Designing Web Audio & CD-ROM

Professional webcasting

While simple HTTP pseudo-streaming is adequate for small-scale broadcasting purposes, it is not a professional solution for large-scale broadcasting. If audio is a mission-critical component of your web site or simply needs to be 100% reliable, use a dedicated RealServer. This section provides a step-by-step guide on how to prepare and serve professional-quality RealAudio.

The first step to professional RealAudio broadcasting is to capture the highest-quality RealAudio source material. If you are using RealAudio in a professional situation, you need to maintain broadcast-quality production techniques.

To achieve the best fidelity:

• Start with a high-quality digital audio tape or CD when transferring audio to your computer.

• Set the input levels into your sound card as high as possible without distorting.

• Remove all unwanted noises and sound artifacts in your original source files with a sound editor.

• Make sure to start with a stereo 44.1 kHz 16-bit audio file when encoding to lower-bandwidth audio codecs.

To create the best quality RealAudio clips:

• Normalize your sound files to 95% of the maximum dB level.

• If your clips do not have enough bass or treble, try boosting the low-end or high-end frequencies in your sound file before encoding to a particular codec. For bass, use EQ to increase the low-end frequencies in the 100 to 200 Hz range. For treble, boost the high-end frequencies from 5,000 to 8,000 Hz. Remember, anything higher than 8,000 Hz will get cut when you ...