Re: Soundbytes on a Website

[hporter@UAkron.Edu (Hayden Porter)]

Mark wrote:

>I know this is off topic, but I've learned many useful things from my
>fellow loopers.
>
>I'm developing a website for a singer/songwriter and want to include brief
>(30 second) samples of his songs.
>The 700K version took about 5 minutes to download from the Internet.
>
>What should I do to reduce the size of the file and make downloading 
>faster?
>
>Thanks,
>Mark Kata
>Mark@asisoftware.com

Hi Mark,

I think Stephen's suggestion about using realaudio is about the best you
can do to reduce audio file sizes.  In addition, there are some other
things you can do to get the file size down.  By reducing the bit depth and
the sampling rate you decrease the amount of info in the audio file (and
also the quality).  You might try different combinations of sample rates
and bit depths.  22khz at 8bit wont sound great but it might be an
acceptible compromise for file size.  Also by creating mono files instead
of stereo you can decrease the file size.

When you put the excerpt up on the page it would be a good idea to have the
real audio file and a .wav file.  This way you are covered incase someone
comes along and wants to hear your excerpt but doesnt have the RA plug-in.
You should include a link to real audio so people can get the plug-in if
they want it.

One more thing, trying to compress an audio file with stuffit or compact
pro or some other compression software wont help.  Audio files wont
compress.

later,

Hayden Porter
hporter@uakron.edu