Music On Hold News

New Easy On Hold Production Studio Opens

One of the studio microphones in use at the new Easy On Hold Recording Studio.

Easy On Hold announces the opening of its new recording studio in Portage, Michigan. The studio features a large production room, client area and generously-sized isolation recording room.

The custom-built studio is constructed on a solid concrete base and is surrounded by brick walls covered with concrete siding. The isolation room is a “room within a room” design to keep all sound and vibration out. Special construction techniques were utilized, such as the use of sound and vibration absorbing material between walls, extra heavy drywall, the use of airspace for sound wave cancellation and high-density flooring.

The window between the control room and the isolation room is made of two panes of 8 layers of laminated glass with a 4-inch airspace between. Acoustic treatment throughout the studio allows for a pleasant-sounding space that’s not too “live” or “dead” (studio terms that refer to the sound reflection qualities of a room).

The studio uses Neumann microphones, including the Neumann TLM103 and Neumann U87. Sound is processed using the API 512C preamp and 525 compressor. A custom-built Windows-based system operates Avid (Digidesign) ProTools. Mogami cabling is used, along with classic Yamaha NSM-10 near field monitors and Alesis reference speakers. (The Wikipedia article on studio monitors says about the NSM-10, “many more successful recordings have been produced with its aid over the past twenty five years than with any other monitor.”)

Audio is stored on a raid-5 server and additionally backed up from there. To accommodate audio file transfers, two T-1 lines are maintained. The studio is equipped with Source Connect, a software that allows a live studio-quality connection over the Internet so that talent at the Easy On Hold studio can record at other studios without actually being there, and other voice talents can be recorded at the Easy On Hold studio from their similarly-equipped facilities.

With the completion of the new studio, Easy On Hold is demonstrating a firm commitment to the very highest quality sound recording.

Easy On Hold is a producer of voice announcements and music on hold messages for phone systems, marketing messages, voiceovers, radio and tv spots, narrations, IVR, auto attendant, overhead announcements, web voiceovers, and voice recordings for flash, video, online and Power Point presentations.

Audio File Formats For Telephone System On Hold

Better telephone system technology allows message on hold audio to be loaded directly into the phone system, rather than played from an outside source, such as a music on hold player.

If you’re using your phone system’s internal music on hold capabilities, you will need to know the required file format. You message on hold provider should be able to offer the correct format for your phone system.

Here is a list of the most commonly used file formats for telephone system music on hold:

PCM (pulse code modulation) refers to an uncompressed .wav file:

• PCM .wav    44.1 kHz, 16 Bit
• PCM .wav    48 kHz, 16 Bit
• PCM .wav    16 kHz, 8 Bit
• PCM .wav    8 kHz, 8 Bit

U-Law (also known as mu-law) and A-Law are special compression schemes:

• CCIT u-Law (.wav) 8 kHz, 8 Bit
• CCIT a-Law(.wav)  8 kHz, 8 Bit

ADPCM (adaptive pulse code modulation) differs from PCM, in that the PCM .wav files are stored using linear samples, while ADPCM uses deltas between samples.

• IMA ADPCM(.wav)   8 kHz, 4 Bit

Dialogic ADPCM files are always 4 Bit files. Learn more.

• DIALOGIC ADPCM (.vox) 6 kHz
• DIALOGIC ADPCM (.vox) 8 kHz

G711 is a type of U-Law or A-Law. More here.

• G711 u-Law (.vox) 6 kHz
• G711 u-Law (.vox) 8 kHz
• G711 a-Law (.vox) 6 kHz
• G711 a-Law (.vox) 8 kHz

MP3 is extremely common. Excellent results are obtained with a  monaural 128 Kbps .mp3 file.

• MPEG-3 (.mp3) 128 Kbps

The .au file extension was begun by Sun Microsystems. It is similar to .wav formats, but requires the .aw file extension.

• .au   u-Law 8 kHz, 8 Bit
• .au   a-Law 8 kHz, 8 Bit
• .au   PCM 8 Bit
• .au   PCM 16 Bit

If converting your own files…

If you are converting audio from one file format to another, be aware that it is best to begin with the native file format, that is, the highest-quality original format in which the audio was created. Often this is a 16 Bit .wav file. To work with converting audio files, you might want to try the SwitchSound audio file converter.