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| Get our free newsletter for the latest releases Contents Music Software Quick Reference Resources Online Ordering Software Authors Company Info | Shareware Music Machine News Making RealMedia files for beginners Date posted: February 17 1999 If you're a musician, no doubt you'd like to put your music on the Web. While MP3 is winning the hype stakes at the moment because of the way it's shaking up the music industry, RealMedia is still a great way to go if you want people to download your music in real time without all the hassles of a large download. While MP3 can offer high-quality stereo downloads, RealMedia provides a decent sound quality for a listener keen to listen to your music before downloading the MP3 version of your song or buying it online. What's great about using RealMedia is the estimated user base of 50 million people, as well as it's comparitive simplicity. Put simply, if you've got enough knowledge to record a song in wav format, you'll find creating RealMedia a breeze. Step One - Getting The Necessary Software You'll have to download the latest version of Real.com's audio encoder. For Windows 95/98/NT users this is RealProducer G2. Mac and Linux users should use RealEncoder 5.1 or RealAudio Encoder 3.1. Once they've downloaded onto your hard drive, just double-click on the file name and the program will install with ease. During the installation process, you can opt for a wizard to guide you through the process. To give you a bit of a better idea of what to do, we'll avoid the wizard and take you step by step through the process of making a RealMedia file. For the purposes of this exercise, we're going to convert a WAV file into RealMedia. Step Two: Making a RealMedia file. First of all, decide what you are intending to encode. In this case we're going to use a bit of music from a demo recorded with a band. Before we do anything, we have to consider our audience. If you want to make the file easy to download by the average surfer, click on the '28K Modem' box in 'Target Audience'. If you've ever used your 28.8 modem to download a RealAudio or RealMedia file encoded for listening via an ISDN line, you'll know that the file didn't sound all that good. The reason is simple. The RealProducer encoder compresses files to suit the bandwidth of the downloader. Secondly, you'll want to set your 'Audio Format' to 'Music'.
 Now, go to 'File' - 'New Session'. You need to set your 'Input Source'. In this case, we click on 'Media Device' and then 'Capture Audio'. Then we select the source file we want to encode from our hard drive. After this it's just a matter of setting the name of the file to be created. Take a look at the image below.
 Now, click 'OK' and you will return to the main screen. Hit 'Start' at the bottom left hand side of the screen in the 'Recording Controls' section. The source file will then be encoded and a window will appear, revealing some basic details about the encoding operation.
 After that, you can examine the result of the file conversion by pressing 'Play'. You should, of course, have installed RealPlayer G2 on your computer. And that's a very simple description of how you can create RealMedia files for your website. For more details, you can download the RealProducer G2 Authoring Kit. If you've got any ideas or advice of your own, please add them to the message board below. Geoff Nicholson Would you like to use this story free of charge on your site? Find out how to use our content. Back to news index Want to write for Shareware Music Machine? | GuitarSite.com A huge resource site for Guitarists with over 1000 Great Guitar Sites, 2000 Guitars Database, Tutorials, Tablature, Amplifiers, Chords, Theory, Electric, Acoustic, Classical, Flamenco, Interviews, Artists and heaps and heaps more. Want to buy sheet music, songbooks or guitar tabs? Sheet Music Plus has over a quarter million titles to choose from, and you can order online. Check out the Musicians' Resource Center Musicians Web Center contains over 2000 music software downloads, more than 2000 musician discussion forums, 2000 guitars database, 1000 great guitar site reviews and links, tuition, guides, synths, sheet music, tablature, a Real Audio server, book reviews and more for musicians! |
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