

Dave

Scott,

Am I interpreting the site correctly where it says you can call regular telephones throughout the world for 2 U.S. cents per minute? If this is the case, which I hope it is, this would be a fantastic deal. I'm just wondering how they would go about billing you for the call.

Let me know,

Gary

Probably prepaid. Two cents a minute is what I pay for long distance. I can't remember the name of the service at the moment. Dial a toll-free number, enter pin, enter phone number. Easy. It's prepaid, ten dollars minimum.

Gary...I have a simular program here in my restaurant in Cozumel Mexico and the cost is even less...I can place a phone call to the US for under $.039 per minute.....the deal is that you have to open an account with them
and prepay with a C/C in advance....say you put in $20.00 in your account...you then have that much calling time, you can check your account balance or phone call movement by going ot your account...at least that's the way mine works.....it really is great and the co. that I use is called inter-fone..
it take it's own telephone that connects to the computer which is what I like...no need for headphone and microphones, just pick up the receiver and dial.....cheers...
how's the Hard Drive coming????

Tony



[This message has been edited by Tony Rome (edited 04-24-2005).]

Dave, Good question. For instant text messaging, MSN remains my #1 software choice, but Unfortunately (at least with my computer), MSN Messenger's voicephone feature won't work unless I disable/lower my PC Firewall settings, which is a risky proposition at best. Skype, on the otherhand, allows you to keep your PC's Firewall turned on (mine is: Norton Personal Firewall) & set at full security.



Gary, "SkypeOut" allows you to call any regular telephone (in the world) from your PC. I've never used or tried SkypeOUT before, but to use it, you must first pre-purchase CREDITS with your credit card (Mastercard, Visa, etc) which is then applied to whatever calls you make. Here are some more SkypeOut FAQ answers: http://www.skype.com/help/faq/skypeout.html

I'm personally recommending (and sticking with) the 100% FREE PC to PC service offered by Skype: http://www.skype.com/products/
for chatting with Synthzone buddies (on computer) around the globe. Skype FREE PC to PC internet voice telephone promises to bring SZ members even closer together.

Dreamer (Andrea Rotolo): Looking forward to our FREE Skype voice telephone chat (California-Rome) tomorrow (Monday),

I'm looking forward to hearing from other fellow SZ members (around the globe) interested in chatting FOR FREE with me on Skype. Please email me if interested.

Scott

Marcel Schoeber: Please re-send your email re "Skype" to me again. It got deleted by accident before I was able to open & read it. Thanks - Scott

I've tried Skype some time ago, but for overseas connections, the sound sometimes goes in and out, just like MSN. It does allow for bigger files to be send though.

But for a "quality" conversation with Europe, I use http://www.1010987.com now. It's simple, fast and cheap at 3 cents a minute and it just ends up on your regular phone bill, no hassle.

John

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Have a nice day

I just had a chat with Scott on Skype, for the first time: the sound quality was amazing (it sounded like we were in the same room). We were even able to jam together on our keyboards, trading parts on a few songs, without noticeable sound delays.
All I can say is: what a wonderful time we are living in!

Had a terrific voice & music making (jam session) with Andrea Rotolo (Dreamer) today via live internet telephone: from San Francisco Bay Area, CA to Rome, Italy.

The audio quality was simply AMAZING. We both have DSL/Cable computer connections, so there was absoulutely no audio latency, dropouts, or echo. We could even talk concurrently (at the same time) without the other person's voice dropping out. The audio quality is actually far better than my regular telephone sounds, talking to someone living down the street.

Andrea had visited me (and played music together with me) here in Berkeley a couple of years back so the Skype 'PC to PC' internet voice connection felt like the next best thing to jamming LIVE together. With headphones & mics, we spent a wonderful hour jamming (with our keyboards) and me singing too (with my voice finally back in decent form), on tunes (from Jobim to classic jazz standards). It was fun to call up tunes to each other on the fly, and play together: Tyros to Tyros, muting the auto accomp parts except for drums & bass, and playing in all other parts live.

