[asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
Hi, I've been trying to get MoH files to sound decent. I've got a hold of Royalty-free Classical music (a safe choice for most of my customers) and I`ve been trying to convert them to the normal telephony/Asterisk format using sox. Unfortunately, it sounds really bad. I don't expect concert hall quality of course, 8000KHz being what it is, but is there a better way to convert from good quality .wav files to 8000Khz ? Am I using the wrong tool? Mike -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On 07/28/2011 10:53 AM, Mike wrote: Hi, I’ve been trying to get MoH files to sound decent. I’ve got a hold of Royalty-free Classical music (a safe choice for most of my customers) and I`ve been trying to convert them to the normal telephony/Asterisk format using sox. Unfortunately, it sounds really bad. I don’t expect concert hall quality of course, 8000KHz being what it is, but is there a better way to convert from good quality .wav files to 8000Khz ? Am I using the wrong tool? Can you elaborate as to what you mean by really bad? What acoustic artifacts are you encountering? Are you testing from a mobile phone? Cell phones use variable bit rate codecs and at times, vicious compression, depending on signal strength and other factors. Anything is going to sound like crap on them regardless. Make sure you are testing from a reasonable endpoint. -- Alex Balashov - Principal Evariste Systems LLC 260 Peachtree Street NW Suite 2200 Atlanta, GA 30303 Tel: +1-678-954-0670 Fax: +1-404-961-1892 Web: http://www.evaristesys.com/ -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On Thu, 28 Jul 2011, Mike wrote:
I’ve got a hold of Royalty-free Classical music (a safe choice for most
of my customers) and I`ve been trying to convert them to the normal
telephony/Asterisk format using sox. Unfortunately, it sounds really
bad.
I convert files using:
sox ${INPUT} -c 1 -s -w -r 8000 /tmp/$$.wav
What does your sox command line look like?
Can you post a link to 'before' and 'after' files?
--
Thanks in advance,
-
Steve Edwards sedwa...@sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000--
_
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Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
Personally I like to just hook up an old ghetto blaster / boombox to the
line in port on my sound card :)
Kidding aside - I think audio quality for MoH is not always going to sound
as nice as you might want.
I mostly stream online radio over my MoH and the quality is not the
greatest.
Maybe it's my SIP provider - or maybe just the notion of streaming audio
from an internet stream.
-Original Message-
From: asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Steve Edwards
Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:30 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On Thu, 28 Jul 2011, Mike wrote:
I?ve got a hold of Royalty-free Classical music (a safe choice for
most of my customers) and I`ve been trying to convert them to the
normal telephony/Asterisk format using sox. Unfortunately, it sounds
really bad.
I convert files using:
sox ${INPUT} -c 1 -s -w -r 8000 /tmp/$$.wav
What does your sox command line look like?
Can you post a link to 'before' and 'after' files?
--
Thanks in advance,
-
Steve Edwards sedwa...@sedwards.com Voice: +1-760-468-3867 PST
Newline Fax: +1-760-731-3000
--
_
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
http://www.asterisk.org/hello
asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On 07/28/2011 10:53 AM, Mike wrote: Hi, I've been trying to get MoH files to sound decent. I've got a hold of Royalty-free Classical music (a safe choice for most of my customers) and I`ve been trying to convert them to the normal telephony/Asterisk format using sox. Unfortunately, it sounds really bad. I don't expect concert hall quality of course, 8000KHz being what it is, but is there a better way to convert from good quality .wav files to 8000Khz ? Am I using the wrong tool? Can you elaborate as to what you mean by really bad? What acoustic artifacts are you encountering? Are you testing from a mobile phone? Cell phones use variable bit rate codecs and at times, vicious compression, depending on signal strength and other factors. Anything is going to sound like crap on them regardless. Make sure you are testing from a reasonable endpoint. Alex, I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? Mike -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On 07/28/2011 11:57 AM, Mike wrote: I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies Jabber: kflem...@digium.com | SIP: kpflem...@digium.com | Skype: kpfleming 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA Check us out at www.digium.com www.asterisk.org -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. Hi Kevin, I understand that perfectly, I was just wondering if there was a less bad way of converting music to g729 format so people find the quality bad, but don`t feel like cutting their ears off. Regards, Mike -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
On 07/28/2011 01:29 PM, Mike wrote: I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. Hi Kevin, I understand that perfectly, I was just wondering if there was a less bad way of converting music to g729 format so people find the quality bad, but don`t feel like cutting their ears off. Nope; you have to select musical compositions that are 'less incompatible' with G.729's compression methods. When we chose the current MOH selections included with Asterisk, our initial list was much larger, but we had to remove some because they sound terrible when compressed with G.729. -- Kevin P. Fleming Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies Jabber: kflem...@digium.com | SIP: kpflem...@digium.com | Skype: kpfleming 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA Check us out at www.digium.com www.asterisk.org -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
you have to select musical compositions that are 'less incompatible' with G.729's compression methods. When we chose the current MOH selections included with Asterisk, our initial list was much larger, but we had to remove some because they sound terrible when compressed with G.729. Thanks Kevin. That makes a lot of sense. Mike -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
From: Mike l...@net-wall.com Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:29 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. Hi Kevin, I understand that perfectly, I was just wondering if there was a less bad way of converting music to g729 format so people find the quality bad, but don`t feel like cutting their ears off. Regards, Mike Kevin I have used the asterisk cli to do my conversion to g729. I have gotten the best results there. Thanks Bryant Zimmerman (ZK Tech Inc.) -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
From: Mike l...@net-wall.com Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:29 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk-users@lists.digium.com Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. Hi Kevin, I understand that perfectly, I was just wondering if there was a less bad way of converting music to g729 format so people find the quality bad, but don`t feel like cutting their ears off. Regards, Mike Kevin I have used the asterisk cli to do my conversion to g729. I have gotten the best results there. cli file convert in_file out_file asterisk -x file convert in_file out_file Thanks Bryant Zimmerman (ZK Tech Inc.) -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command
In order to get the proper encoding for Asterisk, you must provide the correct values for each of these characteristics. In your case, they are as follows: rate = 8000 data size = 8-bit (byte) data encoding = gsm channels = 1 (mono) Therefore, the command you would use to create your native MOH files is: sox in.wav -t gsm -r 8000 -b -c 1 out.gsm As G729 is a patented codec and so not available in Free Software, you'll have to figure out how to translate those values for whatever software you are using to create G729 files. -Original Message- From: asterisk-users-boun...@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users- boun...@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Bryant Zimmerman Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 3:44 PM To: brya...@zktech.com; Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command From: Mike l...@net-wall.com Sent: Thursday, July 28, 2011 1:29 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion asterisk- us...@lists.digium.com Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] MoH - conversion command I should have said I am trying this both from a landline using ulaw, and from a Polycom phone using g729 codec. G729 is noticeablty worst, as you`d expect, maybe this is what is reported by my customers. Is there any way to have a decent g729 file, or should I just give up and change everyone to ulaw ? G.729 is a *speech* codec, and as such it does not handle non-speech (music, tones, etc.) very well at all. Hi Kevin, I understand that perfectly, I was just wondering if there was a less bad way of converting music to g729 format so people find the quality bad, but don`t feel like cutting their ears off. Regards, Mike Kevin I have used the asterisk cli to do my conversion to g729. I have gotten the best results there. cli file convert in_file out_file asterisk -x file convert in_file out_file Thanks Bryant Zimmerman (ZK Tech Inc.) -- _ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
