An Overview of Audio Delivery from a websiteAlthough the techniques of adding sound to a web page are easy, it's important you understand some of the concepts of how it is delivered and how it's played on the end users system Sound DeliveryThere are 3 main ways that you can add multimedia file like sound or video The simplest way of using sound files is as a download where you download the whole file onto your hard drive before you can listen. Not surprisingly this is just as easy to do as adding a link to a webpage or any other files. e.g. this open a sound file test.wav You can also embed the file into your webpage page much the same way you add graphics or add it to the background.. embedded sound example
(sorry to some. It might not work with your browser)If you create big sound files these methods can be slow especially when listened to by users using a slow connection as it can take ages for the file to download. Many web designers use streamed media to get round this. Here the file plays as it downloads (think a bit like radio where the info is played as it reaches the radio not stored up and the played). This means it starts quickly and your audience doesn't sit around waiting and hence streaming media is described as playing "on the fly". Usually a little bit of the media file (e.g. 10%) downloads before playing to act as abuffer the media file. The buffered material then starts playing whilst being topped up as the file downloads. Hence you continue to see or hear the streamed media. If that doesn't make sense, think about a sink filled with water. Our buffer of the media file becomes the water in the sink. If you pull the plug this will drain away (just like what happens when you play your media file). But if you open the tap at the right rate the sink should remain full (i.e. the incoming water replenishes the water in the sink)
Here's a video streamed file using real video
Streamed media big plus is that it allows large files to played on demand & comparatively quickly. You can also set up files for a range of download speeds (e.g. 28.8k 56k ADSL). The downside is that you will need to convert your sound file into a streaming media format of which there is a limited general choice (more so by the need for users to have a special player of the files)..
Sound PlayersRemember however you deliver your sound file your end user needs to have a suitable player. Web browser isn't directly a sound playing device, so you rely on 2 types of programs Plug ins and helpers
Helpers actually came first. Theses are independent applications and can run without a browser. Essentially your browser downloads the file and then the helper application is launched separately and the file is played through it the helpers window. Plug ins are newer They allow you to embed a sound and other files into a HTML page. They run inside the browser window and are not independent. Obviously some players can function as both helper & plug in. Support by browsers vary greatly Just a reminder note about copyright. This is much the same as site graphics. If you are putting music or sounds on your site that you wrote, hold the copyright to (if there is one) and performed that is then that's okay under most countries' and international law (assuming it fulfils international and locally acceptable laws about it contents and lyrics - i.e.. Don't put a song on-line if if against the law to play it in front of an audience). Clearly if you change your entire music collection or a film's audio track into downloadable files and place it on the web without permission from the relevant parties that is illegal and you might well end up being at the wrong end of a legal action. Between this the key is permission, so basically if in doubt don't do it and see about getting permission first (These thing vary from country to country and company to company - so we're not going to bore you to death about it and give potentially false legal info). re edited 2003© A.Duncan | 
