Kristian Kielhofner
2006-Feb-06 10:48 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
Hello everyone, As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from astlinux.org: ----------------------------------- Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses! The Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of alternative sounds prompts for Asterisk. Here's how it works. I had Allison Smith (the voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in Asterisk 1.2. She provided them to me in the best audio format possible. I then converted them into several native Asterisk sound formats. Why would I do all of this? The default audio prompts provided with Asterisk are in the GSM audio format. GSM audio is nice because it doesn't use much disk space. However, because GSM is a loss-based compression format, there is no way to recover the audio quality lost when they were converted to GSM. Also, because few commercial products (including phones) include support for GSM, you can all but guarantee that Asterisk has to transcode the prompts when a device needs them (to access voicemail, for example). With the Asterisk Native Sounds collection you will be using audio prompts with the same voice (Allison) as the standard prompts, saying the same thing as the the standard prompts. The only difference is that they are provided in several different audio formats (most with better quality) so that Asterisk doesn't have to transcode them to the format that is being used by the current channel. Installation is very simple. Simply download the prompts to a directory on your Asterisk server. Any will do. Once you have downloaded the formats you desire, simple follow these steps: cd /var/lib/asterisk/ mv sounds sounds.orig tar -xvjf /path/to/sounds.tar.bz2 [repeat last step for other formats] The audio prompts are available from the "Extras" category in the Downloads section of astlinux.org. While you're thinking about how much processor time you are saving and how much happier your users will be with better sounds, why don't you send me some money? Paypal donations are accepted at paypal@krisk.org. Thanks! Asterisk will immediately being using your new, high quality, audio prompts. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------- So anyways, find them in the downloads sections of http://www.astlinux.org. Let me know if you have any problems. Also, donate, donate, donate to AstLinux! I had to compensate the beautiful, wonderful, talented Allison Smith for her efforts on this. With all of those qualities, her time is not cheap. :) Paypal to: paypal@krisk.org -- Kristian Kielhofner
Michael Collins
2006-Feb-06 12:08 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
Kris, This is very cool! Thanks for doing this. CPU power is at a much higher premium than disk space, so it makes sense to have prompts in multiple formats to cut down on unnecessary CPU usage. I'll trade disk space for extra CPU muscle any day. -MC -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kristian Kielhofner Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:48 AM To: Discussion of AstLinux - Asterisk on Compact Flash; Asterisk-users@lists.digium.com; astlinux-announce@jail1.krisk.org Cc: allison@theivrvoice.com Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! Hello everyone, As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from astlinux.org: ----------------------------------- Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses! The Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of alternative sounds prompts for Asterisk. Here's how it works. I had Allison Smith (the voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in Asterisk 1.2. She provided them to me in the best audio format possible. I then converted them into several native Asterisk sound formats. Why would I do all of this? The default audio prompts provided with Asterisk are in the GSM audio format. GSM audio is nice because it doesn't use much disk space. However, because GSM is a loss-based compression format, there is no way to recover the audio quality lost when they were converted to GSM. Also, because few commercial products (including phones) include support for GSM, you can all but guarantee that Asterisk has to transcode the prompts when a device needs them (to access voicemail, for example). With the Asterisk Native Sounds collection you will be using audio prompts with the same voice (Allison) as the standard prompts, saying the same thing as the the standard prompts. The only difference is that they are provided in several different audio formats (most with better quality) so that Asterisk doesn't have to transcode them to the format that is being used by the current channel. Installation is very simple. Simply download the prompts to a directory on your Asterisk server. Any will do. Once you have downloaded the formats you desire, simple follow these steps: cd /var/lib/asterisk/ mv sounds sounds.orig tar -xvjf /path/to/sounds.tar.bz2 [repeat last step for other formats] The audio prompts are available from the "Extras" category in the Downloads section of astlinux.org. While you're thinking about how much processor time you are saving and how much happier your users will be with better sounds, why don't you send me some money? Paypal donations are accepted at paypal@krisk.org. Thanks! Asterisk will immediately being using your new, high quality, audio prompts. