Horrible audio quality

[JadenHoch78600]

Hello,

I have to use the Webex web conference service (online meeting) at my workplace, and the audio quality is horrible.  I tried some competitive products like MS Team or Google Meet and the audio quality was far better. 

Do some one else have this issues, why this company do not improve audio quality? 

Regards,

[phulett]

A quick addendum...when I was finished sending my message above I noticed two things. First, the conversation I am responding to is nearly three years old! Shame on Cisco for not addressing this. And second, I was hearing persistent white noise in my headphones and realized that even though I had closed the WebEx app, the WebEx icon in the system tray was alive and doing what it could to destroy the crystal clear sound of my studio. Once I right-clicked on the icon and exited, the noise went away. 
There are serious problems here that apparently are not a priority. 

[phulett]

If it helps, I am a professional audio recording, mixing, and mastering professional. I have, over time been able to "dial in" the audio quality on Zoom, Teams, and Meet for high-fidelity, stereo sound. Most of the tweaking has to do with either an onboard or external audio device paired perfectly with the right buffer size. But this conversation can get into the weeds in a hurry, so I will stop there and say my first pass at WebEx audio left me horrified. I tried turning on and off all of the WebEx noise reduction buttons, and adjusted various sample sizes, buffer sizes, changing inputs and outputs, as well as other settings on my system that have worked on other platforms. I was able to easily solve the clipping problem by lowering my buffer size (a setting you likely can't change unless you are using an external component like an audio interface), but the horrifying problem I referred to earlier is the fidelity of the audio. It sounds like my voice is under a thick, wet, blanket as if I were speaking into a microphone purchased at the dollar store. (I'm working out of a professional audio recording studio on a high-end microphone). Suffice it to say, for technicians at Cisco, this is not a "tell me more about your operating system" issue, it is a WebEx issue. The audio codecs and other constructs within the build are bad and need to be revisited in a hurry.  My two cents. 

[Franz Schoenberg]

Hi @JadenHoch78600,

do you use the web app or the Mettings app? I had the same problem an figured out that Webex Smart Audio disturb the microphones signal under certain circumstances, e.g. if you use Webex with more than one person. See https://community.cisco.com/t5/webex-meetings-and-webex-app/disable-microphone-filtering-in-webex-meetings-app/m-p/4486280

[Mike_Brezicky]

Hello,

In order to help we would really need some more details.
Was the call computer audio, or PSTN (Dial in / Call Me). Whichever it was, try a different option to compare the quality.

If computer audio, what type of headset were you using, if any? And note computer audio is fairly dependent on your internet connection at that time.

The best way to determine the cause at the time of the meeting is to go into the Help > Health Checker > Summary for quick stats - and then generate a Problem Report to follow up with your partner or TAC.

[JadenHoch78600]

I think the software is not good. Its happen to often with different Mics, internet connections etc.. Audio quality need to improve far better. Its not good and competetive.

[Mike_Brezicky]

As Fritz_H mentioned, you may want to try from the teams client instead of meetings to ee if it improves.

Also, we are simply trying to help. I and many of my own users have a complete reverse belief in that our Webex audio has been far superior to other platforms. its all about the design, config, and providers. So instead of immediately resolving to say the platform is bad, how about we try to help troubleshoot your issue which could be something very simple and isolated to your computer / session, account, etc.

[tomato730]

Hello webex team,

I need some troubleshoot for audio and I saw this feed and I thought it was the right place to ask. 

First, no matter how I try to diffuse a video on Webex, there are always cuts in the audio. The image quality is always pretty good, but the audio is always disappointing. 

I've tried:

-The normal sharing of video from share content(Yes I tried with music mode for the mic and "optimize for motion and video" and with an Ethernet cable)

-Powerpoint video (simply diffusing from a screen share of a PowerPoint with an attachment of a video)

-OBS and a virtual camera+virtual audio cable (This one is catastrophic. I really want to use OBS for Webex but with the current system, its not possible)

I really tried everything I could think of, if you could help me it would be really great. For info, I use a macOS

Thanks a ton.

Kind regards,

Tomato730

[JadenHoch78600]

I think my company do not have this tool. Only Jabber and WebEx Conferences.
Jabber is great (except you can not past screenshot into the text area).
But the Web Ex Conference service tool are horrible.

[Fritz_H]

@JadenHoch78600 
Allow me to ask again:

Did you perform your comparison (with Google Meet and MS Teams) with the same hardware, the same network and the same meeting-participants (who also used the same Devices) as when using Webex?

[Fritz_H]

@JadenHoch78600 
As far as I know, a Webex-Meetings-License (usually) also allows you to use Webex-Teams.
Since this is the newer product: perhaps it provides a more satisfying audio-quality?
I guess you may want to give it a try...

Did you perform your test of other conferencing systems with the same meeting-partners (= they used the same equipment) as you did with Webex?

[JadenHoch78600]

Hello Fritz,
I will try WebEx-Teams if available. But i do have Jabber.
I did already WebEx Conferences with different computer, mics, internet connection etc.. But the audio quality was always horrible.
I wonder how this product can compete with other products like MS Teams and Google Meet, in the long run. Their products are years ahead in audio quality.