Phone Patch Devices

KineticSound

The VOICE
Until this point, my home voiceover studio delivered audio either via e-mail, ftp upload, or mailed CD's to clients. Recently, however, I was approached about an IVR recording job in which the client wanted me to dial into his phone patch (not ISDN) to deliver audio files directly to his in-house IVR unit.

So I've gone about researching some basic phone-patch devices and I quickly got lost in a sea of couplers, adapters, and hybrids.

I've been looking at units from JK Audio. I think what I need is a Telephone Handset Audio Tap. Essentially, I want to dial in with the handset, mute the phone, and play the audio back from my DAW's output into the phone line to my client in California. Does anyone have experience with this sort of device (or any phone patch devices for that matter) that could lend some advice?
 
I have an old, simple tap (Western Electric) that I scavenged from a radio station. I've used it to record musical ideas from other people, but never for a finished product because it sounds like bad audio over a phone line. Though, the one you're looking at is almost certainly better than the one I have.

As I understand it, phones or maybe even phone company equipment restricts bandwidth to voice-only range to improve signals. Your finished product is only for to be delivered via phone, but I'm inclined to think that it'll still sound like an answering machine if it's delivered via phone audio and then played back via a phone a second time.

It's been years since I've been around serious phone/broadcast equipment so maybe things are better now, but the only good audio over phone I knew about was digitally compressed signals that required digital conversion equipment on both ends.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I suppose I should have given the disclaimer that this is an IVR-only project (just my edited voice reading: "you've reached XYZ company... for sales, press 1... for service, press2..." etc.). I've been doing a fair amount of this lately, but up until this point, folks have always asked for .aif/.wav files. Perhaps this client's IVR system is older or just has a different set of input capabilities.

This phone tap appears to be the only thing needed for something like this...
 
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