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------- So anyways, find them in the downloads sections of http://www.astlinux.org. Let me know if you have any problems. Also, donate, donate, donate to AstLinux! I had to compensate the beautiful, wonderful, talented Allison Smith for her efforts on this. With all of those qualities, her time is not cheap. :) Paypal to: paypal@krisk.org -- Kristian Kielhofner _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Douglas Garstang
2006-Feb-06 15:31 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
I think you may have missed a few files... [root@bil-pdev-5 asterisk]# ls -lR /root/sounds | wc -l 372 [root@bil-pdev-5 asterisk]# ls -lR sounds | wc -l 1710 Looks like the original number of files is 1710, but the new ulaw format files only number 372... Doug. -----Original Message----- From: Michael Collins [mailto:mcollins@fcnetwork.biz] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 12:09 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: RE: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! Kris, This is very cool! Thanks for doing this. CPU power is at a much higher premium than disk space, so it makes sense to have prompts in multiple formats to cut down on unnecessary CPU usage. I'll trade disk space for extra CPU muscle any day. -MC -----Original Message----- From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kristian Kielhofner Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:48 AM To: Discussion of AstLinux - Asterisk on Compact Flash; Asterisk-users@lists.digium.com; astlinux-announce@jail1.krisk.org Cc: allison@theivrvoice.com Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! Hello everyone, As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from astlinux.org: ----------------------------------- Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses! The Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of alternative sounds prompts for Asterisk. Here's how it works. I had Allison Smith (the voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in Asterisk 1.2. She provided them to me in the best audio format possible. I then converted them into several native Asterisk sound formats. Why would I do all of this? The default audio prompts provided with Asterisk are in the GSM audio format. GSM audio is nice because it doesn't use much disk space. However, because GSM is a loss-based compression format, there is no way to recover the audio quality lost when they were converted to GSM. Also, because few commercial products (including phones) include support for GSM, you can all but guarantee that Asterisk has to transcode the prompts when a device needs them (to access voicemail, for example). With the Asterisk Native Sounds collection you will be using audio prompts with the same voice (Allison) as the standard prompts, saying the same thing as the the standard prompts. The only difference is that they are provided in several different audio formats (most with better quality) so that Asterisk doesn't have to transcode them to the format that is being used by the current channel. Installation is very simple. Simply download the prompts to a directory on your Asterisk server. Any will do. Once you have downloaded the formats you desire, simple follow these steps: cd /var/lib/asterisk/ mv sounds sounds.orig tar -xvjf /path/to/sounds.tar.bz2 [repeat last step for other formats] The audio prompts are available from the "Extras" category in the Downloads section of astlinux.org. While you're thinking about how much processor time you are saving and how much happier your users will be with better sounds, why don't you send me some money? Paypal donations are accepted at paypal@krisk.org. Thanks! Asterisk will immediately being using your new, high quality, audio prompts. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------------- So anyways, find them in the downloads sections of http://www.astlinux.org. Let me know if you have any problems. Also, donate, donate, donate to AstLinux! I had to compensate the beautiful, wonderful, talented Allison Smith for her efforts on this. With all of those qualities, her time is not cheap. :) Paypal to: paypal@krisk.org -- Kristian Kielhofner _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Douglas Garstang
2006-Feb-06 17:00 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