Thanks to Skpe internet for making this 'across the globe' LIVE interactive music making possible. Because of the impressive sound quality and no more of the audio latency & dropouts of the past, it's now finally a reality to be able to make musc LIVE with ANYONE anywhere across the globe, and it's TOTALLY FREE to boot. I'm in heaven. I again encourage others to check Skype out. This revolutionizing music making possibilities. Anyone else want to play?

Scott

This happens because Skype does not use the same networks as MSN/other communication software. It uses p2p (peer-to-peer) networks [the ones used in Kazaa, for example] and they seem to allow amazing quality standards (particularly good because of rare or in many cases inexistant interruptions). I have been using it to keep in contact with friends in the USA and Canada (fixed phone, not PC-to-PC) at much lower rates than the ones practiced by the companies operating in my country (unfortunately the fixed phones market is in practice a monopoly, in POrtugal, preventing the prices of communications to be lower).

New forms of collaboration over broadband internet are one of hottest and most promising fields in this moment. Stay tuned in the progresses we will see in a near future!

Those interested in voice over internet might like to read this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4254399.stm

-- José.

Hi Guys,

My Skype username is bluenote_x , if you want to, you can add me to your list .
Thanks,

Greetz ,
Marcel

It was a lot of fun chatting with Wazza (Netherlands), Shakeel Ahmed (Pakistan), and RichUK (Portsmouth GB, UK) on Skype today. What amazed me was even though Ahmed was on a slow dialup line (32k), the quality of our conversation was still half way decent, and with no (or very little) audio delay. With DSL/Cable, speaking to the others, the audio quality was fanstastic & with no voice delay or echo whatsoever.

Ok, here's (I think) the best way to configure Skype with your keyboard & mic for keyboard jamming & singing LIVE via Skype. If your keyboard includes a mic input (as most arrangers which include a built in vocalizer do), simply plug your mic into your keyboard, and send your keyboard L/R output into your PCs LINE IN jacks on your PC's sound card. You'll probably need a Y cable to convert the two 1/4" (L/R) audio outputs of your keyboard to the 1/8" stereo mini jack input (LINE IN) on your computer's soundcard. Once this is hooked up, all you need to do is don a pair of headphones & plug into the audio out (headphone jack) of your soundcard. You will then be able to voice chat thru the vocal mic plugged into your keyboard, and play your keyboard, with both parties concurrently playing (and singing) & heard concurrently. It's would even be possible (I think) to record the LIVE jam performances via audio recording software (Sonar, Total Recorder, etc) though I'm not exactly sure exactly how to set this up. Any recommendations?

Ok folks, my Skype username is: scottyee

Look forward to meeting, chatting, and possibly even jamming together LIVE on Skype with fellow Synthzone members soon. Email me to set up a Skype chat session.

Scott

This might interest you, it connects regular telephones to Skype
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-192-ProdID-UP101.php

It was great to meet you today Scott !!
The quality is amazing and the latency is minimal....much better than Buddyphone a few years ago.

As you were in my room sitting next to me : Bright crispy sound... from your Webcam-mike.

My skypename is 'RoeldeJonge' (Dutch, English, German)

Scott I have a question:
With my set up at home I don't have a sound card in my computer I have a Delta M 44 audio set up. This allows me to record vocals into my Sonar program which I'm sure you already understand.
A regular headset w/mic doesn't work with my set up. Here's the question: is there something else I can use to talk and listen with Skype?

Thanks.

Peter

huh?!

The Delta44:
http://m-audio.com/products/en_us/Delta44-main.html

is indeed a soundcard, and an impressive sounding one at that (I myself have the Delta66 ; ).

