Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM

Larger Cover

By Josh Beggs, Dylan Thede

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: January 2001

Pages: 400

Designing Web Audio is the most complete Internet audio guide on the market. It's loaded with informative real-world case studies and interviews with some of the world's leading audio and web producers. It contains step-by-step intstructions on how to build multimedia web pages using the most popular web audio formats. This book also includes a wealth of basic digital audio and sound wave theory, practical tips and techniques for recording and editing audio for the Web, and an invaluable buyer's guide to building an effective sound studio.

Designing Web Audio explains how digital audio is encoded from microphone to hard disk; how sound is processed using compression and equalization; and how to turn audio source material into a great soundtrack using loops and ambient soundscapes. Designing Web Audio demystifies its subject with informative step-by-step techniques for encoding, compression, and streaming audio over the Web.

This book includes the following:

The most up-to-date, step-by-step guides to the latest popular streaming media formats for building multimedia web pages including RealAudio, Shockwave, Flash, MP3, MIDI, and RMF (Beatnik).
A step-by-step guide to building multimedia Synchronized Media Integration Language (SMIL) presentations using the new RealSystem G2. (This is the only book on the market that offers information on this.)
In-depth coverage of the sound design principles for building effective multimedia web pages with sound, including examples of real-world sound design techniques used by leading film and CD-ROM sound designers.
Informative case studies featuring leading companies such as N2K, Fox News Corp, TechWeb, and Sonicopia, and how they are enhancing their web pages using Flash, RealAudio, Shockwave, or Beatnik's audio technologies.
Tips from two Academy Award-winning sound designers that will help web professionals use audio more intelligently.
In-depth consumer buyer's guide with street prices and tips for buying the best gear at the lowest prices to produce high-quality Internet audio in-house.
Thorough practical coverage of digital audio theory and basic recording and editing techniques.

The easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions on using the leading audio formats makes Designing Web Audio an invaluable resource for web developers and people who want to stream their own music over the Web.

Chapter 1 The Art of Sound Design
1. A brief history of web audio
2. What you can do with sound on the Web
3. Two easy ways to add sound
4. Adding sound effects
5. Audio challenges and limitations
6. Solid sound design
7. Designing web audio
8. Interactive sound effects and buttons
9. Interactive sound design case study
10. Summary
Chapter 2 The Science of Sound and Digital Audio
1. The science of sound
2. Digital audio demystified
3. Summary
Chapter 3 Capturing Original Source Material
1. Selecting the right equipment
2. Recording techniques
3. Summary
Chapter 4 Optimizing Your Sound Files
1. Basic sound editing
2. Digital effects
3. Web mastering: optimizing sound files for Internet broadcasting
4. Summary
Chapter 5 Introduction to Streaming Media
1. Streaming protocols
2. Streaming media formats
3. Selecting the right format
4. Summary
Chapter 6 Encoding, Serving, and Streaming Sound with RealAudio
1. The RealMedia System
2. Streaming RealAudio from a web server
3. Professional webcasting
4. Advanced RealAudio applications
5. Live broadcasting with RealAudio
6. Case study: N2K streams live Mötley Crüe concert
7. Summary
Chapter 7 Designing Multimedia Presentations with SMIL and RealSystem G2
1. SureStream
2. SMIL
3. RealPix
4. RealText
5. RealFlash
6. Delivering backwards-compatible content
7. Case study: TechWeb Today
8. Summary
Chapter 8 Playing, Serving, and Streaming MP3
1. MP3 pros and cons
2. What is MP3?
3. Playing MP3 files
4. Making MP3 files
5. Creating a buzz: posting MP3 files to the Internet
6. Start your own MP3 radio station
7. Legalities of MP3
8. MP3 resources
9. Summary
Chapter 9 Interactive Sound Design with Flash and Shockwave
1. Flash and Shockwave basics
2. Introduction to Flash
3. Introduction to Shockwave
4. Summary
Chapter 10 MIDI: Quick and Easy Audio for the Web
1. MIDI: A universal approach
2. Adding MIDI to your web pages
3. Creating your own MIDI files
4. Summary
Chapter 11 Designing Audio Web Sites with Beatnik
1. New possibilities for interactive sound
2. Beatnik authoring system
3. Sonification tutorial
4. Using the Beatnik Editor
5. Summary
Chapter 12 Glossary

Colophon

Title:

Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM

By:

Josh Beggs, Dylan Thede

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Safari Books Online

Print:

January 2001

Pages:

400

Print ISBN:

978-1-56592-353-9

| ISBN 10:

1-56592-353-7

Josh Beggs

Josh Beggs is co-founder and president of Raspberry Media, a Design Firm in the San Francisco Bay Area specializing in Web-smart architecture, interface design, and brand development for Internet start-ups. Josh began his career in the multimedia industry as a recording engineer and sound designer. In 1995 he produced the interactive soundtrack for EMI Records flagship CD-ROM, Queensrÿche's "Promised Land." After receiving impressive reviews from Billboard Magazine (March 1996) for the soundtrack, Josh went on to explore interactive media design with Raspberry Media. In addition to designing some of the top Web sites on the Internet, he also follows his musical passions as a pianist and recording artist.

