Encoding Song Files

I realize that many may be new to computers or to the Internet and may not know how to publish or make available music files that others can download or listen to that visit your web site.

Or perhaps you just want to encode a file that you can send as an attachment in an email.

If you have a web site here are the steps you need to take to put music on

your web site.

You can post either of these to a site or send the result as an email--

MP3:

(Best sound, very popular therefore readily playable by most)

Go to :
http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/index.html
And download version 6. it's free. you get everything for the first 30 days,

you don't really lose anything important after.

http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/download.html

Once installed, go to "Tools" on menu bar and select "Record"; start your tape and

of course have your audio running thru a sound card's line-in jacks. This

creates a wave file. Warning: This software doesn't work so well on quiet tracks or

beginnings. Adaptec's "Easy CD Creator" as an example, is better for that.

Then encode ("Tools-Convert") as an MP3 --(Lame 128 is what I use).

Real Audio:

(Smaller files, taking up less of your allotted space with your web host)

Download and install Real Producer and make an RA (real audio) file.
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/index.html?src=pdcrup,rpcntrl_022101

The basic version, while not giving you some additional levels of compression or working with older players (a simple download or update to get version 8, which is required with this version), works just fine and is free. The pay-for version is currently $200.00. Either version includes a wizard, making it easy to turn a wave file into an ra file.

With the upcoming version of Windows XP, a third viable format will come into existence which will be smaller than MP3 but sound better and could displace Real Audio as a streaming format as well. It will be a long time before that happens however and there may be other developments as well.

Getting files from an audio tape recorder or other sound source:

In all likely hood, an RCA standard audio patch cable, also maybe a quarter inch female RCA (two) to stereo mini male plug. Look at accessory stuff from a CD player, walk-man, etc. Usually these things are supplied, otherwise, hit up your local Radio Shack.

Run an RCA patch cable from your source to your computer's audio sound card line-in receptacle and then just push play on your source and record within the software you downloaded and installed above.

Sonic Forge XP 4.5/5.0 is widely used as a sound editor, manipulator, recorder, ripper, etc. Highly recommended! Included free with some sound cards (Creative Labs Live, etc.), otherwise available separately. Has a handy "normalizer" built in.

Easy CD Creator (deluxe works best for a wide variety of needs) also is bundled with many CD-RW drives such as Smart And Friendly's. Can be used to clean up scratchy old records to convert to CD's for personal use.

Publishing to your web site:

Once recorded to your hard drive and encoded in either of the above formats, import the file into a new directory, such as "Music" in your local directory structure as prep before publishing to your host. This will all take quite a bit of space on your hard drive because you have recorded a very large wave file, encoded it to perhaps and relatively small but still quite large MP3 file and also a Real Audio file that might itself be any where from 1 to 2 MB's! You could also have some temp files also created from these processes.

Obviously the better and newer your equipment is, the better the results, the faster the conversions and the smoother things generally go. Encoding is CPU intensive, the faster (more MHz), the better. None of is to say or intended to discourage you from trying on lesser equipment. I think a CPU of about 200 MHz, a 5400 RPM IDE hard drive of 10 MB and memory of 64 MB RAM are the minimums.

Create a web page linked from your home or index page for your music files. List them in any way that you like and then link the individual songs to the music file. You might give the visitor a choice of having a real Audio or MP3 file to play, if you have the space with your server (web host). Most site only give a sampling of a song, not the whole enchilada, say 500kb worth. Verify that the links all work!

Simply publish as you always have to your site and everything should work fine.

Watch out for:

Saving pages with improper formatting, non-existent links and illegal use of copyrighted material.

Hit Counter 6/16/2001