1. Sound or Audio, whichever you prefer –MIDI Files.midi or.mid (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) use for instrumental music. –This format is supported by many browsers & doesn’t require a plug-in. Additionally the file size is comparitively small. However, the user’s soundcard affects the quality of reception. Since MIDI files are synthesized onto the computer special hardware and software is required. –© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

2. WAV (Waveform Extension) good quality Don’t require a plug-in Supported by many browsers You can record your own from your own source material, such as a CD, tape or microphone. However, the files are large © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

3. Aif (Audio Interchange File Format) or AIFF Has good sound quality, doesn’t require plug-in & is well supported. Like wav, you can also record from CD’s, microphone, etc. Large file size limits length of sound clip © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

4. MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Group Audio, or MPEG Audio Layer –3) If properly recorded & compressed, sound quality is very good. And can even be as good as a CD Streaming allows for better listening Very large file size, > Real Audio file Needs plug-in such as RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, etc. –© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

5. Ra, ram, rpm (Real Audio) High degree of compression Smaller file size than MP3 Files can be streamed Sound quality not as good as MP3 Requires RealPlayer plug-in © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

6. Some definitions Sampling rate – no. of samples over a timed interval for converting analog sound to digital. Measured in KHz Bit Depth – (also called sampling resolution or word length). The more bits, the better the quality. 8 bit sounds like telephone call vs 16 bit like a CD Channels – from 1 – 6 separate channels. Mono = 1 channel, Stereo = 2 channels, etc. –© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

7. More Definitions Compression - MPEG & AIFF are compressed in order to save disk space. Streaming – begins playing almost right after the request is made. Requires a special player (which is free). However, software is licensed to server. User doesn’t get a copy of the file. Nonstreaming – entire file needs to be downloaded first. However, special server software is not required. –© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

8. Royalty free Sound Sites BEWARE of COPYRIGHTS! http://www.microsoft.com/galler/giles/sounds/ Digital Kitchen @ http://www.dkitchen.comhttp://www.dkitchen.com DXM Production’s Earshot http://www.earshotsfx.com Creative Support Services http://www.cssmusic.com http://www.cssmusic.com © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

9. What you can do for better sound 1.Keep it short and sweet, longer, takes longer 2.Mono a mono versus stereo, less is more as they say 3.As for item 2, 8 bit depth takes half the room of 16 bit files 4.Limit sampling rate 1.© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

10. Sound Files Cool Edit by Syntrillium @ http://www.syntrillium.com http://www.syntrillium.com SoundEdit by Macromedia @ http://www.macromedia.com http://www.macromedia.com Both of the above can be used to convert sound files between formats. You might want to use Wav for basic sound & RA for streaming © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

11. RealMedia Go to http://www.real.comhttp://www.real.com You can get a free version of Real Producer from http://real.cm/products/tools/index.html http://real.cm/products/tools/index.html –© Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

12. HTML for adding Nonstreaming Audio What a song Using the tag –The plug-in is placed like an image with controls –<EMBED SRC= “audio.mid” CONTROLS=“console” WIDTH=125 HEIGHT=25 AUTOSTART=false>>/EMBED> © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001

13. Background & A Sound Link If you want background sound, you need to have a loop 40K Sound @ 22.3kHz © Dale Krasnoff-Bromberg 2001