View Josh Beggs's full profile page.
Dylan Thede

Dylan Thede's multimedia experience began in the cultural mecca of the San Francisco Bay Area in 1985. At a young age, he was designing sound systems and multimedia presentations for the University of California at Berkeley. At the University of California at Santa Cruz, Dylan became a pioneer in the emerging fields of Digital Audio, Digital Video, and Multimedia and later graduated with a degree in Multimedia and Psychology. He was one of the pioneers in web design when the World Wide Web burst onto the scene in 1994. In 1995, Dylan founded AudioVisualize, a multimedia consulting company that caters to companies who wish to implement multimedia into their web sites and corporate operations. Besides writing and creating multimedia projects, he is also a musician and is currently composing and recording music for an upcoming multimedia CD release. Dylan can be reached at dylan@usa.net.

View Dylan Thede's full profile page.

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O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM

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Displaying reviews 1-5

4/1/2003

3.0

Designing Web Audio Review

By angela chang

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM:

I am doing a comparison of different web sound books. I would agree that it was very disappointing not to have accessed the sound files referenced in the book, particularly in the soun loop tutorial. The book was readable, and okay so far. Most reference books are very similar and the missing sound files and outdated references affect the quality of the reader experience. Anyone have other recommendations?

5/9/2001

1.0

Designing Web Audio Review

By George Myers

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM:

Is this book a joke?

After purchasing several O'Reilly books in the past I was very disappointed with this book! For something published in January 2001 I was surprised to see so much out dated material and incorrect information in the book.

For starters, this book looks like it was a rush job written by a bunch of Mac users that still think people only use the Mac to create audio/music. For example, on pages 4 and 5 the headings don't match up with the paragraphs, and for something as basic as the and tags you'd think they could of done a better job documenting them. In general the book feels very unorganized, it seems that a page or two doesn't go buy without it saying for more info on xyz see chapter x.

Pictures of audio?

One thing that really makes me laugh and is waste of ink, is the pictures of audio. I really wish I knew what they were thinking. How can a picture of audio be helpful? Especially figures 1-2 A one-second button sound effect, 1-3 A four-second intro sound effect.. and my favorite 1-4 Optimium loop length of 13 seconds.

The tutorial on page 20 points to http://www.designingwebaudio.com/samples/foo.wav but the file isn't there. Also the tutorial doesn't even start off by telling you what software is being used. Based on the text from one of the pictures it might be Pro Tools, who knows.

huh?

On page 16 it mentions "Sound Forge Acid looping tool" sounds like their Mac guys that don't know what they're talking about. There are 2 different products by Sonic Foundry one is called Sound Forge and one is called ACID

On page 17, I never heard of a 90 minute CD, in fact the red book standard is about 76 minutes.

On page 98 they slam Netshow saying NT isn't stable and it's not suitable for live broadcasts but page 345 they say it's excellent for large-scale streaming.

On page 345 the chart makes it look like someone must have NT expertise to author for Windows Media, not true, can use many of the Cakewalk or Sonic Foundry products to author Windows Media and not need to now anything about NT.

On page 326-328, most of the products listed are several years old and newer versions are available. In some cases the products have been discontinued or the companies are basically out of business (Opcode). Many popular companies/products were omitted M-Audio (Midiman), Cakewalk (has pro and budget options), Cool Edit Pro, etc, etc..

Hopefully Barnes & Noble will let me return this piece of $#(^

4/13/2001

3.0

Designing Web Audio Review

By Glenda Hammond

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM:

Just want to let Ed Quigley know he can get the sound files referenced in the book by going to the authors' web site at http://www.designingwebaudio.com/.

Glenda

2/22/2001

5.0

Designing Web Audio Review

By John Moran

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM:

Advances in Web audio technology are nothing short of amazing. New software programs, new programming languages, and improvements with bandwidth have produced phenomenal results. Josh Beggs and Dylan Thede have written Designing Web Audio to provide professional-level Web development instruction in areas of Web audio theory, soundtrack creation, programming, and broadcasting - Webcasting.

