Which audio files are supported for greetings and hold music?

We support MP3 files for hold music and inbound/outbound tones, and MP3 and WAV files for greetings.

Please note that changing the extension of the audio file does not change the format of the file so you can not rename it. If you need to convert the file to a format that we support you can use this tool.

Please note that the AAC codec is not compatible with our system, so even though you may be able to upload mp3 files with that encoding, these will not work.

 

Here are some best practices for audio recordings:

The telephony standard is 8-bit PCM mono uLaw with a sampling rate of 8Khz. Since this telephony format is fixed, any audio file uploaded will be transcoded to that telephony standard. That standard is bandwidth-limited to the 300Hz – 8Khz audio range and is designed for voice and provides acceptable voice-quality results. This standard isn’t suitable for quality music reproduction but will provide minimally acceptable results.

Recording

For any audio conversion, start with the best possible source recording. This means well recorded voice in a room with good acoustics and a professional quality microphone and preamp. You can achieve the best results with careful mic placement in close proximity to the the sound source. For voice, place the mic to below or side of the speaker’s mouth in order to avoid distortion due to plosives. You can also incorporate a pop-filter to avoid this distortion.

Record your source at 44.1kHz or 48Khz sample rate to a 16- or 24-bit mono uncompressed WAV or AIFF file. If available, compressor/limiter and equalization processors can help you get very best audio quality.

Post processing

After recording, archive your recordings in that source format. Transcoding to telephony standard will degrade the audio quality to  a large degree, and by keeping a high-quality archive you have the option of reusing the source material.

Use an audio software editing program such as Audacity (a very suitable freeware utility) to trim leading and trailing silence from the recording, to normalize the volume, and to apply and equalization to the source file.

If you have stereo sources, convert these to mono prior to your upload. This enables you to monitor the audio for any stereo-to-mono phase artifacts. You should also make sure your file does not exceed a 10 MB size.

Sample Rate Conversion & Transcoding

Keep in mind that there will be unavoidable compression artifacts once the file is transcoded to 8-bit uLaw. These will manifest mostly as loss of transient response. Also keep in mind that playback on a mobile device will sound considerably worse than a landline phone, due to additional transcoding to GSM format and the adverse impact of poor cell reception.

Avoid Lossy format conversions

Always use the best source recording and avoid any file format that converts one lossy format to another (ie MP3 to 8-bit uLaw), this will definitely introduce additional artifacts.

Also avoid the temptation to compensate for the limited 8Khz bandwidth by over-emphasizing the higher frequencies in your audio source. This doesn’t accomplish much and your results can sound worse – but you can experiment with modest amounts of  EQ.

Pro tip: Use and equalizer to roll off low frequencies (under 200hz) to help remove room background noise, emphasize the 2-3Khz range to improve intelligibility, and notch out 1.2Khz slightly to smooth out harsh sounding voices.

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