Setup is pretty EASY. Just utilize the inputs & outputs on the Delta 44's I/O box.
If you want to use a standard PC computer headset/mic unit of which includes TWO 1/8" stereo mini jacks (mic & headphone), simply purchase a Y cable: 1/8" stereo mini jack (female)at one end and two 1/4" mono L/R jacks,on other end. Plug the mic cable of the headset into the 1/8" jack on the Y cable and plug the other ends of the Y cable to the L/R inputs on the 44's I/0 unit.

I'm not sure if the Delta44's I/O box includes a dedicated headphone monitor phono jack or not, but (if so) simply plug the end of the headphone/mic unit's headphone cable into it. You'll of course need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter for this if the output monitor on the I/O is 1/4" phono.

Peter, if you already got a vocal mic and dedicated headphones, you could also use these instead. This would produced the highest quality sound.

Hope this helps. See ya on Skype.

Scott

Double Posting Error!

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 05-08-2005).]

Scott
You really know your stuff. Yes, I do already use a vocal mic and headphones. The reason I wanted to use a headset w/mic and earphone was to free up both my hands. The other way well, I could use a little mic stand. Maybe I'll try both.
I guess the next thing now is to download the Skype program. When I get setup I'll talk to you on Skype.
Thanks for your help, I sincerely appreciate it.

Peter

[This message has been edited by peter dino (edited 05-08-2005).]

As long as you (can) do recordings with the PC and monitor with headphones there is no need to buy new hardware.

In my case I connect a microphone to one of the inputs of the mixing-console (Onyx1220).
Switch it to ALT3/4 outputs, what leads the singal into the Audiophile 2496 line inputs. Plug in headphone on the Onyx, set the speaker/controlroom volume to zero and raise the headphone volume.

Skype 'discovered' and auto-configured my soundcard settings.

Does anyone have information on how much bandwidth the service uses?
My ISP account allows only 1GB per month.
cheers

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

To be honest I have no idea! ..... but tonight I will check it directly in my router, where it is shown in the 'sent-/received bytes' fields. (eg during a conversation of 5 minutes)

My DSL-link has 1600 bps bandwidth what and this works great/fast.

The only restriction my ISP has is 1 gig on downloading from newsgroups in 30 days. I am sure this is to prevent too much illegal file swapping.

Bernie

Thanks Bernie and Roel

My ISP is Plusnet and they have a feature where you can keep a check on your usage aty any time just by clicking on the members centre.
This is useful when you ae coming to the end of a month when you want to download something big. Better to wait a couple of days before downloading something really big or you incur an extra payment. Having said that, the extra payment is absolutely minimal, like only £1.25 ($2) for an extra 1GB.So who cares anyway?
cheers


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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

I just monitored the kB's a Skype session takes: It looks like it is only a few k's per minute.... so don't worry Eddie

Roel

Thanks Roel for your help.

BTW, My wife and I are on holiday from Wednesday to Monday in Holland!
We stay at the Venlo Motel for 4 nights.
We really love your country and stay there every year.
cheers

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Hi All

Ihave joined this merry band of men with SKYPE!
Question:
I have just spoken to a local friend in Roterham using the setup (cost 2cents per minute, me on PC,friend on landline telephone)
However, he said that he could hear me loud and clear but I could not raise the volume of his voice and therefore strained to hear him. This could well be because the headset I am using is very old and was very cheap to buy - Voice Director Lite Model QS-5846 made by Quickshot Ltd in Hong Kong.There is no volume control on it
Which models are you all using please.
BTW my Skype name is "eddiefromrotherham"
cheers

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Great you joined Eddie!
The volume is controlled by the 'standard' panel in Windows. (Wave-out)

I use an old SM58 thru my Mixing console combined with an ordinary headphone .... Sennheiser.

Nice to hear you visit the Netherlands and like it in the southern part Zuid Limburg.
I live about 200 km's from there, straight up as good as ON the German border (500 m from Germany )
Please come and visit my place whenever you have plans to go 'North' Eddie.

Have a nice vacation !

