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Create your own Audio studio for under $100.Quentin Brown Creating your own audio studio has never been easier. There are so many great products around today that will allow you to produce high quality audio for a fraction of the price it used to cost. HARDWARE The first thing you will need is a compatible computer. Today every new computer is already set up with everything you will need. A basic sound card with a mic and line in jack. If you do not have a sound card they are very cheap and you can get a good one from any standard computer shop. Next you will need a good mic. These come in all sizes and shapes with different configurations however a general all round mic like the Logitech Noise-canceling microphone is fine for beginners. I suggest you get a desk top one to start with as you may want to move into video later and so you wont want a headset in your videos. Of course you could go up a stage and get a preamp with a professional mic but this will start running into dollars and the whole aim of this article ids to help you get started. Next you will want to get some cables to connect up your tape recorder and other audio equipment. Again the computer stores now have packs that will connect up pretty well any device into your computer to digitalize your sound. SOFTWARE - RECORDING Recording your audio is probably one of the most critical parts of this process and again you can get software that ranges from free to many thousands of dollars. For this exercise I suggest you download the free copy of Audacity. This is an excellent software package that will allow you to record from your mic or any equipment you have. It provides excellent editing capabilities and also will allow you to edit multiple tracks and then combine them into one single track. For a wuick overview of how to do this you can watch this video. http://www.msincome.com.au/sound/testaudio.html Download the software here. http://audacity.sourceforge.net SOFTWARE - CONVERTING The next piece of software you will need for your studio is a converting program that will allow you to convert different formats. For example you may have a real audio file and you want to convert it to mp3. dBpoweramp is like the swiss army knife for the audio industry and will convert just about any file to any other file format. Convert from one format to another, just about every audio type is supported: mp3, mp4, Windows Media Audio wma, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Monkeys Audio, FLAC and many others whilst preserving ID Tags. It will also rip CDs for you. http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm SOFTWARE - REDUCTION If you are going to stream an mp3 direct then you may want to recompile the file to a smaller format. RazorLame is a so-called "front-end" for use with LAME. LAME is a great MP3-Encoder: its very fast, it produces high-quality files, has many advanced features like Variable Bitrates and Joint-Stereo, and its open source. Unfortunately, it is a command line utility, and that is where RazorLame comes in: It provides an easy-to-use graphical user-interface which makes MP3-encoding even easier! The best way to use this software is to get one file and compile in a number of different formats to test the size against quality. Very similar to working with graphics. http://www.dors.de/razorlame/download.php SOFTWARE – STREAMING There are a few different ways of streaming your new audio files. If you have Macromedia products you can simple organize this your self however there are some great third party programs around that will do it all for you at a fraction of the cost. MP3 SOUND STREAM This is a simple piece of software that takes any mp3 or wav audio and converts the whole file into a swf file and then attaches a button so that viewers can listen on a web page without needing to download any extra software. This is because the flash plugin is on 98% of computesr and if not it will automatically detect and load the small plugin. This is great for anyone not wanting to get ino all the technical aspects of streaming audio. You will not need to reduce your files at all with this program as it doers it all for you. This is perfect for anyone wanting to stream one file at a time and wants to do it quickly and efficiently. It will stream even over most modem connections. MSIJUKEBOX For people wanting to stream a number of files then msijukebox is a great alternative. This software lets you choose any number of mp3 files and then organizes them using an XML file. By using the above free programs you can significantly reduce the size of these files to save on bandwidth. Because MSIJukebox streams the actual mp3 you can also have a lot higher quality playback including stereo files. This is much better for those wanting to stream a number of very high quality mp3 audio files. SUMMARY So there you have it. A complete studio set up for under $100. Just download all the free software and purchase any of the streaming audio setups that you want. You can then create, edit and manipulate any audio files you like. You will also be able to add these audios to your website. With the web surfer becoming much more "web savvy" than they were a year ago, they are expecting not only information but an entertaining web experience.
| | | | RELATED ARTICLES Advantages of a Simple Design Easily maintained The 5 Biggest Mistakes Almost All Web Designers Make -- And Why These Mistakes Could Cost YOU A Fortune! Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash -- Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually DECREASED the response from prospects and customers by as much as three-hundred-and-seventy percent Traditional businesses on the Internet Have you ever thought of putting your business on the Internet, but simply not known where to start or youre not sure whether the Internet is really meant for your business The Next Marketing Tool: Deisgn Design sells.It’s something that all of us know, but few of us consciously acknowledge.There is an age old adage that warns people not to “judge books by their cover.”In other words, we shouldn’t judge people or products by their appearance.But this isn’t true in America.We do judge books by their cover – in fact we spend billions of dollars on products that have prettier “covers.” Dotcom Business Plans Archive project One of the most important initiatives in the domain of business documentation is that of professor David Kirsch from the University of Maryland, who thought of a dotcom Business Plan Archive - , a project that consists of collecting business plans for posterity. 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Growing Your Business In CyberSpace A synopsis of Philippa Gamses Presentation to the National Speakers Association, Washington DC chapter on Saturday, January 10, 2004 web page building for beginners 4 Page ranking by search engines such as Google are not only overrated but unusually explained by “experts” in the SEO field. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is needed to get your website placed at the top of a web search. I have no truck with someone wanting to get their pages placed in the number one or two spot from a search, but page ranking has nothing to do with that whatsoever and I can assure the reader that I can prove this to anyone with a computer. In fact, if you will just do a search for “writing critic” you will find www.homewriters.com near the top and since I own that site, I can explain to everyone how it got there and why. But at one time, I had four out of the top five spots on Google for this very same search. And by the way, my pages had no rank at all when they were first placed in the top positions by Google and Yahoo! Content is king Introduction Web-site designing Pillars part2 USABILITY Web Site Content Ideas for Webmasters Many years ago I began creating web sites that began as photo albums for friends and family and then turned into travel guides for trips I took to Jamaica , Napa Valley and the Black Hills of South Dakota.Soon I created web sites related to cars, dogs, and motorcycles.Later I was turned on to Googles Adsense program which allowed me to generate enough income from my hobby web sites that I could pay for the overhead costs.I found it challenging to come up with additional content and perform search engine optimization on my existing pages.Occasionally I would hit mental blocks and would have no new content I could add.Whenever this happens I try for the following to help me generate new and useful web site content and hopefully drive my Google Adsense revenue. If Content is King, then surely Relevance is Queen! There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the search engine world of late and there are lots of conspiracy theories as to why these things happen. How to Boost Your Chances at Having a Successful Web Site New Web sites are springing up online by the millions. However, when they don’t reach a level of success, the Web site owners assume that they can’t make money off the Internet. The Basic Facts About Business Web Hosting There are a number of hosting options, from free to dedicated servers. Let’s spend a few moments and look over the options. How to Choose a Quality Webhost If you are anything like me, you’d probably like to have a website on the Internet but you just have no idea how to go about it. All this talk of web hosting, bandwidth, disc space, and other jargon can cause one to say, “This is too complicated and technical, I just wanted to have a place to put all of my favorite skateboarding photos, cool information on ramp designs, and the best places to skate!” To get a website on the Web you have to go through a web host. The question is how do you find the web host for you |
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