Thanks for the reply Kristian, but you've completely confused me. Asterisk-sounds is the default set of sounds on digium's website? -----Original Message----- From: Kristian Kielhofner [mailto:kris@krisk.org] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 3:44 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! Douglas Garstang wrote:> I think you may have missed a few files... > > [root@bil-pdev-5 asterisk]# ls -lR /root/sounds | wc -l > 372 > > [root@bil-pdev-5 asterisk]# ls -lR sounds | wc -l > 1710 > > Looks like the original number of files is 1710, but the new ulaw format files only number 372... > > Doug. >Doug, It looks like you have installed asterisk-sounds. asterisk-sounds is not included in the Asterisk Native Sounds Package. That is a separate collection of prompts arranged by John Todd and contributed to the community. I have already talked with him about that. Other people have brought this up too. Basically, I'll consider re-doing (and paying for) the sounds in asterisk-sounds based on the donations I receive for what is provided so far in the Native Asterisk Sounds package. -- Kristian Kielhofner _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Tim Litwiller
2006-Feb-06 23:29 UTC
[SPAM-Score-10.0] [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
> > > Installation is very simple. Simply download the prompts to a > directory on your Asterisk server. Any will do. Once you have > downloaded the formats you desire, simple follow these steps: > > cd /var/lib/asterisk/ > mv sounds sounds.orig > tar -xvjf /path/to/sounds.tar.bz2 > [repeat last step for other formats] > > The audio prompts are available from the "Extras" category in the > Downloads section of astlinux.org. >After un packing the files in my sounds directory I now have no sounds/promtps when going to voice mail etc. and even renaming sounds.orig doesn't get my sounds back. now what?
At 09:48 AM 02/06/2006, you wrote:> Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for > Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce > latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses!I have to say, installing these made an astonishing improvement in the quality of the standard voice prompts. Instead of sounding like a digital talking toy it now sounds like a real person. Highly recommended. Ira
Benoît Mérouze
2006-Feb-07 01:01 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
Kristian Kielhofner wrote:> Hello everyone, > > As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my > "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from > astlinux.org: > > ----------------------------------- > > Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for > Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce > latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses! > The Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of alternative sounds > prompts for Asterisk. Here's how it works. I had Allison Smith (the > voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in > Asterisk 1.2. She provided them to me in the best audio format > possible. I then converted them into several native Asterisk sound > formats. Why would I do all of this? > > [...] >Hi Krisitian, Thanks a lot for doing this, that was a very good idea. Do you think you could also convert the high quality sound files in G723 format? -- Benoit Merouze Ingenieur Developpement d'Application Reseau benoit.merouze@ipercom.com
> -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users- > bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kristian Kielhofner > Sent: 06 February 2006 17:48 > To: Discussion of AstLinux - Asterisk on Compact Flash; Asterisk- > users@lists.digium.com; astlinux-announce@jail1.krisk.org > Cc: allison@theivrvoice.com > Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! > > Hello everyone, > > As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my > "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from > astlinux.org: >Hi Kristian, This sounds like a great step forward. However since am from the UK we have to use a private set of prompts. The company that did them provided WAV format as well as GSM but I didn't really think about it and simply used the GSM pack provided as I assumed that was the recommended option. Could you give me a little detail on what the best format settings are so that I can convert my UK set into uber ulaw processor codec. Also if you have a nice linux script to take out some of the effort that would be fantastic but if not I am sure the sox man page will help me out. *I did try simply calling the .wav using Playback() but asterisk wasn't having any of it. Thanks in advance Alex Information contained in this e-mail and any attachments are intended for the use of the addressee only, and may contain confidential information of Ubiquity Software Corporation. All unauthorized use, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you are not the addressee, please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this email. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing signed by an officer of Ubiquity Software Corporation, nothing in this communication shall be deemed to be legally binding. Thank you.
