Question How to connect audio out of one pc to audio in of another pc?

johnjtraynor

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Hi. I have two PCs, both of which have trrs 3.5 audio jacks. I also have a subscription to Otter, an automated transcription service.

I have a small group web meeting every few weeks and I want to transcribe the dialogue to share at the end of the call. Everyone agrees and appreciate the transcription. And no, I'm not recording copyrighted material.

(I know some video conferencing services offer transcription. That doesn't work for this situation.)

What I'd like to do is connect my PC with our meeting running to my other PC running Otter with 3.5mm cable, with audio output from the first PC going to the mic on the other pc. I've done this out loud with the PCs next to each other, but it can be annoying to others in my house and ambient noise can screw up the transcription.

I'm sure I could buy two 3.5 mm trrs jacks and splice the mic wire on one to the L&R audio on the other, but I don't have an ohmmeter and I'm not much good with electronics anyway.

Is there an off the shelf product that does this?
 
Is there an off the shelf product that does this?
Simple 3.5mm aux audio cable.

From line out on one pc to line in in second pc.

b0789c38-6583-4815-9541-793e7e83352a_1.feae4882b907bc1eaef82df11e76b9db.jpeg
 

johnjtraynor

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Thanks. Maybe I am thinking about this wrong. If it is a simple cable isn't this going mic to mic? don't I need flip mic to L/R ? My only metaphor is a null modem gender changer (sorry, going back to my 1980 pc language here). Remember both pcs only have one jack and it is 4 pole
 

johnjtraynor

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These PCs do not have mic port and headphone port. They both have a single TRRS 3.5mm port. I'm trying to understand how the MIC signal jumps to the LR pole in your explanation. Sorry if I'm being dense.
 

johnjtraynor

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I don't know how to make otter (a web session) listen to a different web session. I might be able to run them both on the same PC and use the speaker, but that doesn't solve the problem and I thought since I had 2 PCs I could avoid playing the session out loud.
 

Ralston18

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I will add the thought that the LR "jumping" (or not) may actually be moot.

The transcription software really does not care if the received spoken audio is stereo or mono.

Pery @SkyNetRising, try the suggested TRRS Male-to-Male cable and see how the cable works.

Also take a look at the configuration options for the transcription software. There may be some stereo/mono option just to address L and R type issues. If any.
 

johnjtraynor

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OK, thanks all. I will try a straight TRRS male to male and see if it works.
But if it does, it's hoodoo to me.
Just to be safe I am ordering
  1. a TRRS Splitter
  2. a 3.5 male male to loose wire
  3. a 3.5mm 4 pole stereo trrs male jack to AV 4 screw terminal block balun connector.

The TRRS splitter allows me to plug in my headset with boom mic so I can talk to the web call.
The male to loose wire and the 4 screw terminal allow me to jump the audio output of the first computer to the mic input of the second computer which is running the Otter transcription session.

If the straight cable doesn't work, this jury rig gives me the option of all possible plug and play options.

I hope I don't blow up Akron.

 
OK, thanks all. I will try a straight TRRS male to male and see if it works.
But if it does, it's hoodoo to me.
Just to be safe I am ordering
  1. a TRRS Splitter
  2. a 3.5 male male to loose wire
  3. a 3.5mm 4 pole stereo trrs male jack to AV 4 screw terminal block balun connector.
The TRRS splitter allows me to plug in my headset with boom mic so I can talk to the web call.
The male to loose wire and the 4 screw terminal allow me to jump the audio output of the first computer to the mic input of the second computer which is running the Otter transcription session.

If the straight cable doesn't work, this jury rig gives me the option of all possible plug and play options.
There may not be a way to make this work. If I understand what you have said correctly, you have 2 laptops with only headphone level outputs and mic level inputs. Since mic input levels are lower sensitivity than headphone output levels, output from the playback laptop may overpower the recording laptop's mic input. Perhaps if you set the playback laptop's output level to its lowest setting and the recording laptop's mic input to its lowest level it might not get overloaded. But I would not be surprised if this does not work. Mic input levels are really not designed to receive the higher levels of line outputs.
 
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Personally I would rather focus on making this work with just one laptop instead of trying to make technological monstrosity.
You're right but since the Otter website and support pages are vague as to how to record an ongoing conversation someone would have to download and install the software themselves to see how it functions and how to make it do what he wants. Without doing that, I would speculate that using any type of "record what you hear" software (e.g. the free Audacity recording and editing program) could be used to record his meetings and then process the files with Otter. But only someone willing to download, install and use the Otter software can verify if that works.
 
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Hi. I have two PCs, both of which have trrs 3.5 audio jacks. I also have a subscription to Otter, an automated transcription service.

I have a small group web meeting every few weeks and I want to transcribe the dialogue to share at the end of the call. Everyone agrees and appreciate the transcription. And no, I'm not recording copyrighted material.

(I know some video conferencing services offer transcription. That doesn't work for this situation.)

What I'd like to do is connect my PC with our meeting running to my other PC running Otter with 3.5mm cable, with audio output from the first PC going to the mic on the other pc. I've done this out loud with the PCs next to each other, but it can be annoying to others in my house and ambient noise can screw up the transcription.

I'm sure I could buy two 3.5 mm trrs jacks and splice the mic wire on one to the L&R audio on the other, but I don't have an ohmmeter and I'm not much good with electronics anyway.

Is there an off the shelf product that does this?

You can't just record the meeting and then send that to Otter to transcribe? They have that option "Import pre-recorded files "