Sparks Fly
[Home] [PBS VideoDatabase] [Social Studies] [TSU] [UVA]

 

Sounds and the Web

In the beginning of the web…

Sound files were sent in .au format

Both Internet Explorer and Netscape will recognize .au, .wav, and MIDI sound files

Internet Explorer will recognize the <bgsound> tag. Netscape uses the <embed> tag.

Streaming audio is provided by LiveAudio, RealAudio, etc. plug-ins

HTML tags for Sound in Netscape

Automatically launch a background sound by using the <EMBED> tag

<EMBED SRC="musicfilename.mid" height=2 width=0 autostart=true>

This plays music as soon as the page opens

You can display a controller by specifying a specific height and width in the tag

<EMBED SRC="musicfilename.mid" height=50 width=200 autostart=false></embed>

This command lets the user control the music

In Internet Explorer

Located in the head of the document

<bgsound src="hen8hmdm.mid" loop="-1">

Sound is…

Most sensuous element of multimedia

Music, sound effects, speech can enhance your page

How you use it can make or break your multimedia presentation

Good use enhances

Misuse can wreck your project

MIDI vs. MP3

MIDI files are compact and very small in comparison to Real Audio

MIDI embed and load quickly

MIDI data are easily edited

MIDI is data not actual sound so you can’t control the accuracy of the playback

Cannot playback spoken dialog easily

Digital Audio

Digitized sound is sampled sound (every x seconds a sound is taken and stored as digital information in bits and bytes) the more frequent the sampling the larger the file

File size vs. quality

The higher the sound quality the larger the file will be

Adding Sound

Decide what kind of sound is needed

Decide where the sound will fit in the project

Decide what kind of sound you want to use

Acquire the source materials (sound files)

Edit to fit your project

Test the sound files and time them properly

Links to Tutorials Dealing with Sound

About.com    Sounding Off

SiteCrafters    Adding Sound to Your Web Page

About.com    Adding Streaming Audio Files

About.com    Multimedia--Animation, Sound, and Video

Web Developers    Including Sound in a Web Page

Web Developers    Embedding Sound in Web Pages

Links to Sites with MIDI files 

The Internet Renaissance Band

Classical MIDI Jukebox

Orchard of Oddities--MIDI Files

MidiMaven--The Net's MIDI Resource

Classical Archives

Big Band MIDI Sequences

Standard MIDI Files on the Net

Larry's MIDI Music Page

Sound file "hen8hmdm.mid" from The Internet Renaissance Band

 
This page was updated on:  04/10/02