How Is The Audio Craze Sounding?

Sound effects sell. It's just one type of audio that has joined the race on the information superhighway to fulfill its promise, which some of us have been asking for and using for well over a decade now: The ability to send sound effects from a web site to a client at a moment's notice. Knowing that kind of thing sometimes makes it hard to believe that there was a time when sound effects discs took weeks to arrive! Weeks! And, when they did ar- rive, occasionally they were of pretty shoddy quality, requiring us to take hours to sort through the "sound catalog" and make functional. All self-professed "audio geeks" and sound engineers alike are relieved, to say the very least, that those days have passed. Today, companies are looking for better and easier ways to make their audio libraries accessible to a greater number of users, while making sure their files are at higher resolution and ready to pop in to an already-running production. That said, the latest craze of downloadable single files or entire libraries has been hampered by a bevy of issues. Not only is the Internet's increasingly narrow bottleneck a concern, but so are any number of software compatibility problems and the high cost of putting those files on the Internet. Though most com- panies "audition" sounds on the Web, and a quick per- usal of home pages allows for more specific searches, the overwhelming feeling is that the compact disc method of distribution will not disappear any time soon. The Internet has, however, allowed these audio post houses to offer their own libraries online. In fact, one quick search for "audio: sound effects" generates nearly 1 million links to some of the more established companies as well as to some of the more obscure ones. One thing is for sure. As the number of general sound effects catalogs have grown over the years, demand seems to be decreasing. So, some companies are turning more and more to specialized discs. Maybe there are a lot of general libraries out there, and people don't need another general library. However, more special- ized libraries are coming to the marketplace, People are considering more "niche" categories of sounds and just going out, recording them, and posting them on their web site. It's as simple as that, but it's also very, very com- petitive among big business as well as audio entrepre- neurs or enthusiasts. For example, any high-end automobile TV ad campaign is going to go directly to these kinds of links to locate the best "sound quality" for their ad. For ex- ample, that secure sound of the door shutting on a brand-new car in a TV commercial takes hours and hours of research. And that sound comes from one of these audio posts, which means someone just made a lot of money. Sound sells. It sells more than you'd think, and it's one of those "I've never thought about it," kinds of subconscious realities we "hear" every day. So the next time you see a luxury car commercial on TV, really listen.

The Best In Audio Video Tools

What do you use your computer for? Long gone are the days when the computer was strictly a data processing tools. Today, the computer is an all-purpose media entertainment center. Its capabilities have gone far beyond keeping a catalog of all your movies and music – it’s even gone beyond playing all your favorite music and movies. These days, with the right tools you can splice, cut, record, edit, mix, create and publish your own media. And to accompany the new capabilities there’s a dizzying array of new software tools that can help you do everything from rip CDs to encode complete animations and videos. How do you find the best new software tools?

Enter www.audio-video-tools.com, one of the fastest growing download sites for audio and video software. Just like their name says, the site is all about the software that you need to do everything you want with anything audio or video. This is not just another software directory. www.audio-video-tools.com lists powerful audio and video tools in 14 different categories from CD rippers to cell phone utilities. Whether you want to do something as simple as convert a wav to an mp3 or as complex as create a full-length video from scratch, you’ll find the tools you need to do it at audio-video-tools.com.

And you’ll find them easily. There’s no need to wade through page after page of directory structure. You can search all categories from the front page on the site, or click on a category to go directly to browsing that category. You’ll find video editors, audio editors, CD rippers, imaging software, video and audio converters, complete all-in-one packages and more. There are shareware listings, commercial listings and freeware listings – in short, just about everything you’d ever want to play with your media.

Each listing includes a capsule description and a full review as well as a side box that lists all the important details about the software – including both a staff and user rating, and the chance to enter your own rating. The categories include All-in-One, Media Players, CD Rippers, CD Burners, Converters, DVD software, Editors, ID3 Tag Editors, Mobile Phone Tools, Plugins, Radio and Broadcasting (plogcasting, anyone?), Recorders, Utilities and Voice and Text editors.

