Sounds
You've spent hours crafting your website, you've worked out what you want to say and added some images but it's missing something, it's too quiet! You need sound to liven it up.
Making and editing music and sound on your computer is fairly easy and can be a lot of fun. If you don't have the time or skills to do it yourself, there are loads of sites where you can get legal, free sound and music.
Making your own sound and music
Sound comes in many forms; the human voice, sound effects and music. To record original sound you will need:
- Audio recorder, preferably digital (e.g. DAT or MiniDisc recorder), making it easier to add your sound to your website
- Microphone and cable
- Headphones
Editing music and sound
Once you have recorded your sound, you may wish to edit it before adding it to your website. There are a number of sound editors; the programs that let you trim, cut, mix and add effects to your sound and music.
Formats
Wave (.wav) and Audio Interchange Format (.aif)
WAV and AIF are a high quality, uncompressed audio file formats. These are the formats you should use when editing sounds, but are usually too large to put on the web. When you have finished editing your sounds, you should save them in a compressed format like mp3
Midi (Musical Instrument Digital Interface, .mid)
Midi sound files are small, load quickly and most commonly used for playing music. However, they are strictly an audio format and you can only use a limited range of sounds.
Real Audio (.ra)
RealAudio is used for streaming sound over the Web To play real audio you need to download the RealAudio player from http://www.real.com
MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer 3, .mp3)
MP3 is the standard format for compression of sound or music into a very small file (as much as one-tenth the size of the original file).
Links
For tips on recording sound:
http://www.soundportraits.org/education/how_to_record/
Free sound effects and music:
http://www.sounddogs.com
http://www.hollywoodedge.com/the_acb/...
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/freestuff.asp
http://www.coolarchive.com/sounds.cfm
http://www.echovibes.com/
Remember that copyright laws exist and use of these files may be limited.
