Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Preparing Your Own Audio

Recording and producing your own audio requires a significant investment in hardware, software, and time spent learning. If you need to put professional-quality audio on your site but aren’t likely to make the investment in time and equipment yourself, consider outsourcing the work to professionals.

The final product may be anything from a simple personal greeting to a live concert broadcast. The preparation of original audio requires a number of standard steps: recording, basic sound editing, then optimization for web delivery.

Recording

The first step is to make a recording of the music, spoken word, or sound effects for your site. As for most things, when it comes to sound quality, you get what you pay for. It is possible to capture sound using available resources (like the microphone that came with your computer), but the quality will not be appropriate for a professional site. The cost of recording equipment escalates quickly for each level of sound quality. An investment of $800 to $4000 in equipment (not counting the computer) is enough to get started on creating a home (or small business) studio. Getting a studio up and running also requires investments of time, effort, and education.

Although this may be a good choice for a business, it may be too expensive for many hobbyists and garage bands. It may be more cost-effective for an individual or organization on a strict budget or tight deadline to hire the services of a professional studio. Depending ...