Readers will learn how audio sounds are created, how microphones and other input devices work, what the latest streaming audio file formats are and how they work, how leading audio file editors work, how to create effective multimedia Web pages and multimedia presentations, how to write basic audio file programming scripts, and how to create Webcasts. Many helps, tips, and sample scripts are included to assist readers to achieve the best possible results!

The authors explain in significant detail the many considerations involved in creating and using Web audio. Factors such as determining the overall purpose of a Website, determining the target audience, recognizing bandwidth limitations, hardware and software used, system and browser platforms used, mode of delivery, audio content, and legal constraints are all important matters to be analyzed and taken into full account before getting started.

This Book Is A Masterpiece! The book features a convenient buyer's guide to selecting and using audio file editing and presentation programs, recording studio equipment, and sound effects libraries. Readers receive solid instruction on how they can create professional Web sound studios costing anywhere from several thousand dollars on up to $20,000 or more. A number of leading software and recording equipment options are presented to help serious readers select and put to use the latest audio software and recording tools. Checkout the buying tips!

Familiarity with audio file formats is essential. An excellent appendix compares the latest audio file formats: MP3, RealAudio, Windows Media, QuickTime, Liquid Audio, Flash, Director Shockwave, Beatnik, MIDI, WAV, and AIFF. With this information available to them, readers will be able to select and use the Web audio broadcasting formats best suited to meet their own particular needs.

This book is a masterpiece. It provides thorough coverage of today's latest Web audio technology. It's laid out well, it's clearly written and illustrated, and it will produce professional results. It's ideally suited for professional Web developers and musicians who have significant experience working with computers and the Internet. This is an outstanding Web audio resource!

1/27/2001

3.0

Designing Web Audio Review

By Ed Quigley

from Undisclosed

Comments about O'Reilly Media Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM:

I've been eagerly awaiting this book, because as a web designer I've been looking for an authoritative (ie, O'Reilly) work on the topic. The book was good to prettygood - nothing in here from a coder's perspective that you wouldn't already have from HTML and Flash experience, but a lot of info for people setting up sound systems to record for the web - this is more a book for audio types moving to the web than for web types trying to embrace audio - but what I was really disappointed in was that the sound files the books lists as being on the website aren't available as described.

You know, I skimmed this book while nursing my latte at Borders, I sped-read the chapters of most interest to me, and I saw that they had cool sound files on their website - and I bought the book rather than chumping out and just going to the website, because I want to support the people that are helping me.

When I went to the site and found that the sound clips aren't up as promised (in page 17 of the book), I felt like the one who'd been chumped. This is NOT the standard experience when dealing with O'Reilly products. I wish I had not bought it, because they did not deliver what they said they would.

Displaying reviews 1-5

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Chapter 1 The Art of Sound Design

A brief history of web audio

What you can do with sound on the Web

Two easy ways to add sound

Adding sound effects

Audio challenges and limitations

Solid sound design

Designing web audio

Interactive sound effects and buttons

Interactive sound design case study

Summary

Chapter 2 The Science of Sound and Digital Audio

The science of sound

Digital audio demystified

Summary

Chapter 3 Capturing Original Source Material

Selecting the right equipment

Recording techniques

Summary

Chapter 4 Optimizing Your Sound Files

Basic sound editing

Digital effects

Web mastering: optimizing sound files for Internet broadcasting

Summary

Chapter 5 Introduction to Streaming Media

Streaming protocols

Streaming media formats

Selecting the right format

Summary

Chapter 6 Encoding, Serving, and Streaming Sound with RealAudio

The RealMedia System

Streaming RealAudio from a web server

Professional webcasting

Advanced RealAudio applications

Live broadcasting with RealAudio

Case study: N2K streams live Mötley Crüe concert

Summary

Chapter 7 Designing Multimedia Presentations with SMIL and RealSystem G2

SureStream

SMIL

RealPix

RealText

RealFlash

Delivering backwards-compatible content

Case study: TechWeb Today

Summary

Chapter 8 Playing, Serving, and Streaming MP3

MP3 pros and cons

What is MP3?

Playing MP3 files

Making MP3 files

Creating a buzz: posting MP3 files to the Internet

Start your own MP3 radio station

Legalities of MP3

MP3 resources

Summary

Chapter 9 Interactive Sound Design with Flash and Shockwave

Flash and Shockwave basics

Introduction to Flash

Introduction to Shockwave

Summary

Chapter 10 MIDI: Quick and Easy Audio for the Web

MIDI: A universal approach

Adding MIDI to your web pages

Creating your own MIDI files

Summary

Chapter 11 Designing Audio Web Sites with Beatnik

New possibilities for interactive sound

Beatnik authoring system

Sonification tutorial

Using the Beatnik Editor

Summary

Chapter 12 Glossary

Colophon

Josh Beggs

Dylan Thede

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