For awhile I was considering Skype for doing interviews and conversations for the Low Power Hour, but I had trouble with installation and set it aside.
Since then I have noticed the "Skype sound" on many many radio programs and talk shows... namely, lost audio; audio drop-outs one after the other; poor quality some of the time; decent quality during rare moments.
Our audio environment on Teamspeak during ALPB meetings doesn't suffer from "Skype sound", the Teamspeak quality is constant and wonderful.
Unless Skype improves its performance I'm going to skip it.
I've found that Skype will work, even for hours' long conversations without drop outs, if some conditions are met. You want a hardwired connection to broadband or DSL on both sides, and reasonably new hardware on both sides, like something with dual processors, desktop might be the ultimate, but a netbook built in the past 5 years should work almost as well.
Where it can start to fall down is using anything mobile or on regular wifi, or on lower power systems. I find Wifi can work with a great signal and router, but not as well when trying to Skype from a public place, and on a small device with other apps running.
If you want to do it to the best of your ability, have your callers use the optimum setup, like if you want a cohost on your show regularly. Everyone seems to use wifi at home today, but make them find their actual router and plug in, even setups based on wifi will have at least 4 ports on the main router.
Other improvements are to have someone use a broadcast quality mic, maybe a better USB dynamic or outboard USB sound card that has a good mic preamp, that can get rid of some of the noise generated internally in some computers or especially laptops with non-premium sound systems, and give you balanced mic access if you need it, good versatility and might be good in high RF environments.
Another thing is, disable Skype's auto level control, and use your mic level controls to set the audio, going to the station for air. Skype's ALC is primitive and overreacts, turning it off makes it more like a regular microphone for the station operator to adjust.
Using a headset to listen to the caller on Skype might help too, rather than having them monitored through an open speaker, since the echo cancellation won't have to work as hard. That feature is very good in my opinion, but there can be errors in the cancellation that will show up as audio artifacts, incomplete cancellation and just because it's trying hard I think.
There are other options such as SIP phones and other voip, a number are availlable, but we're kind of stuck with Skype because of the massive userbase it has. If Microsoft ever starts to charge for it, we're going to have a lot of problems, for a while at least until things reorganize!
Really appreciate the shared experience with Skype, Nate, so maybe I'll start doing experiments again to try some of your suggestions.
I do remember hearing a conversation where the Skype caller sounded like they were way across the room away from the microphone, and I wondered why the host didn't say, "Get closer to your mic," which I think would have improved that show.
Using a decent mic is something to promote... even on Teamspeak we have had a few times when members tried cheap mics and when we talked back and forth awhile they put in a better mic and it makes a huge difference.
Thanks.
We use skype for our highschool ballgames and live remotes at the full power. As long as the internet connection is good the quality is fantastic. Mobile can work great if you have 4G/LTE. Wifi can be great if the network doesn't see heavy use.
However, if your computer or device is old or slow skype will suffer.
Sample another platform.
I have experienced great success using the free SOURCE CONNECT codec in the Chrome browser, and even something as humble as LinPhone on Windows.
You may improve your success with Skype by using the paid-for version. Allegedly, it puts you in a traffic lane that moves a bit better with less junk. I never stuck around long enough to find out.