Customer Reviews

Audio on the Web: The Official IUMA Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the best book on delivering audio over the Internet. The book reviews the three main system components required for streaming audio (encoder, server, and player) and discusses how they interact. The authors do an outstanding job of discussing the trade-offs of various streaming formats. Of particular value to anyone who wants to set-up their own Internet Radio station, it provides an excellent step-by-step walkthrough of configuring the software for three of the most popular audio streaming formats. It includes a CD-ROM with many audio examples, sound related software, and links to additional information.  One word of warning -- the book was poorly edited and the editing errors are distracting at times (this cost the book a five star rating). Despite this, if you're thinking of establishing your own Internet Radio station, this is THE book to have!

A very easy book, but a nice way to learn about all the fundamentals in web-audio. I miss some futher steps in handling the audio-files, like how to make web pages more interactive with sound. Putting a sound on a web-page simply is not interesting enough. I recommend this bokk to those of my friends that have never worked with web-audio before. And a bonus, it's quikly read.

I enjoyed the nuts and bolts of the book and learned more or less what I needed to learn. But I guess these guys have been so involved in sound that they forgot how to spell & type!

The number of typo's in the book are unforgivable and might just qualify as THE most error filled book since the Guttenberg got off the ground.

Dudes, someone just didn't care about this one!

Finally, a book on Web-based audio that covers all of the latest technology AND includes practical examples. And is typical of books published by Peachpit Press it was clearly and succintly written, without alot of useless "filler". I came away with a better understanding of digital audio and how to actually incorporate it into my web pages. It was well worth the money.

     Back in the olden days of Website development people were content with publishing simple text to share information with the online community. Through software and hardware innovations a number of exciting options have been added to the Web designer's arsenal of Web tools. Audio on the Web is one of them. Want to add some life to your Website? Jeff Patterson and Ryan Melcher have written Audio on the Web to offer Website designers some exciting audio programming options to add to their Websites!

     The availability of audio on a Website offers a number of exciting possibilities. Today there are many sound file uses. Consider offering sound clips to accompany the loading of a Web page, the pushing of a button or the selection of a photograph, or play a recorded real audio file. How about setting up an online jukebox? Some music companies may allow their music to be played online for promotional purposes! Live audio feeds anyone? The authors provide plenty of ideas on how to put this exciting technology to use!

     The book provides helpful information about setting up shop. Descriptions of different sound file types, plenty of sample HTML scripts, and screen and menu shots are provided. This book will also show designers how to record, embed, and play sound files of all kinds to achieve a variety of effects. The operation and use of popular sound file editors are covered as well. It's a snap!

     This book will help Website designers add the impact of audio to any site. The CD that accompanies the book is loaded with sound files, sound file editors, web browsers, scripts, and projects taken from the book to demonstrate the powerful impact audio can have on the Internet. Visit some of the Websites featured in the book that employ cutting-edge audio programming and see for yourself the impact that the addition of audio programming can have. Sound-off with this book today!

This book is very well-written and is especially good for people who are not technical experts.

Jeff and Rob always put the "I" in IUMA and that includes "U." These two Santa Cruz pioneers saw the importance of digital music and understood that people would access their music and Groove Pig recordings in ways they never could before. From the very beginning, Jeff and Rob also understood that people would want to use this amazing new technology to listen to and better understand all the Groove Pig music they could. That is way the duo turned to the purveyors of pork, the bringers of bacon, the saviors of sausage early and often. IUMA's first annual celebration featured a live show in which the Groove Pigs were featured and was broadcast in real-time on the internet long before Napster or I-pod. Many fans learned through IUMA that it is vain to rave without purpose and took the advice of the porcine pals and began "Ravin' for Jesus." This book discusses how to put music on the internet and encourages bands to try and be as much like the pigs as possible in sound and style. The book is written by the two who started this revolutionary company and were thus blessed to know and work with the Groove Pigs. To read more about the Groove Pigs read "I am a Bacon Boy" or "The Donner Party of Rock-n-Roll: The Groove Pigs and their Legacy" or the unauthorized biography "Four or Five Sensitive Guys... Maybe More."

Written by two of the experts behind the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA), this is currently the best book on how to deliver audio over the Internet. It is a practical guide, geared towards helping the non-technical person bring sound to their website.

The authors were both deeply involved with the highly successful Internet Underground Music Archive, a website that provides independent musicians a place to showcase and distribute their music. Jeff Patterson is the President, technical director, and co-founder of IUMA. Ryan Melcher was IUMA's senior multimedia specialist, where he produced over 2,000 audio files. He is currently the senior Web developer at LVL Interactive.

The book starts with an easy to understand review of the theory of capturing sound digitally and transmitting that sound over a network to where it can be played. Important practical issues, such as how to set up a Digital Audio Studio, are reviewed in depth. They also discuss the three main system components required for streaming audio (encoder, server, and player) and discusses how they interact.

The authors do an outstanding job of discussing the trade-offs of various streaming formats. Of particular value to anyone who wants to set-up their own Internet Radio station, it provides an excellent step-by-step walkthrough of configuring the software for three of the most popular audio streaming formats.

The book comes with a CD-ROM with many audio examples, sound related software, and links to additional information. The examples permit you to see and hear the differences between various encoding formats and digital sampling rates.

One word of warning -- the book was indifferently edited and the numerous editing errors can be distracting at times.

Despite this, if you're thinking of establishing your own Internet Radio station, this is currently THE book to have!

Review by Mike Powers, Radideo.com Guide, June 1999

This book provides a reasonably clear overview of how to prepare and publish audio files on the Web. In the first few chapters, the authors explain sampling, resolution, and compression. Then they provide instructions about how to digitize audio by plugging playback equipment into a computer sound card or ripping tracks from a CD. Specialized terms are defined in boxes on the bottom margin of the page where the words are found. The authors compare common Web formats, including AIFF, WAV, AU, MPEG, and RA. They give a brief tutorial about the HTML codes for including sounds in Web pages. Finally, they devote the last third of the book to streaming audio, with a chapter each devoted to common streaming formats, RealAudio, StreamWorks, and Liquid Audio. The accompanying CD is very well done, providing sound samples to illustrate the concepts explained in each chapter, as well as demo or free versions of virtually all the software described in the book, including CoolEdit, SoundEdit, and RealAudio. The book provides many detailed step-by-step instructions of procedures in the various software. Since these kinds of instructions go out of date so quickly, I would have liked to find more in-depth general descriptions of the procedures, but overall, I found the book quite useful.

Melcher drastically underestimates the impact of social distinctions predicated upon wealth, especially inherited wealth. Nevertheless, this book contains a wealth of topical tidbits. You'll even find yourself chuckling now and again from all the clever metaphors the author uses! Kudos, I say.