Introduction

Using sounds on the Internet can be very useful, especially with elementary students and second language learners. For large quantities of sounds, the best solution is Real Audio (please see the Using Real Audio web site). However, for small sound bites and sounds that occur only once or twice, there is an easier method. This involves using what are known as a .wav or .au files and embedding them into your web page. An example of this is shown below.

One draw back to using this method is that the entire sound needs to download before you can listen to it. If you sound is over a minute longer, that could take several minutes to download.

Resources

There are many sound programs out there that can record and manipulate sound, the program that will be described on this page is called SndSampler and it can do a number of quick and easy tricks. A shareware version of this program can be found at either of the sites below. You will have to do a search for the program.

• ZDNet Mac Downloads
• Downloads.com

Recording the Sounds

1. Open up SndSampler and on the menu bar find File and go to New. The Interface below will appear.
   

2. There are three ways to record sounds into your computer, by using a AV Connector, Internal CD drive, and a microphone. To toggle between the three choices, click on the box next to Input Source (where the big blue arrow is pointing). The choices below will appear.
   

3. Select the one appropriate to your uses. Then hit OK. The recording Interface will now appear.
   

4. When you are ready, hit the Record button. Hit Stop when your recording has finished. A new window will appear with a visual image of the sound. This is shown below.
   

5. On the menu bar, under Sound, there are several adjustments you can make to your sound, including listening to it to make sure you have what you need. Once the adjustments have been made go to File on the menu bar and down to Export.
   
   
6. Once the standard Mac save window appears, select WAVE for the type of sound (shown below). Then add the .wav suffix to the sound and hit save.
   

7. Now you have recorded your sound! Move onto embedding!

Embedding the Sounds in Your Web Page

1. Unfortunately, Claris HomePage does not place sounds like it places graphics or links. To embed a sound into your web page, you will have to access the HTML code by using this button.
   
   
2. Once you have toggled HomePage into the HTML mode, find exactly where you want the sound interface to be embedded. Click your cursor at that place. Now type the following tag:
   <EMBED SRC="mysound.wav" HEIGHT=60 WIDTH=144>

3. Be sure to have your sound file in the same folder as your .html document or in a folder of its own. If you have a sounds folder the above tag will look like this:
   <EMBED SRC="sounds/mysound.wav" HEIGHT=60 WIDTH=144>

    

4. Once you toggle back into the regular HomePage edit mode, the sound box will appear red. To see the sound in action, hit the preview button. In Netscape, hit the play button on the embedded interface. From this interface, you can also adjust the volume, pause, and stop.

Further Reading

To learn more, check out the Live Audio Tutorial Page.

Conclusion

This tutorial has only discussed using .wav files. A second type, .au files, may also be used by LiveAudio to embed sounds.