This month we are gonna talk about getting sound files up on your website. No, not very "editorial", but pretty educational! We'll cover the basics about .wavs, Real Audio, and MPEG (MP3) stuff, and give you some links to more in depth info. Since we aren't familiar with Mac's, our discussion will cover Windows PCs. (If anyone is a Mac expert out there and wants to contribute, please write something up and e-mail us.)
If you're just starting out, the easiest thing to make is a .wav file. Open up the sound recorder in Windows' Accessories. Your sound card also might have an audio recorder in it. You should be able to record directly from your CD Rom drive. If you are using another input, like your cassette deck, you'll have to find the proper cords and plug into the back of your sound card. Just start the source and hit "record". You may want to experiment around with different sampling and bit rates, getting a good mix between sound quality and file size.
Here's a bit of interesting info: stereo, CD-quality audio (44khz, 16-bit) takes up approximately 10 MB per MINUTE on your hard drive! Ouch! So obviously if you're making .wavs to upload to your website, you will most likely only be able to use a clip of the song, and probably at a reduced sampling and bit rate. Maybe 8-bit mono 11khz files. See what works.
Once you have the basic .wav procedure down, you're on your way to all the other formats. You might want to create a folder on your hard drive called "Sounds" or something, just to have a handy place to store all your sound files.
Real Audio files are simple to create. You need the Real Audio Encoder and the Player if you want to play them back. It's free, so why not? All you gotta do is open the Encoder, locate the .wav you want to encode, enter your copyright and title info, and go. You select which type of Real Audio compression you want to use (it's pretty self-explanatory) and just push "Encode". If you want to put a whole song in Real Audio, which will create a reasonably-sized file, you'll have to have the space to put the whole .wav (usually 30-40 MB) on your hard drive. You can sample it at CD quality, encode it into Real Audio, and then delete that massive .wav. When you get into copying whole tracks off a CD, you might want to check into the CD Ripper utilities we're gonna discuss in the MPEG section below.
Here's a nifty little trick to make the Real Audio stream without the benefit of a Real Audio server: OK, you have created you Real Audio file, and it's called mysong.ra. Go to Windows' Notepad and create a simple text file that references the Real Audio file........Like this: http://www.mysite.com/mysong.ra, then save it as a file called mysong.ram. Upload it to your site and then link the song to the .RAM file instead of the .ra file. The Real Audio Player will launch after it buffers your song, and there you go......streaming audio.
MPEG or MP3 files are incredible! You get compression of up to 12:1 on your CD-quality .wav files, with little noticeable audio degradation. Try it, it's addictive! The bad part is you need a good amount of storage space for your site, cause these MP3's will still take up many MB if you use full songs. The procedure is pretty much like making the Real Audio files. You will use a CD Ripper (which grabs the audio as digital info and not an analog process like using Windows' sound recorder, and makes your song start and end just like on your CD) to convert your song into a .wav file. Then you will use an MPEG Encoder. Same kind of thing as the Real Audio encoding, you find your .wav, select the amount of compression, and hit "Encode". Remember that these encoding processes take awhile, so be patient. Then you just need an MPEG Player to listen back. Go HERE for an excellent MPEG tutorial and some of the software. Go HERE for more software, including the only Windows'-based Encoder.