The following is a brief explanation of how to create properly formatted sound files to upload to your IVR, if available for your account
We would recommend to use .au or .mp3 sound files as they are much smaller then .wav yet give the same quality and make sure you test the quality before uploading to the IVR.
Sometimes recording with the internal microphone of your computer may give some background noise that may be hard to get rid of and in that case, we recommend to use an external microphone or even an app on your mobile phone (which can export to mp3 and E-mail to yourself, for example) to get the best quality possible. Check your files well and cut away any unwanted text or even silence in your messages to optimise for the caller that will hear the message, clear and concise.
Do note that there is also a maximum to the total size that can be uploaded and used per account so don't make your messages too long.
If you so desire you can request a quote from us to have your prompts recorded by a professional Voice-over artist in many languages.
Get in touch and send us your script(s) that need to be spoken so we can create a quote and it will most likely be cheaper than you think.
Example Audio File Properties:
File Size: 60.7k Bit Rate: 128k
Encoding: 16-bit Signed PCM (in drop-down in the menu of title of the song: Set Sample Format > 16 bit PCM)
Channels: Mono = 1 channel (in drop-down in the menu of title of the song: Mono)
Samplerate: 8000Hz (Menu: Track > resample)
(Replaygain: off )
Export the file as .au
Format: Other uncompressed files
with Options:
- Header: AU
- Encoding U-law
Export the file as MP3
Format: Other PM3 files
with Options:
- Bit rate mode: Constant
- Quality 128 kbps
- Variable speed: fast
- Channel mode: Stereo
Example command to convert file in Linux:
sox NEW\ EXTENDED\ MENU.wav -r 8000 welcomenew.wav
This post is related to the Voicemail, Call Queue and IVR (Auto Attendant) functionality and mostly refers to .au, .wav and .mp3 files formats.
Other formats and functionalities might be possible and should very well work in the same way / with the same specifications.
A recommended program for producing the audio files is Audacity which is available for Windows and Mac
