Q: Audio converter question - sanity checking - prepping VM Greet, Queue Audio, etc.

fortech

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Hi everyone,

this is kind of a "Am I doing something wrong here" kind of question. I did a quick search of the forum and found one other post from ~2 years ago that was sort-of the same general thread:
But it was not clear to me there was a path forward.

so: Context: I am trying to get some audio messages into a 3cx system I'm setting up this week.
I'm using the same normal flow as usual, which is basically
-- get the person to record the greet message like "welcome to our company name, someone will take your call in a moment, please wait while we connect you". This is intended for playing in a queue while callers are in holding tank / for 20-40 seconds maybe.
-- they record using app on smartphone. Generally an apple or android and I get an M4A file from them which sounds 'nice crisp clear'. This is nothing fancy, no special recording gear.
-- I then get the file on my PC and use an old audio app - freeware version of "GoldWave" - open the file up - convert to mono - save it down in a modest spec MP3 normally. Possibly 128kbps / default profile. at this point it still sounds nice and clear. We are not talking complicated stuff here - it is a person talking.
-- then drag-and-drop into the web-based 3cx audio converter tool > https://www.3cx.com/docs/converting-wav-file/
-- download the generated file, and then play it back to test.

What I end up with is quite muffled and - sounds pretty terrible. There are often minor artefacts added to the voice of the person speaking which are tolerable but not great.

In contrast, I know for example the "Default muzak jazzy 3cx tune" that is the built-in-default on-hold - sounds pretty clear and clean". So I know it is possible to have audio in there which plays back and sounds quite a lot nicer.

I've used other (very different of course, but as a frame of reference - example, VoipMS basic cloud PBX - convert my recording with GoldWave - save it down as "Format: PCM, 8kHz, 16 bits and Mono." and then upload - and playback on similar phone hardware or via web-preview - it sounds 'just fine'. so I know this is not an 'inherent limitation' of "voip phone systems cannot do this'
so much as I think some part of my work flow is doing a bad job (* as I read on the voip MS howto - maybe I should try using the recommended - https://g711.org/ - converter instead of Goldwave. sigh). Anyhoo).

ie, possibly the file / format I am feeding to the 3cx online converter is a terrible fit / and the downsample flow means it sounds worse than necessary

so. Just curious if anyone can comment - if there is a good-recommended way to get a custom greet recording into 3cx
which is not terribly complicated
and results in audio that sounds ~almost as clear as what you can get from the 'default jazzy 3cx tune' pre-cooked in the system ?

thank you!
Tim
 
Use Audacity to export it. It's way better.
 

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