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Putting_Sound_on_your_Web_Site_ _Part_1
| Putting Sound on your Web Site - Part 1
Putting sound on your web site can give your web site that
special sparkle. As Interlaced graphics are gradually focusing
on the page, the visitor can be put into the proper mood,
preparing them for the graphic images and textual messages they
will see. In this article I will discuss the best ways to put
sound on your web site. Please keep in mind I am not exclusively
addressing the best sound formats available on the web but
rather getting the best sounds that will load quickly and
encourage visitors to stay.
Types of Sound Files There are many ways of putting sound on
your web page. The most common sound files are wave, Mp3 or MIDI
files. When coding sounds to automatically play when a visitor
enters your web page, Wave and Mp3 files should generally be
avoided. If you want to automatically play a sound file when
visitors enter your web page, MIDI is the way to go. Complete
songs in MIDI occupy about 5k ot 15k bytes. Its probably better
to take a key short 8 to 12 bar section of a song and loop it on
your web page. Although looping a poorly chosen song can drive
visitors crazy. These smaller song loops occupy 2k to 7kbytes.
(I will show you later the html to put MIDI on your page.) On
the other hand a wave file lasting more than a second, is just
too large to put on a web page as it will take too long to load
(100K).
MIDI What exactly then is MIDI? MIDI is a special computer
language that communicates music. It can only communicate music
by controlling stored sampled sounds. When you make a MIDI file,
the number of different sounds you can record is limited by your
sound card. (Although you can download new sampled sounds from
the web). Most new sound cards such as the Sound Blaster Live
have 127 different voices or sounds(General MIDI), on them.
Making MIDI Files A great idea for making MIDI on the web, is to
use the 127 voices of the Sound Blaster Live card as your sound
card. The reason being is that you know that most people on the
web will hear your MIDI in the same way you heard it when you
made it. (Sound Blaster does have more than 127 voices built in
that you can access but stick to the 127 voice mode.) If you use
extra sound banks and have an expensive card that has over 127
sounds, most people on the web will not hear the extra sounds.
One problem though with the 127 voice sound card is that older
computers with a 64 voice sound card will get a tinny gazzoo
sound from your 127voice composition. But these 64 voice cards
are now in the minority of visitors. Remember then to stick to
127 sounds when making MIDI for the web. Using the Sound Blaster
card is a good idea as most visitors will be using this card and
the sampled sounds will be the same ones that you heard when
making the MIDI. A common question is "Can an Mp3 or wave file
be converted into a midi file. The answer is no. The file would
need to be recomposed using midi software. Voices, singing
lyrics can not be put onto midi.
About the author:
John Rickey is an experienced MIDI arranger. He graduated from
University of Toronto with a degree in music and has worked from
studio recordings to Movies with his arranging. You can contact
him at kingskid@netrover.com or visit his MIDI Design Site at
http//www.scugog-net.com/room108/midi/container.html
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