WEB MEDIA SCHOOL session 48-SOUND FILES
Using Sounds in Web Pages
WINDOWS
WINDOWS
Making Your Own Wav Files is easier than you might think
For those of you with a desire to make your own wav files but don't know how to go about it, let me assure you that the basics are very simple. On the back of almost every VCR or stereo is an output socket labeled "Audio Out." On your computer sound card you will likely find three "mini" sockets. One is labeled "Audio out" (this is the socket your computer speakers should be plugged into). One is labeled "Line In" and the other is labeled "Mic."You may need to go to Radio Shack, or a similar electronics store, and buy an audio patch cord and a mini-jack adapter. In most cases, if you tell the store clerk what you are trying to do, they can fix you up with what you need.
Attach the mini-jack adapter to one end of the audio patch cord and plug it into the "Line In" socket on your computer sound card. Plug the other end of the cord into the "Audio out" socket on your stereo or VCR. You now have an audio feed to your computer. If you are plugged into your VCR, and have it turned on, you should be hearing the same sound over your computer speakers that is coming from your TV (via the VCR). You can also use a microphone plugged into your computer sound card "Mic" socket to record your own voice. If you don't have a mic, you can buy one that works just fine for ten or fifteen bucks.
The last thing you'll need is some sound software. Fortunately, great sound software is available for downloading on the Web. Two programs that work well in this area are Goldwave and CoolEdit. Type either of those two names into any search engine will get you the URL's to download from.
Windows comes with a neat program usually included in the Accessories program group. This program, the Sound Recorder, allows you to record, edit and play sound files. Sound data may be stored in several formats, one of which is called the WAVE format. The Sound Recorder uses WAVE format sound data. the extension for WAVE files is .WAV.
Making a Recording ....1.To open the Sound Recorder, look in the Start Menu under Programs\Accessories\Multimedia. 2.Start your sound source - CD, Line, whatever - playing something. 3.Press the button with the red dot in the Sound Recorder. 4.Observe the display. If you have the input set up properly, you will see green shapes fly by in the sound recorder. These are graphs of the amplitude of the signal over time 5.Click the Stop button on the Sound Recorder, and turn off your sound source. 6.Hit the Rewind button in the Sound Recorder, and then the Play button. You should hear music being played back. 7.If the music is very hissy, then the recording level is probably too low. The Sound Recorder display should extend almost to the top and bottom of its range during musical peaks. If it doesn't come close to this, you should increase the volume in the Mixer's recording setting 8.If the music is distorted, then the recording level is probably too high. The Sound Recorder display should extend almost to the top and bottom of its range during musical peaks.
Once the Sound Recorder window appears, click the File menu and select New. When you're ready to record, click the Record button (the red circle) and speak clearly into the microphone. When you've finished speaking, click the Stop button (the square). To listen to your masterpiece, press the Play button (triangle). To save it, click the File menu and select Save As. Pick a drive, directory, and file name and click Save. A sound file probably exists somewhere on your hard drive
TROUBLE SHOOTING - HOW CAN I RECORD A 60+ SECOND SOUND FILE?
Unfortunately there is no known way to easily change the sound recorder to record longer then 60 seconds
MACINTOSH
While including a QuickTime movie that consists only of a sound track is one option for including sounds on your web page, it is not the only one. Other sounds can also be embedded into web pages and played back.
There are five types of sounds that typically get used in Web pages.
- "AU", short for "audio", is a sound format that originated on UNIX computers
- "WAV" is the sound format typically used on Windows computers
- "AIFF" is a cross-platform sound format invented by Apple
- "MIDI" which is a cross-platform music format, and
- "Real Audio" is a Web-specific format that can be used for both music and voice
AU, WAV, and AIFF sounds can be played by Netscape Navigator with no extra plugin. (A plugin is a sort of mini-program that Netscape uses to display or play certain kinds of files; eg., there is a QuickTime plugin for displaying movies. Plugins are placed in a folder called Plugins inside the Netscape folder.)
Embedding Sounds
In order to include a sound in your Web page you have to "embed" it. The process is not quite as easy in Home Page as embedding a QuickTime movie, but is not all that difficult. First, use the Insert Menu and choose "Plugin...". You then get a dialog box that lets you pick your sound. After you choose your sound, a square box will appear in your Home Page document to indicate where the Sound's control strip will appear. After you have embedded the sound, you may add some HTML code using the Object Editor window to give you further control over the way the sound is handled. It's a good idea to use the Object Editor window to change the width and height settings to 200 and 60, respectively, to be sure the control bar has enough space to be displayed properly.
Two of the things you might like to do with a sound file are to have the sound play automatically when the page is downloaded and to hide the control palette in that case. In order to have the sound play automatically, type "autostart=true" into the "Extra HTML:" field in the Plugin Editor window; if you want to hide Netscape's sound control panel, type in "hidden=true". Below is the Object Editor (Plugin) window with the autostart=true message.
Recording your own sounds
There are a few ways to get sounds. First, you can record them yourself with your Mac. One way to do that is to use SimpleSound, a free program from Apple. Once you have double-clicked the program in order to start it up, you'll see a window called Alert Sounds. Just close this window and choose "New..." from the File menu, and you will get a recording palette To begin recording, click on Record and speak into the microphone (or hold it up to the source of sound, such as you students reading a greeting, etc.). Click on Stop to stop recording, then click the Save button to save the sound. You will then see a standard "Save As..." dialog box which lets you name your file and save it to whichever folder you prefer. SimpleSound saves sound in a format that is known as the System 7 sound format. In order to use one of these sounds, you'll need to convert it to AIFF, AU or WAV. One program you can use to do this conversion is SoundApp, SoundApp can convert your System 7 sounds to AIFF or WAV format. You use the "Convert..." command in the File menu, pick the sound you would like to convert, and the format you want to convert it to, then save it using a standard "Save As..." dialog box.
Downloading Sounds
Another source of sounds is the Internet. There are several Web sites that serve as libraries of sounds. Most of these libraries of sound will be in "AU" or "WAV" format, so you won't need to convert them. One particularly nice one is SoundAmerica. The URL is http://soundamerica.com. Another site with lots of files is Derrick's Sound Files; this site contains mostly TV and Movie clips. The URL is ftp://derrick.schommer.keene.edu/wave
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