Putting sound on your web site can give your web site that special sparkle.
As Interlaced graphics are gradually focusing on the page, the visitor can
be put into the proper mood, preparing them for the graphic images and
textual messages they will see. In this article I will discuss the best
ways to put sound on your web site. Please keep in mind I am not
exclusively addressing the best sound formats available on the web but
rather getting the best sounds that will load quickly and encourage
visitors to stay.
Types of Sound Files
There are many ways of putting sound on your web page. The most common
sound files are wave, Mp3 or MIDI files. When coding sounds to
automatically play when a visitor enters your web page, Wave and Mp3 files
should generally be avoided. If you want to automatically play a sound
file when visitors enter your web page, MIDI is the way to go. Complete
songs in MIDI occupy about 5k ot 15k bytes. Its probably better to take a
key short 8 to 12 bar section of a song and loop it on your web page.
Although looping a poorly chosen song can drive visitors crazy. These
smaller song loops occupy 2k to 7kbytes. (I will show you later the html
to put MIDI on your page.)
On the other hand a wave file lasting more than a second, is just too large
to put on a web page as it will take too long to load (100K).
MIDI
What exactly then is MIDI? MIDI is a special computer language that
communicates music. It can only communicate music by controlling stored
sampled sounds. When you make a MIDI file, the number of different sounds
you can record is limited by your sound card. (Although you can download
new sampled sounds from the web). Most new sound cards such as the Sound
Blaster Live have 127 different voices or sounds(General MIDI), on them.
Making MIDI Files
A great idea for making MIDI on the web, is to use the 127 voices of the
Sound Blaster Live card as your sound card. The reason being is that you
know that most people on the web will hear your MIDI in the same way you
heard it when you made it. (Sound Blaster does have more than 127 voices
built in that you can access but stick to the 127 voice mode.)
If you use extra sound banks and have an expensive card that has over 127
sounds, most people on the web will not hear the extra sounds. One problem
though with the 127 voice sound card is that older computers with a 64
voice sound card will get a tinny gazzoo sound from your 127voice
composition. But these 64 voice cards are now in the minority of visitors.
Remember then to stick to 127 sounds when making MIDI for the web. Using
the Sound Blaster card is a good idea as most visitors will be using this
card and the sampled sounds will be the same ones that you heard when
making the MIDI.
A common question is "Can an Mp3 or wave file be converted into a midi
file. The answer is no. The file would need to be recomposed using midi
software. Voices, singing lyrics can not be put onto midi.
About the Author
John Rickey is an experienced MIDI arranger. He graduated from University
of Toronto with a degree in music and has worked from studio recordings to
Movies with his arranging. You can contact him at kingskid@netrover.com or visit his MIDI Design
Site at http//www.scugog-net.com/room108/midi/container.html