Sound Files | Creating Sound Files 		Next

Creating Sound Files

Most newer personal computers come out of the box with simple hardware and software for using a microphone to record your voice and other sounds. The sound quality of files created in this manner will not be very good, but this equipment does provide a means for you to create files with personally customized messages that you can include on your Web pages.

Creating a Sound File on the Macintosh

You can make sound recordings on a Macintosh if it has a microphone and the program Sound Machine.

  1. Open Sound Machine and choose "AIFF Record" from under the "Utilities" menu.

  2. This prompts for a file name under which the sound file will be saved. Give a name and directory for the file and choose "Save".

  3. This should pop up a recording panel. Click "Record", speak into the microphone to record, and then click "Stop" when you are finished recording.

  4. Click "Save" to store under the previously chosen name.

The resulting file is in AIFF format.

Linking to Your Sound File

The sound file that you have just produced can be played from a browser link like 

<a href="file.aiff">Sound File</a>

if file.aiff was the name of the file recorded above and the browser is configured to play sound files of this type.

Remember: Sound Files Can Be Large

If you use sound files in your Web presentations, bear in mind that these files will be large for sound clips of more than a few seconds duration. Thus, if your Web page is intended for an audience using modem-level connections, you should use sound judiciously - save it for those things where it can have a significant impact.

If you do use larger sound files (or any large file, for that matter), it is a courtesy to your reader to indicate the length of the file if possible [for example, a label "(235 kB .AU file)"]. Then your reader will know if they are about to start a download that could take some time over a slow modem connection.

Streaming Sound

A more efficient way to transmit sound on the Web is to stream it, which means that the sound plays as it is being loaded, rather than waiting for the full file to download. In the next section we discuss one way of playing streaming sound. Also, the program, Flash, discussed later has the capability to create streaming sound files.

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