Dialogic Sounds Quality Issue

[CSI]

I'm having an issue where my sound quality does not sound as good as it should. I am using D4PCI and D120JCT boards. The sound files are professionally recorded and sound great (incidently, I'm using Allison Smith, the same person who recorded the default prompts). When played through the IVR, they sound a little muffled-- even the default prompts are not as crisp as they should be. They were recorded in 8 bit 11.025.

 

I know that it is not the phone line quality because if I play a wav file that has been completely silenced out, there is no static on the line whatsoever.

 

My driver properties for the Dialogic WAVE Driver 1.x says that I am running version 4.0.0.0. Does this need to be updated?

 

Can you recommend a course of action?

[SupportTeam]

Were they sounding better before and now they sound worse?

 

Do any sound files play OK, or do they all sound bad now?

[CSI]

I think they sound the same as they always have. The problem is that the sound files we have bad been using before had been recorded from Dialogic station cards (from a previous phone system) and the files sounded great. As we replace those programs with new ones, we need new sound files and it is no longer possible to use the Dialogic station cards to do the recordings. We had tried recording sound files in-house, even purchasing expensive equipment to do it-- we had no luck, so I turned to professional help and am having the same results.

[SupportTeam]

Can you please email us your email address to support@voiceguide.com

 

We'll send you a version of "VoiceGuide for Dialogic" which does not use the Wave driver at all but sends the sound files direct to Dialogic card - this may result in better sound quality.

[hecuba007]

I've been following this thread with interest as I have a somewhat similar problem

(but let me know if I should start a new thread).

 

In my case (using latest VG ent+dialer and Dialogic D4/PCIU), the pre-recorded

audio (8-bit mono 11khz) sounds fine as played from the Play modules, but

user call-in messages recorded in the Record modules sound very faint and echo-y.

 

Is this a Dialogic encoding issue and, if so, what should the proper setting be?

Thanks.

[SupportTeam]

Can you please post a sample of the 'very faint and echo-y' recording please.

We have not seen problems with recording when using Dialogic cards - they usually give very good record quality.

[hecuba007]

Thanks for replying. I'll post a sample in a few days -- the system in

question is on its way to a northern community, and development/testing

will continue remotely once it arrives.

[SupportTeam]

Note to other readers of this thread:

 

Turns out that this system played poor quality prompts even when running the Dialogic sample program 'Voice Horoscope".

 

When "Voice Horoscope" sounds bad then it's either the card or the line that something wrong with it. If you don't think it's the line then you should contact the Dialogic dealer and get the card replaced under warranty.

[hecuba007]

[Now I know I should have started another thread rather than jumping into this one

with my own case of poor recording quality .. I myself have no problem when running

Voice Horoscope as mentioned in your last response].

 

As promised, here's the sample .wav recording that just got shipped back from the

far north. Unfortunately, it's very short but hopefully enough for you to comment on.

It was recorded by phone and simply sounds very faded and noisy, hence my previous

question as to whether I should look into changing some Dialogic configuration

parameters such coding method. Specfically, is there a way to crank it up without

the gain enhancing the 'rain' sound?

 

Thanks for your attention.

 

--Tony

[hecuba007]

Sorry .. that last attachment didn't seem to work using Mozilla;

trying again with IE

 

--Tony

sample.zip

[SupportTeam]

There seems to be some sort of 'buzzing' in the background on this sound file. Not too sure what this could be caused by - especially if the played sound files sound fine to callers... Can you perhaps try using another card or moving the system to a different location and trying it with different phone lines?

[redlude]

Well I can attest to the EXACT same problem. I turned off the AGC and VG detected it as silence. I would imagine the card is boosting the volume considerably to get it up to audible levels, but I don't know why. I used the same lines as I did when I was using a cheapo voice modem but the recording is much quieter, very much like it's trying to increase the gain as much as possible. I've reversed tip and ring, turned off all of the fans, switched lines from a PBX to a regular B1 line (business line), nothing seems to matter. It's like the dialogic card is muffling the sound and the AGC is trying to boost it back up. Output of sound files are fine and superior to the cheapo modem.

 

Is there a way to preset the recording level on the dialogic card perhaps? I'd love to send it back to them, but if someone else is having the same problem, I fear that I'll get another lemon!

[SupportTeam]

The best thing to do is to try using two of Dialogic's sample applications:

 

Talker32 (sometimes listed as TAPI in program menu)

(see: C:\Program Files\Dialogic\SAMPLES\TALKER32)

 

and

 

Multi Threaded Voice

(see: C:\Program Files\Dialogic\SAMPLES\VOICE)

 

you can use both of the above apps can record .WAV files and then play them back both over the phone and over your local speakers to see what they sound like.

 

Please let us know if you are able to record better quality sound files on your system with either of these demo applications from Dialogic.

[redlude]

Same quality for me.