Introduction - Streaming Audio Primer
"What is this all about?" Well, this page describes a procedure that enables you, a web page designer, to either record or copy audio files from cassettes or CDs and place them on your web page, available for downloading and streaming. This procedure will provide a web-surfer the opportunity to download high quality audio files and listen to them with a free player. A second option can also be provided that would allow someone to listen to the audio file immediately, similar to streaming audio, such as Real Audio.

How to Digitally Record Audio Files
Depending on the type of recordings that you wish to make, your setup may vary from mine; however, the basic setup will remain the same. Each setup will have some kind originating audio source, such as a tape player, CD player, Live microphone output, etc. This source will need to be connected to the input of your sound card on your computer by way of a cable, possibly using some adapters. Finally, you will need recording software to actually record the audio.

Reduce Audio Noise and Filter Audio
Directions are provided here for using CoolEdit 96 to digitally reduce background noise from Audio files. If you are just learning this process, then you may want to jump ahead to the Encoding step to simplify the task. Also skip to the Encoding step if you are satisfied with the quality of your recording. However, please note that background noises do become amplified during the encoding process. So, your finished product may be unacceptable if the WAV recording was of marginal, or tolerable quality. Unfortunately, most people will need to do some kind of noise reduction. So, use these directions to help walk you through this process, and be sure to check the Help info about its noise Reduction feature that comes with CoolEdit. A lot of good information is presented there, which I have not duplicated here.

Encoding Audio Files
The next major step is to compress that whopping 250 Mbyte WAV file into a 6.5 Mbyte file, or maybe even smaller 2 Mbyte file. How do you such wonderful things? Simple, use either a MP3 or VQF encoder. You may be asking, "That sounds nice, but which one should I use - MP3 or VQF, and what's the difference?". That's a good question. Here's a few thoughts to help you decide.

Updating Audio Web page
If you have come this far, then you have accomplished the most difficult part. If you already have your own web page, then you have probably done this next step: putting the file on the Internet. To do this simply upload the audio file to your web page and provide an appropriate link for someone to download the file. Check out my site for an example that allows you to pseudo-stream MP3 as well as download them. You might encapsulate your files into a ZIP archive, since it is much easier to download ZIP files in some browsers.