| Adding Sound to your Web Site - the good,
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| | altogether. Also, MP3 files don't loop
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| the bad and the ugly
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| | cleanly.
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| Many webmasters like the idea of adding
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| | PROS: Smaller File Sizes, Good Quality
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| background music to their web sites but
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| | Possible
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| most shy away from doing it worrying
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| | CONS: Needs external player software, not
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| about slow loading pages and large file
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| | loopable
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| sizes. There are many different ways to
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| | 4) Flash
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| add background music to your site and
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| | If you own a program that can create
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| some of them don't require large files to
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| | Flash files, you will have lots of
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| achieve professional results. Let's
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| | flexibility in adding sound to your site.
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| examine all the different ways to add
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| | Flash lets you import WAV as well as MP3
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| background music to your site and rate
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| | Files and then creates quite small files
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| them to find the best solution for you.
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| | from these sounds that will load
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| 1) MIDI Files
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| | automatically on your site. You can set
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| MIDI files are very small because they
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| | the quality level and therefore decide
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| actually use your sound card's built-in
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| | how large you want the Flash file to be.
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| instruments to create the sounds. The
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| | Flash also allows you to loop short
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| problem is that most sound cards don't
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| | pieces of sound to create 'continuous'
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| have any decent sounds to start with,
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| | background music files that can be quite
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| plus no two sound cards sound alike and
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| | small. But please note that only imported
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| therefore the results are very
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| | WAV files can be looped in Flash, MP3
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| unpredictable. MIDI files usually sound
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| | files will not loop cleanly.
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| like they're coming from one of those
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| | PROS: Great Flexibility, Small File
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| cheap Casio keyboards. Using MIDI for
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| | Sizes, expecially when looping sounds
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| background music is very likely to make
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| | CONS: You need to buy expensive Flash
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| your site seem amateurish. Want to know
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| | software to create Flash Files
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| how to do it anyway? Just add the line
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| | 5) Pre-Made Flash Loops
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| to your site. (Replace xyz with the name
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| | The newest thing on the market are
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| of the MIDI file you want to use!) The
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| | pre-built Flash Music Loops. These files
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| Autostart command will play the file
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| | are professionally recorded, loop almost
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| automatically when the page is loaded.
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| | indefinitely and most of these Flash
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| PROS; Very small file size, easy to
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| | Music Loops are only about 20k in size so
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| implement
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| | they load almost instantly. Flash Music
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| CONS: Unpredictable results, amateurish
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| | Loops are available at and currently
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| sounds
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| | there are three different loop packages
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| 2) WAV Files
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| | available in all kinds of music styles
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| Using the WAV file format allows you to
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| | from classical to techno. Using these
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| add professional sounding recordings to
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| | pre-built Flash files is easy. Simply
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| your site but the problem is that even if
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| | upload the "xyz.swf" Flash file to your
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| you use a low quality setting like 11k
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| | server and add a few lines from the
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| 8bit, the file sizes are still very large
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| | corresponding "xyz.html" file to your web
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| and it will take a long time for your
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| | page and presto...instant professional
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| music to load. And slow loading pages are
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| | sounding background music.
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| the worst thing that can happen to a
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| | PROS: Extremely small file size,
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| site. Implementing a WAV file on a web
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| | professional quality music
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| page is easy. Just add the line to your
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| | CONS: None
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| page's HTML code. There's an additional
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| | As you can see there are many different
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| command to loop the WAV file but WAV
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| | ways to add background music to your web
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| files do not loop cleanly with the embed
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| | pages and you don't have to worry about
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| command.
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| | slow loading pages if you choose the
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| PROS: Many Quality Levels, Easy to
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| | right file format.
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| implement
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| | Article by Alan Steward, a professional
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| CONS: Large File Sizes, WAV Files do not
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| | recording engineer and producer who
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| loop
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| | worked with many Grammy award winning
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| 3) MP3 Files
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| | groups and musicians.
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| MP3 files are highly compressed and don't
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| | (c)2004 Alan Steward -
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| take that long to load but the problem is
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| | You may freely redistribute or use this
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| that MP3s need to bring up an external
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| | article on your website or in your
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| player program and which in some cases
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| | newsletter as long as the article is
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| takes your visitors away from your site
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| | unaltered and unedited.
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