Question about 8 bit mulaw

[RFSound]

I usually save everything in 16-bit PCM wav format. But I have a client (for which I'm recording telephone prompts) who needs the prompts in 8-bit mulaw. So I convert everything to 8-bit mulaw in Cool Edit and it sounds AWFUL! I figured 8-bit would be worse than 16-bit, but I didn't know it would sound this bad (it sounds like analog distortion). Am I doing something wrong or is this simply the nature of the 8-bit mulaw beast?

 

[Scott Tansley]

8 bit is always going to add noise. From about 3k up. Try using the noise removal plugin in cool edit and gate out the noise in the quiet spots. 8bit is old technology, mp3 is much better but not adopted in a lot of industries. Listen to there samples I bet there noisy too.