When you use an Audio Format, you simply record the output of your mixer (with all your synths, all your effects, and even vocals) with the computer, to an audio file.
However, an uncompressed file is insanely large (At CD quality, 44.1khz 16 bit stereo bandwidth, you produce 180 kilobyte per second, 10 megabytes per minute!!) so this is not practical. However, there are several algorithms for compressing audio down to managble bandwidths ('bandwidth' is a fancy word for amount of data per second).
Naturally, compressing this gargantuan 10-megabyte-per-minute down to something a 28.8 modem can handle (about 200k per minute, that's 1/50:th of the size) means cutting a lot of corners. (Actually, the floor will be littered with cut of corners when yo are done with it)
This also means that the soundquality that can survive a 28.8 modem in realtime, is pretty rotten! More on this below.
Realtime (streaming) or not?
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Sidebar
This section shows the age of this tutorial, since today many browsers manage to play media files "on the fly" anyway, even if there is no special linking on the page.
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When you click on a link in your Browser, to, say, a .WAV file of someone saying "Hello there", it's quite common that the first thing that happens is that the Browser downloads the file. Then, after the whole file has travelled to your computer, is it actually played. For the listener, this means click . . . wait . . . wait . . . wait . . . "hello there".
The solution to this is to use a streaming audio format, that means, an audio format that plays as you download it. No more waiting - when you click, the file starts (almost) immediately!
However, there are quite a few things to keep in mind with streaming audio:
- Your file musn't be compressed with a higher bits/second rate that outperforms what the listener is using. (A 64kbit/second file won't fit thru a 28.8kbit/second modem)
- Setting up a file for streaming download often takes some doing, and in some cases requires special software in the server end. It's not just a matter of linking directly to the file!
Here's how you do it without any special server using MP3 or RealAudio
If you don't want to use streaming, your listeners will have to wait while the entire file is downloaded. If the song is long - or you are using a high-bandwidth compression, it's very likely they give up, or don't even try. Either out of boredom, or because they are charged by the hour - however little - for their internet connection. Even though the size of the file being downloaded is the same in streaming and non streaming mode, it psychologically feels like "No time" when you listen streaming, and like ages when you have to wait! Time flies when you listen to music! Time crawls when you wait!
But, as established earlier, 28.8 compression doesn't sound to hot. What do you do?
- You can use a higher bandwidth compression. But that will lock out the modem users. And even though connection speeds are increasing day by day, 28.8 modems users will be a majority for a while still...
- You can provide an alternative, downloadable, file in higher quality! This wastest more space on the server, but caters both to the needs of the modem users, and the audiophiles. And, of course, those with a high bandwidh connection!
What audio format to use?
".au"
(Sun)
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Don't use this. I've seen lots of audio files on the net, that tries to save space by using 8khz .au files. For their size, they sound worse than a file with some of the more advanced audio compression algorithms available.
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".wav"
(Windows)
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Maybe. WAV's can have compression in them. But can all players support the compressed WAV's? Often not.
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| MPEG (.MP3)
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This is now the "de facto standard" audio format online, but it is also really a STANDARD format (which means a standards comittee dreamed it up). It does very good audio compression, and yields nice sound quality for very small sizes. It's has long since replaced RealAudio as the online format of choice!
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RealAudio
Real Networks
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This used to be the de-facto standard format and the most widespread on the Web (probably because they simply were the first), but MP3 has overrun it. This is partially due to several VERY BAD business decisions by Real Networks, turning the formerly great Real Player app into an ugly spyware mess. Sad indeed.
Until version 3.0, RealAudio required a server, though.
But not any more!! Now you can stream RealAudio files from your standard WWW server!!
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IWave
ShockWave Audio
Windows Media
Ogg Vorbis
and others...
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There are several more formats. Each probably have some merit, others are only there for competitions sake. As I see it, the best would be if everybody could use one format. Windows Media and Ogg Vorbis is coming strong, and with Microsoft's dominance in the business, Windows Media is something to look out for...
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In a Nutshell
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When using an Audio format, the actual sound from your own
studio is recorded, and then compressed. That gives you total
artistic freedom to include anything you want. The actual
rendering of the music is done at your end, only the
resulting audio is transferred, albeit compressed, and at
a lower fidelity.
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Audio formats, Advantages:
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- The listener hears exactly what the composer intended - including samples, sounds, filtersweeps, lyrics, e.t.c.
For an artist, this is really important! And most modern techno/trance/breakbeat/whatever music simply can't be realized in General MIDI!
- For artistic freedom, audio formats are unbeatable. You can include whatever you want in the music. No Constraints!
- Possible to include high-bandwidth high-quality "versions" of songs, which is the complete experience, stereo and all!
- Streaming! Hear-while-downloading! This, psychologically, makes the download time seem shorter and less "wasted"!
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Audio formats, Disadvantages:
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- They can be really large. When streaming, this doesn't really matter, but for the non-streaming case, it naturally does.
- File size is directly defined by song length. 1 minute of silence is just as long as 1 minute of complex technotrancehiphop (about 200k at 28.8).
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