Brian J. Murrell
2006-Feb-07 06:00 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
On Mon, 2006-02-06 at 11:48 -0600, Kristian Kielhofner wrote:> Hello everyone, > > As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my > "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from astlinux.org:Which format would be best/cpu-easiest on an analog channel like the Wildcard X100P? b. -- My other computer is your Microsoft Windows server. Brian J. Murrell -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part Url : http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20060207/1921eb53/attachment.pgp
Colin Anderson
2006-Feb-07 08:24 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
>Also if you have a nice linux script to take out some of the effort that >would be fantastic but if not I am sure the sox man page will help me >out.Prep your WAV's as 8Khz mono. In a pinch, Windows sound recorder will do. Then: GSM: #/bin/sh for I in *.wav do sox $I `basename $I .wav `.gsm done Ulaw: #/bin/sh for I in *.wav do sox $I `basename $I .wav `.ul done hth
Douglas Garstang
2006-Feb-07 09:52 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
You know, I'm still a little confused. Kristian, the original poster, said... "I had Allison Smith (the voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in Asterisk 1.2. " Was there really an extra 1400 sound files added from Asterisk 1.2 to Asterisk 1.2.4? Sorry, but I'm just not getting it here. Must be missing something. Doug. -----Original Message----- From: Kevin P. Fleming [mailto:kpfleming@digium.com] Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 5:23 PM To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! Douglas Garstang wrote:> Thanks for the reply Kristian, but you've completely confused me. Asterisk-sounds is the default set of sounds on digium's website?No. The default sounds are in the Asterisk distribution itself. The asterisk-sounds package is separate, and none of the built-in applications expect those sounds to be present. _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- Asterisk-Users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> -----Original Message----- > From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-users- > bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Mark Phillips > Sent: 07 February 2006 19:23 > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > Subject: Re: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available! > > Kirs et al, > > I did this already. It's on my website. Your most welcome to use them > > Mark, G7LTT/KC2ENI > Randolph, NJ > http://www.g7ltt.com > > > Kristian Kielhofner wrote:<SNIP>> > P.S. - Do you have a full set of prompts, but with the Queen's English > > and a british accent? If so, send me the WAVs, I'll do all the work and > > even host them for you! Contact me off list. Cool. > > > > -- > > Kristian KielhofnerHi Kris + Mark Sorry I don't think I can sent out the prompts as they were bought from a private company (http://www.westany.com/) ?75 for a set I thought was quite reasonable for a commercial deployment. We did actually have Marks prompts for a while but at the time there were a few needed ones missing (bit of a strange mix of English bloke to American woman to welsh girl going on :P ). But the biggest draw to switch to Westany was very easy to get the custom welcome messages done, "Welcome to BLAH you call might be recorded......" Thanks for the info though I will have a go at converting them this weekend. Alex Information contained in this e-mail and any attachments are intended for the use of the addressee only, and may contain confidential information of Ubiquity Software Corporation. All unauthorized use, disclosure or distribution is strictly prohibited. If you are not the addressee, please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this email. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing signed by an officer of Ubiquity Software Corporation, nothing in this communication shall be deemed to be legally binding. Thank you.
Jean-Michel Hiver
2006-Feb-08 15:00 UTC
[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk native sounds now available!
Kristian Kielhofner a ?crit :> Hello everyone, > > As I promised at eTel last week, I have finished up work on my > "Asterisk Native Sounds" project. Here's a little diddy from > astlinux.org: > > ----------------------------------- > > Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of audio prompts for > Asterisk. They will improve quality, reduce CPU usage, reduce > latency, and (in some cases) eliminate the need for G729 licenses! > The Asterisk Native Sounds are a collection of alternative sounds > prompts for Asterisk. Here's how it works. I had Allison Smith (the > voice of Asterisk) re-record all of the sound prompts present in > Asterisk 1.2. She provided them to me in the best audio format > possible. I then converted them into several native Asterisk sound > formats. Why would I do all of this?What tools did you use to convert the sounds in all possible formats? Asterisk's sound files become quickly limited, and it would be nice to have a way to build your own IVRs "native formats". Cheers, Jean-Michel. -- Jean-Michel Hiver - http://ykoz.net/ D?couvrez la R?union des Technologies IP & Telecom TEL: +262 (0)262 55 03 98 - RCS 434 273 330 SAINT PIERRE