☼)===> Delays and Crackles voicemail and annoucements

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

Hosted Free PBX
provider: freepbxhosting.com
PBX Version: 14.0.13.4 (all updates are applied)

I have found in two different hosted pbx VMs voicemails and announcements Delays and Crackles when it plays, also when you record. any advice on where can I start looking to fix it.

THANKS for any tip in advance.

[arielgrin]

Sound distortion is usually, but not always, a sign of an overloaded server. Can you run htop and try to play an announcement to check if you have CPU usage spikes?

[dolesec (Chris Dolese)]

might be a good idea to install something like glances and take a look at things like iowait and steal too

if this is SNG7 just yum install glances , then glances from command line

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

I run test, we have a number that plays announcement when you call. I call and sometimes the voice crackles. I capture 3 screens shoots during a test call, please note the announcement start to distort between image 1 and 2.

Image1

Image2

Image3

Thanks for your help!

System 2GB RAM and 25 GB HD CPU 1 core
30 extensions
there’s one number that constantly get calls to give announcements to the public.

[arielgrin]

You could try adding one more core.

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

I’ll try to get another core, there some spikes on the cpu usage but not for a long time, and during calls this isn;t a problem, mainly when playing or recording announcements or voicemails, that’s the part that don’t know how to troubleshoot.

Thanks!

[arielgrin]

Probably, Asterisk is transcoding the announcement. Have you checked the audio files to make sure they are encoded with the same codec that you use for the phones and trunk?

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

the announcement is converted to ulaw and wav.
The file plays fine when play from the website but if plays during a call then it crackles, I’m adding the extra code, takes couple days because I need to scheduled, once gets applied will do another test and will post an findings. thanks for all the support and tips!

[arielgrin]

You can transcode the announcement to ulaw if the codec you are using is ulaw. Wav is not normally used. Which format is the current announcement file? Just check which codec you are using and transcode the file with asterisk command file convert filename.wav filename.ulaw assuming the current format is wav and you are using ulaw codec.

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

The announcement change very frequently, so they record the announcement from another phone/device.

Under option “Convert TO” I try to unselect the WAV option but seems isn’t working
The files exist in ulaw and in wav

Will it help if I delete the WAV files.

Is possible to force freepbx to only use ulaw when recording?

Thanks

[arielgrin]

Are you sure ulaw is the only codec you are using for all your calls?

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

Thanks for all the help, I just was able to apply the second core on my VPS, didn’t resolve the issue, I think you are right about the codec.

I’ve try to remove the WAV from system recordings

but cannot do it, after applying the change it goes back to ulaw and wav

under advance settings I setup ulaw as default

The system use the default codecs

Ho do I force my system to use ulaw when recording and playing announcements?

Thanks for all the assistance!

[arielgrin]

The codec buttons do not stay changed with the save/apply buttons because they only work when you are actually saving a new recording. To convert existing files, you need to use the asterisk command file convert

[imcontreras (Antonio Contreras)]

Ok, I have the audio on ulaw format, plays better but sometimes I can still listen the announcement to crackle.
VPS 2 GB RAM and 2 cores

[arielgrin]

Look at htop when playing the sound and look for CPU spikes.

[PitzKey (Itzik)]

Can you post an actual call trace of a call that the audios are not clear?
https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/SUP/Providing+Great+Debug#ProvidingGreatDebug-AsteriskLogs-PartII