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Audio testing is the process of placing a test call and evaluating the acoustic experience. It exercises the full voice stack including text-to-speech (TTS), the voice model configuration, and the interaction feel on a real phone call. Use audio testing after you are satisfied with the agent’s LLM behavior to confirm the voice experience meets your standards.

What to Evaluate

When listening to a test call, focus on the following areas:

Pronunciation

CheckCommon Issues
Proper nouns (company names, person names)Mispronounced due to unusual spelling
Numbers and currency amounts”One thousand two hundred” vs. “twelve hundred”
Dates and times”June third” vs. “June three”
AcronymsSpoken letter-by-letter vs. as a word
Domain-specific termsIndustry jargon the TTS engine may not recognize

Response Timing

  • How long does it take for the agent to respond after the caller stops speaking?
  • Does the agent begin responding before the caller finishes (false triggers)?
  • Is there a noticeable pause between the caller’s input and the agent’s response?
Response timing is affected by transcription speed, LLM latency, and TTS buffering. If timing is poor, review the Engine Tab settings for response eagerness and predictive preprocessing.

Voice Quality

  • Is the voice clear and intelligible?
  • Does background noise affect the audio (test from a noisy environment to assess denoising)?
  • Does the voice sound natural and appropriate for the use case?
  • Is the speech rate comfortable for the expected caller audience?

End-Call Behavior

  • Does the agent end the call correctly when the conversation concludes?
  • Does the silence timeout trigger appropriately when there is no caller input?
  • Is the goodbye message natural and complete before the call ends?

Place a Test Call

1

Open the agent

Navigate to the agent you want to test in the DialNexa dashboard.
2

Click Test Call

Click the Test Call button in the agent detail view. A dialog opens asking for your phone number.
3

Enter your phone number

Enter the phone number to call in E.164 format (e.g., +14155550100). DialNexa will call this number. Answer the call to begin the test session.
4

Conduct the test

Speak with the agent as a caller would. Work through your key scenarios. Pay attention to the audio quality items listed above.
5

End the call

Hang up when you are done. The call record appears in Call History within a few seconds.
Test calls are real phone calls routed through the telephony stack. They consume concurrency slots and are billed at your standard per-minute rate. Keep test calls focused to manage costs.

Review the Call Record

After the call:
  1. Open Call History and find the test call.
  2. Listen to the call recording if recording is enabled.
  3. Review the transcript for transcription accuracy. Transcription errors indicate words the ASR engine struggles with, which can cause the LLM to receive incorrect input.
  4. Check the call duration and timeline to identify timing issues.

Annotate Test Results

In the call detail view, you can add notes to document issues found during testing:
  1. Click Add Note in the call detail view.
  2. Describe the issue: what you expected, what happened, and the timestamp in the recording where the issue occurs.
  3. Save the note. It is attached to the call record for reference during debugging.
Include the timestamp of audio issues in your notes (e.g., “0:42 - mispronounces ‘Acme’ as ‘Ak-me’”). Timestamps make it faster to re-listen to specific moments.

Fix Common Audio Issues

IssueWhere to Fix
Mispronounced wordAgent Setup: Audio Tab. Add a custom pronunciation in the voice model settings, or rephrase the text in the prompt to use a phonetic spelling.
Slow response timingAgent Setup: Engine Tab. Increase response eagerness or enable predictive preprocessing.
Speech too fast or slowAgent Setup: Audio Tab. Adjust the Speed slider.
Voice sounds robotic or unnaturalAgent Setup: Audio Tab. Try a different voice model or adjust Stability.
Background noise on caller’s end audibleAgent Setup: Audio Tab. Enable Denoising.
Agent does not hang up properlyAgent Setup: Call Tab. Review silence timeout and max call duration settings.