The reviews are comprehensive, listing all the capabilities of each software package and how well it performs each function. It’s a nice bonus that’s not often found on pure directories.

For software publishers, audio-video-tools.com offers multiple opportunities for exposure. There’s an easy submission tool to add a free listing of you audio or video software, and many different ways to increase the exposure of your listing at very reasonable rates. You can opt for a featured listing, front page exposure, top level search results, footer text links and more.

Among the most popular software featured at audio-video-tools.com is Blaze Media Pro, the popular powerhouse all-in-one media tool that converts between all available video and audio formats .Rip, burn, convert, edit, capture, create, extract and combine files to create your own unique media.

www.audio-video-tools.com is a young and growing directory with a lot of promise. The directory structure is easy to follow and intuitive, the reviews and descriptions complete enough to intrigue and the array of features for software publishers wide enough to attract the best tools the net has to offer. If you need the tools to do absolutely anything with media files, this is the place to find the tools that you need.

Multi-Media Technologies Changing Lives For The Better

Multi-media technologies, are a meld of audio, video, and imaging software, used to capture, edit, store, and search, retrieve, transfer, distribute, and access information through multiple means. Hence – the term multimedia. As these technologies become more advanced and versatile, they’ve enabled content creators to design and facilitate the presentation of information to new levels. What about the audience? Today’s audience is highly sophisticated, with a bigger appetite for media experiences where fast motion, brilliant color, energy, textures, powerful sounds, and richer content are the order of the day, engaging their senses, and piquing their interest. The good news is, the use of multi-media technology has gone mainstream. There are many websites which offer free and cheap downloads of multimedia programs to give anyone from the budding filmmaker, teacher, the lawyer, CEO, marketing whiz, and to the homemaker the ability to communicate their ideas, in vivid details, from the big picture to the tiniest details. Indeed, these technologies permeate our daily existence. And makes it a fair question to ask. “Is there value to be found in using multimedia technologies?” Yes, and here’s why. In today’s world, information has become the new currency, with many countries scrabbling to move heavily into an information-based society. Technologies such as multi-media software, give an added advantage to it’s’ users, providing them the tools to clearly convey ideas and thus, produce valuable content. That gives them premium importance. Nevertheless, it may surprise you to know that not only has multimedia technologies revolutionized the way we live, work, create, but it has spawned new industries and killed old ones. For instance, in the work place, these technologies provide office workers the means to communicate, and collaborate, with colleagues on the other side of the planet, from different time zones, through desktop video conferencing, shared workspace, and multimedia messaging. Companies in fact, purchase multi- media technologies, to provide the employees the ability to create, edit graphics audio and video files, and use these to create presentations, and other work related products. For one’s entertainment needs, there’s a choice between movies or videos on demand, and pay-per-view, among others. In this instance, multi-media technologies give the consumer the freedom to select what she, or he wants to watch. For audiophiles, there are many free and cheap software programs, which provide the users the freedom to select the file format, how it will be recorded, and where it will be stored. All you’ll need is a high bandwidth, and the pc equipment to record and capture the audio. For serious gamer’s multi-media software have created stimulating new games, better quality special effects, richer playing environments, betting/gambling software, multiplayer games, and polling. These technological tools, have accelerated the growth of the video game industry, and expanded research for better computer graphics, simulation, modeling, and artificial intelligence. Even if you were not a serious gamer, you would greatly appreciate the ability to download interactive video games, while you’re in your pajamas, in the privacy of your home. Advertising has become intuitive, for as the differences between television and the internet continue to blur, advertisers have turned to interactive infomercials, to get consumers to buy. These tools allow advertisers to track the users’ preferences and create an infomercial especially suited to the users’ needs. Another nifty product is the virtual catalogue, where the customer can inspect the products before purchasing them, in the privacy of their home. The use of multimedia technologies for home shopping, banking and financial transactions, telephony, medical advice, restaurant or hotel guides, is a commonplace activity for consumers. Even the way we learn and package information from books, magazines, atlases, and newspapers has improved. One brilliant example is the educational CD Rom. Think about the fact that an entire 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica book set can be compressed into two cds. In retrospect, one can see the world has benefited immensely with the use of multi-media technologies. It has brought humanity closer by making distance a non-issue, freedom of choice a reality and the conveyance of ideas, more precise. For your own personal multimedia file usage, please visit http://www.multimedia-downloads.com for all your audio, video and imaging software needs.