BEWARE OF SKYPE.............I briefly clicked on the link supplied by Scott, had a look at the website and the left without using or installing the software ...I now find that Skype has somehow hacked into my Ebay Paypal account and has withdrawn $10 without any authorisation from me...for what I dont know?? this is very worrying and I have had to disable my Paypal account before I lose anymore more money. So people beware, this apparently 'fantasic' service could have sinister intentions.


[This message has been edited by pasadoble (edited 05-09-2005).]

Thank you Roel,
I can see on the map that you are on the German Border at Coevorden (I don't know too much Dutch language but I guess the name means "Cow crossing"?
I heard that the Dutch are even more friendly than the Southerners
Same applies here in England!
cheers



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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Pasodoble,
I think you did purchase the Skype-Out without realizing you did ? (€ 10,-)

So nothing was 'hacked' I guess

Pasodoble
I agree with Roel.
You are now the proud member of this elite club
What is your Skype "name"?
cheers

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Eddie,
I did some searching and think Coevorden comes from Cow-furrow (Koe-voorde)

Hopelijk tot ziens !

Hi Pasadoble: I'm terribly sorry to hear about your recent Ebay Paypal account problem, but what PROOF (evidence) do you have that is was Skype that hacked your PayPal account, other than saying you just happened to visit their website 'briefly'.

I don't believe it's possible for anyone to obtain the required information (without you volunteeraily providing it) to get into your PayPal Account.

I suspect the missing $10 from your PayPal account may have been a sheer coincience following your visit to the Skype website. I too have a Paypal account and never experienced anything like this, and I visit Skype's website on many occasions, as well as downloaded & installed their software.

Before this escalates into an anti-Skype campaign, I think it's IMPORTANT to get all the FACTS. Pasadoble: Other than the sheer concidence of visiting the Skype website 'briefly', please provide more specific & compelling evidence to legitimately accuse Skype for hacking your Paypal Account. If so, I might support your claim. Thanks. Scott

Roel
Dank u vel.Tot ziens

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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Roel & Eddie: It was great chatting with you both on Skype yesterday. What a treat to finally match one's VOICE (and with webcam (via MSN messenger) LIVE VIDEO as well, to both longtime & recently made friends I've made here, from: Roel, Eddie, Chico Brasil, Dreamer (Andrea Rotolo), Rich Child, Dirk Baert (Notlos), Bernie9, Bob Hendershot, Wazza (Marcel) Johhny Barr, Shakeel Amhed, Tony Rome, plus others. Skype & MSN Messenger (video) are really bringing Synthzone members closer together. The Synthzone membership has truly become a close and supportive "Worldwide Community" of arranger keyboard enthusiast friends. Hope more here will take the opportunity to connect this way as well. It's a lot of fun. Scott

[This message has been edited by Scottyee (edited 05-10-2005).]

Scott
I too am really happy to have had a 30min chat with you yesterday.
This morning I have TWICE remarked to my wife that yesterday was a real fun day because I was able HEAR my friend Scott Yee. I think she got the message!
I look forward now to speaking with more and more of my friends in the world of music and Yamaha - even perhaps trying my language knowledge of German and French !!!! This is going to be super entertainment! How about you English who spend a lot of time in Spain on holiday - wouldn't you like to try out your Spanish? That will be a laugh ! Remember it will be FREE.! Come on, Join us .
cheers


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Eddie from Rotherham
www.yamahakeyboards.info

Here it is Scott...taken without any involvment from myself, how can anyone gain access to a protected personal account and withdraw money unauthorised?

-------------------------------------------
Dear N*** H*****,

This email confirms that you have paid Skype (paypal@skype.com) 10.00 EUR using PayPal.

This credit card transaction will appear on your statement as "PAYPAL *SKYPE".

--------------------------------------------

I must admit.... this looks strange.

About your system : Is it absolutely virus- and spyware free ?

Spyware is capable to find creditcard details on your system and use it wherever 'she' likes it.... your authorisation is not required.
Please check your system with a great program called Hitmanpro (at www.hitmanpro.nl)