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Putting_Sound_on_your_Web_Site_ _Part_2
| Putting Sound on your Web Site - Part 2
In the prior article I discussed the fact that MIDI is the best
choice when adding background music to autoplay on your web
site. Choruses of favourite songs can be looped to play while
images and text are loading. MIDI is the best choice as it takes
up very little space on your web space(2-7k bytes). Other types
of sound files that are useful on web sites are MP3, au, wave,
real audio(.ra) to name a few. These are not practical as
background sounds due to their large file size but do have some
unique features that make them useful .
MP3 MP3(Moving Picture Experts Group1Layer3 Audio) is a type of
sound file used to compress large sound files. The most common
use of MP3 files is to compress a CD album. A complete CD album
can be compressed into a file size of 50MB. This has sparked a
great deal of illegal copying on the web as people can copy Cd
albums into a MP3 and send it to others on the web.
Nevertheless, a good use for MP3 is as a 'download' on a web
site. If you have an audio speech or song album you want people
to listen to, MP3 is the way to go. Many musicians put their
songs as wave files on their sites for download which take just
too long to download. A typical song might take 35-50MB in wave
form but saved as an MP3 would take only 3-5 MB. The amazing
thing about this type of compression is that it replicates the
quality of the wave file as well. However, even though a song in
MP3 format takes only 3-5MB in file size, it still may take
15-20 minutes to download for most people on a 28.8 modem line.
Although with faster lines this is becoming the best way to give
downloads of music. There is a faster way to broadcast your
songs that will play a large sound file almost immediately .
This is the Streaming Audio File (.ra). Many web sites wisely
give the visitor a choice between a streaming audio or a MP3
download.
Real Audio There are many types of streaming audio on the web
but Real Audio seems to be the most popular. A Real Audio file
will play in seconds. The reason for this is that the real audio
file plays as it downloads. This is true of even a very large
audio file. The quality of real audio file can be poor though on
slower modem rates (28.8). It is excellent for talking but not
for showing off a musicians album unless you are using a faster
line. In which case the sound quality is quite acceptable. Many
radio stations keep archives of broadcasts so the visitor can go
back to programs to hear a certain person talk. Sometimes when
there is net congestion a real audio file will cut out and then
come back which can be frustrating to a listener if the net
congestion continues. The other problem with real audio is that
it can cost the web owner to use it. Anyone using real audio can
go to someone owning a real server. They are given a text file
on their server(.ram) that connects to the real server. This in
turn connects to the real audio file(.ra). Most real servers
charge about 5$ to$40 US/month depending on the amount of space
you need. This same process can be done on your own server if it
is configured correctly. This is obviously cheaper but you will
need large amounts of space for the ra files. Many of the real
audio options are not available on your own server also. Real
Audio Files compress well but still take up a large amount of
space if you're putting albums etc on your web space. Many
servers that offer free space limit the amount of streaming
audio files on their server. There are many competitor's
software available for the streaming audio but Real Audio seems
to be the most popular. Some you might look at are Playstream,
Beatnik, Quicktime and Windows Media Technology.
Wave Wave files, although large in file size, can still be used
on web sites. A web designer may want to person to speak"Hello"
or some phrase when a button is pressed. This can done with a
wave file. Provided the wave file is less than a second this may
provide a file size of about 10k. You can download a free demo
of programs like Cool Edit Pro or Cakewalk to record the wave
file. (The demo will not save nor print though.) After recording
the file, you need to change the sampling rate to about 11khz
and use an 8 bit resolution in mono. This greatly reduces the
file size but compromises a bit on quality. Songs can
alternatively be saved in the real audio format as an'.ra' file
as mentioned above. There are other ways to record wave such as
Beatnik, Windows Media Technology to name a few but I have
focused here on the most popular.
Sun's ".au" Files Many web designers are now using java applets
and scripts on the web. Most applets use the .au format to put
sound files into the applets. There is often a chance to
customize sounds in the applet's parameter tags. It is important
though in many applets to use a sampling rate of 8k when saving
the .au file. Otherwise the sound will not work in the applet.
The new swing jar java is opening up new sample rates. I will
talk focus on making MIDI for your web site next.
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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