You will need:

A Microphone - preferably a desk mic, if not – a headset mic will do fine. Try to avoid using a phone handset to record messages in.

Download Audacity

Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

A quiet room (the quitter the better, and without lots of hard surfaces to create echo)

Time enough to do 3-4 takes at recording the greeting.

 Install Audacity – it’s a tiny program (8 Mb) and does everything you need it to do

• Set the microphone you are using as your input:
  
• Set your project rate to 16000 (this is the Bit rate that Lync will accept, and old this)
  

• Adjust your microphone volume – the best way to do this is to Record yourself – Saying the classic ‘Mic Check, One, Two’ you should adjust the volume down to the point where the wave files don’t clip:
  Clipping (where the Wave file almost hits the top and bottom of the track):
  
  Not Clipping:
  
  
  
• You may also need to adjust the Microphone position in relation to you – as a simple rule, the closer you are to the Mic – this is the same as increasing the volume, the further away – decreasing the volume – you should try and find a happy medium and try and keep the same distance when recording (so no walking round the room)
• Write out your greeting and practice saying it a few times – you will be surprised at how many silly mistakes you will make just trying to say a few simple words
• Breath in before you hit record!
  • Try not to leave long pauses
  • After each take – have a listen to them and see how you feel – if you don’t like it, delete it and re-record
  • Once you have a take that you are happy with – go File > Export, set your File type as WAV (Microsoft) Signed 16 bit PCM – give it a filename that lets MHA know what Auto Attendant/Call flow the greeting is for – then Save:
  • Just hit okay on the Metadata.
  • Email file back to MHA