Can’t I just do my CD and DVD duplication at home?

You’ve just created an mp3 audio album that you want to make CD copies of, or maybe you have a collection of home video clips you’d like to burn to DVD and pass out to your friends. As far as you know home CD album duplication and DVD duplication require just a couple of things; a computer with a burner, CD-Rs and/or DVD-Rs, and the proper software. I have all that, so why can’t I just go ahead with my home CD/DVD duplication project? Here are a couple factors to take into consideration before you jump into your disc duplication project.

1. Speed/Volume
With your home set-up, you can burn CDs and DVDs one at a time, and you have to reload the burner manually. This is fine if your disc duplication project only consists of 1-10 pieces. (CDs or DVDs) Considering that burning one disc at 24x speed takes between 3-5 minutes, to burn a large amount of discs, you’re going to have to have a lot of time set-aside. Professional disc duplication facilities use multi-drive, auto-loading machines that can burn up to 8 discs simultaneously. This cuts down on the total cost of your CD or DVD replication package, and saves you the headache.

2. Quality
In addition to a certified maximum burn speed, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs all have physical parameters and properties that must be taken into account. To get the absolute best quality out of your CD album duplication or DVD disc replication project, you must follow certain guidelines. The guidelines are explained in the “Red Book” of audio, one of a set of color-bound books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats. Most professional CD / DVD duplication / replication houses follow these guidelines, and will produce better quality discs more often than not.

By all means, this article should not stop you from duplicating your CDs and DVDs at home. This is just here to educate you a little bit more about what the big guys are doing, and why it costs a tad bit more to get your discs duplicated by them.

Home Audio Recording For Everyone

I'm not really sure how old I was when I got the gift for Christmas, but I remember thinking it was a pretty impressive piece of electronic hardware. It was really cool looking (technologically speaking), and I was awfully proud to own it. It certainly made for lots of fun times.

What was this high-tech gift, you ask? Why, it was a tape recorder! It was a monographic, reel to reel tape deck that came with it’s own plug-in microphone. I could hold that mic up to my transistor radio’s speaker and record songs onto tape. I could also play the guitar and sing and record every second of it. I could even hide and record conversations from unsuspecting family members. I was in recording heaven!

Years later I owned an 8 track stereo recording deck (ok, that was a mistake). At another point in time I had a stereo cassette recording deck that would physically flip the tape over when one side was finished recording or playing. Now I own a more conventional stereo dual cassette deck, but I no longer use it for recording or much of anything else for that matter.

All my recording is now done on my computer. The audio and midi software available today for computer recording is quite amazing. You can record multiple tracks, edit the recordings and add special effects as desired. Many of the audio recording programs come with their own native special effects such as reverb, compression, flanger, and chorus, to name a few. Some of the recording software can also accept third party effects such as vocal removers, tube amp effects and many more.

Multitrack recording software allows for recording various live instruments, vocals, etc, onto individual tracks. After recording one track, you can play it back while recording another. Once finished, you can mix all the individual tracks down into one stereo track. Some recording software will import and record both audio and MIDI, some audio only. If you have a MIDI keyboard or other MIDI instrument, be sure to pick software that handles both formats.

Creating a simple home audio recording studio is easy. In addition to software, an audio and/or midi interface will allow you to plug all kinds of audio components, microphones and instruments into your computer for live recording, recording from tape or even from your old vinyl lp’s. You can also use a home stereo system as an interface for audio components by running cables to it from your computer’s sound card. A laptop with recording software and a USB interface can serve as a totally portable recording studio. And again, if you have MIDI instruments, be sure to get an interface that will allow connecting them in additon to audio components and instruments.

The digital revolution has made music recording easily available to anyone with a computer. If you enjoy music and want to do more than just download mp3’s from the Internet, get some multitrack recording software and start your own home sound studio.