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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 3 Ratings

This Book Is A Masterpiece! - 2001-02-07
Reviewer Rating:
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.

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!

More Audio-to-Web than Web-to-Audio; Missing Files - 2001-01-28
Reviewer Rating:
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.

What I was really disappointed in was that the sound files the books lists as being on the website (see the book, p.17) 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, 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.

No Missing Sound Files To Download Are There! - 2001-02-02
Reviewer Rating:
.... I downloaded all the needed files for chapter 10 from:

....

I also wanted to say I am very happy with Designing Web Audio. I learned how digital audio is encoded from recording studio to computer. It gives step-by-step info for compression, encoding, and streaming audio over the Web. Thanks to: Josh Beggs, Dylan Thede, Richard Koman.

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Multimedia

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Multimedia > Audio
Audio > Internet Streaming