Re: need help with sound files...

Dawn,

As for creating a music file, a simple way of doing this would be via Window
Media Player, RealPlayer, RealJukebox, QuickTime, WinAMP, or any of a number
of other encoding software. It would take some time to tell you the
specifics of how to do this for all of these programs, as each has a
slightly different way of doing it.

To go from analog audio tape to digital can be complicated, but in general
should be possible by just plugging the audio out of the tape deck into the
audio in jacks on your computer and recording a sample. If you're in
Windows, you should be able to use the Sound Recorder applet to get your
sample in WAV format, which can be converted to a more compressed format
when you're ready. I would suggest you get a 30-second sample of the music
you want to provide, with fade-up and fade-out transitions at the beginning
and end so that it's not a sudden start or stop (you can do basic editing of
your sample in Sound Recorder, or use more powerful editing software for
more accurate and professional results). You can hear how other sites have
done this by going to sites such as CDNow, BMG Music Service, ColumbiaHouse
Music Service, etc.

Once you have your 30-second sample, encode it at a highly-compressed, mono
format (to provide for quick downloading), and at least MP3 (generic), WMA
(Windows Media), and maybe RAM (RealAudio) formats to provide the widest
availability of playback formats. Again, checking out other sites that
provide samples will give you ideas of the formats and quality they provide.
When you're ready to provide the music for download, simply link to it: [a
href="musicfile.wma"]Sample[/a]. This will download the file and should
automatically begin its playback on the enduser's system, provided they have
an appropriate decoder -- MP3 is probably the most common format, as all the
programs I listed above can play it. WMA tends to be the best format for
music because it's compact and is of very good quality; the drawback is that
you need Windows Media Player or WinAMP (full version) to play it back.

Hope this helps some!
Kehvan

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2002 scanned this email prior to sending. It is free
:: of any known embedded or attached viruses, trojans, or internet worms.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dawn & Michael O'Keeffe" <dawnmike(at)bmts.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 17:21
Subject: need help with sound files...


> Hello all...  I am coming out of long time lurk mode in hopes that someone
> can help point me in the right direction.  A friend would like me to
create
> a web site for him where he can offer a small sampling of his music.  The
> idea is for people to hear a portion of a few of his songs and then of
> course want to buy his music.  I'm not fond of music on web sites so have
> never looked into any aspect of this.  From what I have read, it seems the
> best option would be to have links to the files and let folks choose to
hear
> the songs.  Does this sound reasonable?  Where I really need the help is
in
> understanding how to get the bands music onto a format that can be
uploaded
> to the web.  At this point they've only got their music on audio tapes.
> I've done a Google search but everything I find tells me how to embed
music
> or link to the files... not how to create them in the first place.  Any
> advice, suggestions of reading material, etc. would be greatly
appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dawn O'Keeffe
>
>
>

HWG hwg-techniques mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA