Hold music audio quality: why so bad?

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Geektastic

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Topic # 193396 9-Mar-2016 13:49

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Hold music is a fact of life, sadly.

Why is the actual audio quality so poor nine times out of ten? It sounds like it's a recording made on an Eddison wax cylinder being replayed through several pairs of woollen socks.

In this age of digital music, why is that?

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Vocus

Reply # 1509880 9-Mar-2016 13:50

Usually because there is a compressed audio codec in use somewhere along the line. Mobile (GSM) is one possibility, G.729 another, and there are a few others. Common when the system playing the hold music is in certain parts of the world.

trig42

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Reply # 1509887 9-Mar-2016 13:55

I know on our phone systems, the built in music (Nortel MusicManager) must be a WAV file less than 5MB. The only way to get any decent length of music or message into that is to compress the heck out of it.

I have a 10MB MP3 of our messages (about 8 minutes of talking/advertising), which I have managed to get to fit into MusicManager - make it monoe and squeeze it down. It sounds OK, but if you are listening in a dead quiet room very carefully you can hear that it is pretty horribly compressed and has lost it's fidelity. Luckily it is voice, not music and it is perfectly understandable and sounds fine.

xpd

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Reply # 1509892 9-Mar-2016 14:08

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

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trig42

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Reply # 1509910 9-Mar-2016 14:36

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xpd:

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

A couple of our sites have that, and it works well. Finding an MP3 player that could charge and play at the same time was a bit harder (used a couple of ex-demo iPod Nanos in the end).

Brumfondl

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Reply # 1509911 9-Mar-2016 14:38

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So it isn't just so people will hang up?

jnimmo

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Reply # 1509915 9-Mar-2016 14:45

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Because it seems like many people setting up VoIP systems don't know about avoiding transcoding. Some systems also do require it in a low quality codec, but they should be in whatever codec is being used with the SIP provider.

I've seen g722 from phone to PBX, then transcoded to g729u for the SIP gateway, which would have then been transcoded to g711a; and that is before it even gets to the receiving party. Now native g711a from phone through to SIP gateway.

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Reply # 1509920 9-Mar-2016 14:58

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Brumfondl:

So it isn't just so people will hang up?

Sideface

ubergeeknz

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Reply # 1509923 9-Mar-2016 15:01

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jnimmo:

Because it seems like many people setting up VoIP systems don't know about avoiding transcoding. Some systems also do require it in a low quality codec, but they should be in whatever codec is being used with the SIP provider.

I've seen g722 from phone to PBX, then transcoded to g729u for the SIP gateway, which would have then been transcoded to g711a; and that is before it even gets to the receiving party. Now native g711a from phone through to SIP gateway.

This too; I have also seen cases where the track provided to the PABX isn't in the right format, so the PABX transcodes it to whatever is required - usually badly

PolicyGuy

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Reply # 1509951 9-Mar-2016 15:24

xpd:

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

Interesting ... and exactly how are you monitoring, measuring and paying APRA AMCOS (www.apraamcos.co.nz, an amazingly slow website) for the public performance of music?

Unless of course it's music you wrote and performed and have donated free and gratis to your employer.

Just sayin

sen8or

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Reply # 1509952 9-Mar-2016 15:25

Then there's the cost of hold music. Businesses are meant to pay "onemusic" for licensing of content based on the number of incoming lines (whether its radio station, mp3s, cd etc) so that the poor artists can afford to put bread on the table each week. This would be why you get a standard xylophone type tune on some company's hold music. Costs range from $270 per year upwards depending on the number of lines you want to play it on.

No idea how many businesses are even aware of this requirement, but that wouldn't stop onemusicnz picking the low hanging fruit of copyright enforcement - small business.....

ubergeeknz

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Reply # 1509954 9-Mar-2016 15:29

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PolicyGuy:

xpd:

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

Interesting ... and exactly how are you monitoring, measuring and paying APRA AMCOS (www.apraamcos.co.nz, an amazingly slow website) for the public performance of music?

Unless of course it's music you wrote and performed and have donated free and gratis to your employer.

Just sayin

What's this got to do with anything?

rphenix

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Reply # 1509961 9-Mar-2016 15:50

16bit at 8000hz mono recordings - used by many VOIP systems is why :)

rphenix

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Reply # 1509962 9-Mar-2016 15:54

xpd:

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

So your paying your APRA licenses then right?

xpd

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Reply # 1509963 9-Mar-2016 15:54

PolicyGuy:

xpd:

Our hold music is just an MP3 player connected directly in, so sound isnt bad :)

Interesting ... and exactly how are you monitoring, measuring and paying APRA AMCOS (www.apraamcos.co.nz, an amazingly slow website) for the public performance of music?

Unless of course it's music you wrote and performed and have donated free and gratis to your employer.

Just sayin