How
to Include RealAudio® Files on Your Web Site
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All
of our virtual domain accounts include the use of the
popular RealAudio®
server.
STEP
1: CREATE A SOUND FILE
If
the sound file that you want to make into a RealAudio file
is already saved on your computer you can skip to step 2.
If
you want to create a sound file from an external source
(e.g. your CD player, VCR, or Microphone), you can use a
program called Sound Recorder which comes with Windows95
(usually located in the Windows directory as
"Sndrec32.exe") or you can download an audio
editing program called Cool Edit which is available in
shareware and full release versions. You will need to
consult your sound card manual to learn how to send audio
from your source into the computer.
For
best results, encode the audio in the highest possible
setting (16-bit 44.1MHz). Consult the software's
documentation to find out how to make these settings. The
RealAudio Encoder will eventually compress it down, so it is
recommended to start with the highest quality source.
Once
you create the sound file, save it as either a .wav, .au, or
.pcm file.
STEP
2: ACQUIRE THE REALAUDIO SOFTWARE
In
order to create and listen to RealAudio files, you will need
to download and install the following programs:
RealAudio
Player:
http://www.realaudio.com/products/player/index.html
RealAudio
Encoder:
http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/index.html
You
can download shareware versions of the player and the
encoder from RealAudio
web site
as well. RealAudio offers a full version of their software
which offers better quality playback and may include other
features. This software package is not necessary to create
RealAudio files on your page.
STEP
3: TURNING YOUR SOUND FILE INTO A REALAUDIO FILE
Follow
theses steps to create a RealAudio file:
-
Open
the RealAudio Encoder program.
-
Select
the file that you want to encode by hitting the
"Browse" button.
-
Select
the sound file (e.g. .wav, .au, .pcm).
-
Select
the desired compression and file name on the right side
of the screen. (e.g. "14.4 Mono", "28.8
Mono", "28.8 Stereo", and
"ISDN")
-
Select
START ENCODING from the Encode menu at the top of the
screen.
The
original sound file will be scanned and copied to a
compressed format. You have just created an RA file.
**
Important **
Do NOT use underscore ("_") characters when naming
RA files as they will not be interpreted correctly by the
.ram file.
STEP
4: UPLOAD THE .RA FILE TO YOUR WEB SITE
Upload
the .ra file to the root directory of your web site in
binary transfer mode.
STEP
5: CREATING THE .RAM FILE
You
need to create a text file with a ".ram"
extension. This text file contains a URL to the realaudio
file in the following format:
pnm://www.webxess.net:7070/<userid>/audiofilename.ra
Note
the "pnm:" prefix. Substitute your userid above.
This file can reside in the root directory of your account.
The audio file name must have a ".ra" extension.
Once
the .ram text file is created, save it and upload it to your
web site in ASCII transfer mode. We suggest using the same
file naming convention. (e.g. "test.ram" will
launch the "test.ra" file)
STEP
6: CREATING THE HTML CODE FOR THE REAL AUDIO FILE
The
HTML document does NOT reference the .ra file itself; it
must call the .ram file which, in turn, launches the
RealAudio file as represented below.
<a
href="http://(yourdomain.com)/(textfile.ram)">Listen
to Audio</a>
If
you reference the .ra file directly from your HTML code, the
audio file may play, but you will not benefit from the
streaming audio effect.
STEP
6b: EMBEDDING A REALAUDIO FILE
You will also have the option of embedding a RealAudio file
so that the .ra
file will begin playing as soon as the html page loads. This
way, the web
visitor will not have to click on a link to hear your sound
file.
To do this, make a copy of your .ram file and resave it as a
.rpm file and
upload to the same directory as the .ram .
Then, reference the new .rpm within the page's html like
this:
<EMBED SRC="yourfile.rpm" WIDTH=250 HEIGHT=35
CONTROLS=ControlPanel AUTOSTART=TRUE>
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