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There
are several different types of sound files you can add
to your webpages to make them come alive. Sounds, used
in moderation and relevance, enhance and improve the
quality of your webpages. However, over use of sound
can be annoying and slow your site down considerably.
The
table below shows different types of sound files and
details their use.
| File
Type |
Size |
Description |
| Midi
(.mid) |
small |
Used
for playing instrumental music only. Huge range
available, file size usually between 8K and 100K.
Browsers have a default midi plugin to play them,
but, MUCH better plugins can be purchased. Newer
players will play the midi as it downloads. This
is known as 'streaming'. |
| Wav
(.wav) |
large |
Used
for short clips of 'real' sound. File size ranges,
usually, from 20k to 2MB. Large files
SLOW down your load time! The entire file must
be down loaded before any sound is heard. Easy
to record your own, but, be careful they sound
good but can be HUGE in size. |
| Audio
(.au) |
large |
Similar
to wav files - some Java applets demand .au files
for their sound files. |
| Real
Audio (.ra) |
large |
Sounds
very realistic, but, not quite CD quality. Requires
a Real Audio player and a plugin to use them on
a webpage. Sounds will play while they are still
downloading, and traffic on the net affect their
quality. |
| MP3's |
HUGE |
Often
used to pirate a CD and as such, completely illegal.
Many free servers will not allow you to store
this file type. |
How
to add sound to your pages
Midi
Adding a midi or .mid sound file to your webpage is
simple and can be used to achieve a number of effects.
By rule of thumb, we have learned, most visitors like
the option of turning the music off. If you choose not
to give them this option, then at least, either keep
the volume low, or do not make the midi loop more than
3 times on pages that contain a lot of text. Trying
to read your information while listening to a midi file
over and over and over, can become quite annoying. The
tag used is as follows:
<embed src="fcontact.mid"
autostart=true loop=true width="200" height="55" volume=20>
Using the above
code, we have told my page to do as follows:
- embed - attaches the
midi to our page.
- src - sets the midi
file fcontact.mid as the screen source for the sound
file.
- autostart - can be
true or false, true in this case, tells the midi
to load and automatically start. If you set this
to false, you will have to push the play button
on the midi player.
- loop - can be true
or false or a number, in this case true, tells the
midi to play over and over until the visitor turns
it off. If it's set to a number, the midi will play
thorough completely that number of times and shut
off automatically.
- width - sets the width
of display allotted for the midi player
- height - sets the height
of display allotted for the midi player
- volume - allows you
to set a value from 1 to 100. We have found that
15-40 is ample, but, this depends on the quality
of the midi.
Wav
files and Au
This
type of file can add 'real sound' to your webpages.
For example, if you are doing a virtual tour website
these would come in handy. Suppose you want to take
the visitor down a classroom hall. Listening to footsteps
as you tour a school can make a dramatic change. We
will show you two different websites, basically the
same, but, one has sound effect and the other does not.
Judge for yourself and when you've tried them, come
back and we will show you how it's done.
JayDax
Virtual School - with sound - Be patient, it takes
a while to load, but makes all the difference.
Virtual
Blakeston School - without sound
Ok,
which one was more fun? Why not e-mail
us with your vote :)
The tag used is as follows:
<embed
src="bird.wav" volume=20 autostart=true loop=false hidden=true>
Explanation is the same as for midis. Unless you are
using an older version of IE, in which case you would
use this tag
<BGsound="bird.wav"
etc.....
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