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On-Hold music sounds like crap.
- Thread starter Farmhand
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Low quality audio file...
I'm assuming the data storage on an IP phone or a call center server is probably not much, or not wanting to waste the few MB's needed to upload a good quality audio file. nor would someone put HQ audio files on a phone recording..
On the other hand, sometimes you get lucky and get radio.. Always a big fan of getting some good 80's tunes while on hold.
Maybe it's the low quality driver in your phone, or even better, check your phone wires LOL Just kidding. :thmbsp:
great thread, had me cracking up.
Regards,
John
I'm assuming the data storage on an IP phone or a call center server is probably not much, or not wanting to waste the few MB's needed to upload a good quality audio file. nor would someone put HQ audio files on a phone recording..
On the other hand, sometimes you get lucky and get radio.. Always a big fan of getting some good 80's tunes while on hold.
Maybe it's the low quality driver in your phone, or even better, check your phone wires LOL Just kidding. :thmbsp:
great thread, had me cracking up.
Regards,
John
If the music was TOO good, we'd all be calling just to be put on hold. At which point, nobody else would be getting through, leading to them having to disconnect our calls.
Of course it would be during your favorite song, leading to immediate call-back. this cycle would continue until said business would not generate enough revenue to remain open.
Of course it would be during your favorite song, leading to immediate call-back. this cycle would continue until said business would not generate enough revenue to remain open.
Chris Brown
Super Member
Music while on hold is like the music you would hear while viewing porn on a VHS tape.
On hold music is still worse than VHS porn music (not that I would actually know - I just heard that somewhere
).
Decatur Greg
Super Member
On hold music is still worse than VHS porn music (not that I would actually know - I just heard that somewhere
There's audio on porn? I never turned the sound up so I didn't know!
My audio/porn experience
True tales from estate sales...
Went to a sale because they had reel to reel advertized. The deck was nothing special so I passed. But, saw some pre-recorded reels of classical recordings I wanted. Talk to the guy who looks like he works there and he tells me a buck each... good deal! I pick out ten dollars worth and pay for them. As I'm leaving the same guy asks me "you like reel to reel?" I pause, thinking "yeah, what was your first clue? the ten tapes I'm holding or when I asked you for the price?". I realize he's not joking, so I say "yeah". He tells me "He had some reel to reel porn in that back room". I pause again... mind reeling... is he joking? no, I think he's for real. I ask "you mean they copied the sound from the porn to a tape?" This was confusing for me because I feel that the audio portion is the least important part of a porn video. The guy says "no, you know, old porn, reel to reel!". I pause again, then remember seeing a movie projector in another room. I ask "you mean, film movies as opposed to videotapes?" He says "yeah! reel to reel!" I didn't bother to explain that reel to reel is an audio format. In his defense, film is on reels... so I can see how he got there.
I still laugh when I think about it!!! :lmao:
fred soop
Super Member
When working for General Telephone in the 1970s, music on hold was relatively new. One of the methods used was a tuner that plugged directly into a position on the business key system. The problem was when someone was on hold and heard a commercial for a competitor.
When the phone network started going digital, people were hanging up thinking they had been disconnected which hurt the phone company call completion rates, so they added "progress tone", artificial clicking and hiss, so you would not think you had been dropped.
When the phone network started going digital, people were hanging up thinking they had been disconnected which hurt the phone company call completion rates, so they added "progress tone", artificial clicking and hiss, so you would not think you had been dropped.
The problem with distorted music on hold is rarely the source music itself. Even a highly compressed MP3 is not distorted (the term "distorted" being loosely defined here.) It may be low quality or low fidelity, but it is not the objectionable distortion that one often hears while on hold. The problem is that the source piece equipment level is set way too high for the input level of the music-on-hold input of the phone system and it overdrives it to the point that it distorts. If they are both set correctly, even very limited fidelity source music will not be distorted. But please, don't set it so loud that the difference between a telephone conversation and the music on hold is so loud that I have to hold the phone a foot away from my ear while I wait for you to answer my call! Too low is much better than too loud. Most businesses don't have any idea how to set the levels themselves. They have to rely on their equipment provider to make those adjustments and that could cost them money for a service call, so they just let you suffer. Don't these people ever call in to their own businesses to hear how the phones is being answered and how calls are being handled? Either they don't or they don't care.
marqueemoon
Gimme indie rock!
Yes, the source material is rarely the cause of this kind of problem.
This post pretty much nails it, particularly the last part.
The MOH is usually the same music you listen to when shopping in the store. The reason is sounds a bad is a number of factors, as stated the speaker in a phone set is not that good, and when installing the system you need to make sure you source impedance is correct for the phone systems MOH and the gain is not up to high.
50nstillhifi
Super Member
Miss those days..
Back when, "dial up" was the method... I used a PC dial program that would mute the system hold/music and process the rep mic audio. I could hear everything the "customer assistant" was saying to his buddies at the call-center.
On one occassion, "the help" was talking about how he hated taking calls about silly issues such as mine... blah-blah-blah..
When I spoke back his comments verbatim.. he gave me a very generous money refund on services not rendered...
Gees I miss those days!
Now their bosses listen in... :scratch2: Imagine that?
Back when, "dial up" was the method... I used a PC dial program that would mute the system hold/music and process the rep mic audio. I could hear everything the "customer assistant" was saying to his buddies at the call-center.
On one occassion, "the help" was talking about how he hated taking calls about silly issues such as mine... blah-blah-blah..
When I spoke back his comments verbatim.. he gave me a very generous money refund on services not rendered...
Gees I miss those days!
Now their bosses listen in... :scratch2: Imagine that?
