A Hidden Sound System
Why, we wonder? Even the most basic new computer comes equipped - out of the box - with a special, benign-looking card inside its guts that packs a loud punch. This piece of plastic and l is what techos call a sound card. One doesn't really need to know how it works under the hood, so let's move right onto what sound cards actually do. Did you know that a sound card is the equivalent of what's inside the l casing of that fancy hi-fi system in your lounge room? That all you'd need to do to duplicate your fancy hi-fi system is give your computer a set of decent speakers? It's simple really: throw out the tin can speaker boxes that came with your computer system, get a plug converter from Tandy, hook up and you'll able to hear the Brandenburg Concerto like it ought to be heard. Uh, don't forget to stick the CD in the computer's CD-ROM drive of course...

The Gamut of Sound
Some folks have an entirely different experience of the Internet. For them the Net is not confined to text and images that you view in the hushed den. Their Net delivers a gamut of sounds and makes full use of their multimedia computer. Some turn the dials to tune into their favourite radio stations from around the globe. Teenagers we know (who are so much "hipper" than us...) like to download the latest Radiohead songs. Not to be left behind in the Internet audio stakes, a colleague recently purchased and downloaded Dylan Thomas' 'Under Milkwood' as an audio book, read by the young Richard Burton of course. A recording that she had unsuccessfully tried to obtain locally for many years.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Next time you need to write an email, consider creating voice mail, attached to an email message instead; it's so much more personal! With the advent of audio compression formats this has become entirely viable. There is nothing to stop you from using audio in your online classes either. It's quite easy to rip (record in the old language) a set of audio lectures that can be placed on the Web to be accessed on demand. Speaking to a team member in Perth recently, who has been doing just that, we were told how one of his students reportedly slipped the audio lectures onto her portable Rio MP3 player and listened to them on her way to work. We're sure that you can think of many creative uses for taking advantage of audio yourself, both for personal and work purposes. Thus let us continue by exploring new audio formats and technologies.

So far we've mentioned that your PC can function as a stand-alone high fidelity sound system, but what's this got to do with the Internet? We said earlier that the medium is synonymous with revered silence, right? Well, actually it depends.

Audio Compression
Not too long ago only two types of audio formats existed on Windows driven computers: WAV and CDA. We need not bother what the letters stand for, suffice to say that WAV files were used to record and play high-quality audio files, while CDA was, and still is, the format found on ordinary music CD's that play on your stereo as well as from your computer's CD-ROM slot. While these deliver top quality audio, they have one major drawback. They are physically HUGE and therefore cumbersome to store and transport. Naturally these files are useless for distribution on the Internet.

For example, to record 1 minute of 44.1HZ (CD Quality) WAV audio requires 8.4 megabytes of storage space on your computer's hard drive! It would take over an hour to download just a snippet of a song on an average dial-up Internet connection! So something had to be done. Researchers developed a range of audio compression formats (codecs). All of these work on the principle of stripping out sound data that cannot not be perceived by the human ear. Increased efficiency and smaller physical size is the result. For example, the MPEG (MP3) codec is able to shrink music CD (CDA) data by a factor of 12 without loss of perceptible sound quality.

Streaming Media
Another group of talented researchers put their energies into developing streaming audio formats. As with audio compression described previously, streaming audio employs codecs to strip out inaudible frequencies to decrease the physical size of sounds. This is done quite aggressively, which is often reflected in lower sound fidelity during playback. To listen, streaming audio files do not have to be downloaded in their entirety. Playback begins almost instantly.

Making it Happen
An in-depth investigation of player/recorder software goes beyond the scope of this article. Software players mentioned in the reference section below can play back and rip audio in multiple formats. All of them can be downloaded from the respective website and installed with ease. Depending on the player you choose, some of the more advanced features may be disabled in the free version. Try it and change you experience of online environments forever!

Take Your Sounds For a Walk
Portable music devices that allow you to play these formats are becoming widely available in Australia. Players such as Diamond Rio, Creative Nomad Jukebox allow the transfer of audio residing on your PC to a tiny digital player with headphones that can be carried in your hip pocket or plugged into the audio system in your car. Several models of mobile phones, electronic organisers such as the Palm Pilot as well as mini computers running the Windows Pocket PC operating system allow you to take your audio on the road as well. Perhaps we'll see you there?

RESOURCES

For information on players:

Real Juke Box/Real Player
Formats: MP3, WMA, Streaming
http://www.real.com

Windows Media Player
Formats: MP3, WMA, Streaming
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia

Music Match Jukebox
Formats: MP3, WMA Streaming
http://www.musicmatch.com

Winamp
Formats: MP3, WMA, Streaming
http://www.winamp.com

Learn more at:
C-Net Music: http://www.music.cnet.com

Audio Books:
http://www.audible.com

Download (Legal) Music from:
http://www.emusic.com

Portable Players
http://www.riohome.com
http://www.nomadworld.com
Pocket PC: http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc
Palm Pilot: http://www.palm.com