Move Over, MIDI MP3 is a Hit

Move over, MIDI

Today's hottest sounds are coming from digitized audio files stored in MP3 format (MPEG-layer 3, a format designed by and named after the Moving Pictures Experts Group). MP3 files are widely available -- much to the chagrin of record companies, I might add -- on the web, and streaming technologies such as the ShoutCast service (www.shoutcast.com) created by the developers of WinAmp, the most popular MP3 player for Windows, make it possible for nearly anyone to run an Internet-based radio station. Players are available for PCs, Mac, Linux, BeOS and other operating systems. Hello world -- this is Radio Free Internet!

Digital DJ

Indeed, Nullsoft's ShoutCast (now, along with WinAmp, owned by AOL) streams MP3 data, allowing songs to play with minimal delay, and songs can be set to fade from one to another, or set up to match beats, for a continuous techno-fest. You can make song requests live via services such as ICQ, or use the WinAmp player to skip over songs you don't like. ShoutCast even provides the ability to insert live audio feeds -- all without requiring any software to be purchased. And WinAmp is completely free. Thus, we heartily recommend WinAmp. Deals don't get much better than this.

Of course, Nullsoft's offerings aren't the only way to play. Microsoft in April 2003 released a Blogging plug-in for Windows Media Player that allows various web logs to display the currently playing Windows Media Player song, and the company gives away the Windows Media encoder that allows users to stream live or prerecorded content across the net. But I digress....

Play On (the Web)

In case you haven't noticed, MPEG Layer 3 (AKA MP3) is the de facto standard for high-quality audio on the web. The leading Windows-based player for playing MP3 files is, as mentioned above, WinAmp, which has grown into a mini-industry, with a vast array of plug-ins now supporting it, to provide everything from 3D graphics visualization features to lyrics display and audio enhancement effects. Version 2.9 (which, interestingly, arrived after version the much-maligned 3.0 release), with DirectSound support, a snazzy new graphic EQ, voice-removal, pitch-control, echo features and more is now available. Get it at http://www.winamp.com/

Performance Art

WinAmp plug-ins can do more than enhance sound. A large collection of "skins" at http://members.tripod.com/~all4winamp/6skins1.htm and other sources allow you to customize the visual appearance of the player -- just for fun.

One of the coolest add-ons for WinAmp is Cthugha, a visualization plugin that displays animated full-screen op-art effects as your music plays. It is freely downloadable from http://islands.zesoi.fer.hr/~kpisacic/cthugha/, although the author asks for a $10 shareware donation if you use it in a live performance. It looks like just the thing for a trippin' rave -- and it's a lot easier to control than a bunch of petri dishes filled with oil and water.

Another very cool VJ program is Aestesis. Just connect any line level signal to the line input of your sound card and play with the line input level control of your favorite mixer. Fire up Aestesis and Tune in, Turn on, and Drop Out. If you have a decent 3D card, you can output MP3 audio with full-screen animation of remarkable fluidity.

But how do you actually create an MP3? Most Mac users seem prefer iTunes on that platform, but there is no real leader on the Windows side -- there are simply too many good choices. MusicMatch is probably one of the most widely distributed, although the free version's incessant reminders to upgrade get old real fast. Another popular MP3 authoring option is Microsoft's Windows Media Player, which supports MP3 encoding with the addition of any third-party MP3 codec, such as the widely available (but illegally distributed) "Radium" version of the Fraunhofer codec.

Fast fact: Fraunhofer's MP3 codec is considered the best in the industry. It is an integral component of Telos' Audioactive MP3 Production Studio.

The simplest Windows-based tool I've found is MPEG Layer-3 Producer, from Germany's Opticom (www.opticom.de). It provides a number of pre-defined compression levels, allowing encoding of WAV audio source files into MP3s at qualities ranging from low bitrates suitable for download over a 28.8 modem, all the way up to ISDN stereo files that sound as good as an FM radio broadcast. It can also wrap MPEG Layer 3 files in a wrapper that the Windows operating system  (with Media Player, etc.) sees as a standard WAV file.

More powerful is Xing's MPEG encoder. Actually, the company has several MPEG encoding tools available, including version 2.2 of its XingMPEG Encoder, which handles video, video CD and audio formats, with audio resolution up to a CD-quality 384Kbits per second. And it's fast -- about 8 times faster than Opticom's tool. The company offers a 30 day time-limited demonstration version of the US $249.95 XingMPEG Encoder on its website at http://www.xingtech.com/downloads/mpeg/. It is limited to encoding clips of 30 seconds or less. If you don't need video support, a less expensive (US$19.95) MP3 Encoder offers audio-only encoding at similar speeds. For live broadcasts, Xing offers MP3Live! Encoder, a hardware unit that encodes in real time. Finally, there is its free StreamWorks MP3 Server, (a more powerful commercial version is also available) allowing visitors to your website to receive information real-time, instead of waiting for entire files to download. Details at http://www.xingtech.com/products/solutions/audio/.

Some casual users may think that Microsoft's DirectX 6.1 or newer (9.0 was recently released) is all they need. Its built-in MP3 support is fairly awful (MPEG encoding is limited to 64K max -- blecch!),  Note, also, that not all audio programs include the flexibility to allow access to this system-level MP3 support. Older tools such as SAW and WaveLab 1.6, for example, don't provide an option to change WAV audio parameters during a Save as... operation. The solution, however, is simple. Just load the WAV into Windows recorder (or another compliant tool) and use it to convert to MP3.

For  recording multitrack audio on a PC, I became a fan of Cakewalk Audio during 1999, as I found it more reliable in its timing than then-market leader Steinberg's Cubase VST v3.7 for Windows -- the latter suffering through a string of bug-fix releases that ended up with the program still occasionally losing its ability to communicate with the sound card. Fortunately, Cubase VST version 5.0, released in mid-2000, solved this issue to my satisfaction.

Currently, my audio editing and authoring environment of choice is Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge -- in my opinion, every bit as good and a whole lot more user-friendly than the highly touted Pro Tools is on the Mac platform.

Post Production

For audio processing on a tighter budget, you'll be nothing short of delighted with Syntrillium's Cool Edit Pro. It doesn't cost as much as market leader Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge or Steinberg's flashy looking WaveLab, but its interface is good and it packs in a number of comparable features. It allows easy access to Save As MP3 with Direct X 6.1 or newer, too. Cool Edit Pro's Noise Reduction feature easily removes the hiss and ambient noise caused by the computer whirring away in the corner of the studio, or other imperfections caused analog inputs, noisy sound cards, etc. For example, I was shocked by how much the hum increased when I held an electric guitar's pickups a few inches away from a computer chassis, monitor or even its QWERTY keyboard. No wonder all those manuals have warnings about radio frequency emissions. Now, where's that Noise Gate software?