audio

Getty Images – Real People, Royalty Free

Getty Images is an industry force, owning many of the other services, used by major media (newspaper, magazine, TV) and the place to get images of real (famous) people, real-life video and audio. This is the benchmark for professional quality images and breadth of search options. It does come at a price, but you definitely get what is paid for. Everyone should click the “Search Tips” button and read how to maximize search results (same tips apply to virtually all sites).

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: Yes
Audio: Yes
Pay Per Image: Yes – approx. $35-150 ($35 = “web & Multimedia” 413px)
Subscription Download: Yes (this goes to photos.com – one of the many they own)

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 5,301 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 11,616 results

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:37:23-07:00September 28th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

iStockPhoto – Independent Artists for Variety

iStockPhoto can take credit for revolutionizing royalty free images. They permit anyone to upload images (vs. contracted artists/photographers) and the artist receives a royalty whenever the image is purchased (vs. paying upfront fees to the contracted artists). The good is unbelievable variety, often outside the expected and norm (independent artists). The bad is anyone can add images, so not everything is professional and polished…

Raster/Photo images: Yes
Vector images: Yes
Video: Yes
Audio: Yes
Pay Per Image: Yes (average for “Medium” image $9 each)
Subscription Download: Sort Of

Test Search Results:
1. “Fast Car” = 11,605 results
2. “Medical Consultation” = 18,889 reults

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T09:39:24-07:00September 24th, 2009|Resource/Misc|

How To Verify Audio is Embedded in PPT 2007

With PPT 2003 if you right click the speaker icon and go to EDIT SOUND OBJECT you get this dialog.

In PPT 2007, click the speaker icon and the ribbon goes to the SOUND TOOLS ribbon. It gives you a lot of information.

Of note the MAX SOUND FILE SIZE (KB) is now not a hidden dialog (be sure this is set to 50,000). But where is the embedded/contained information?

You need to click the more info button in the lower right corner to bring up the legacy dialog to see information about it your audio file is linked or embedded (contained).

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T10:29:09-07:00April 24th, 2009|Tutorial|

.Wav .MP3 .SWF What Can Be Embedded?

This is a topic that comes up a lot, with my clients and on the PPT newsgroup.

Basically, only the .wav audio format can be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. This means the audio file goes with the presentation and nothing but the presentation needs to be distributed. All other audio formats need to be sent along with the presentation for them to work – they are linked.

There is one exception, but it has a number of other issues, and this .swf files. A .swf is a legacy Flash file and it can be embedded into a presentation. As a side note, a .swf is really a .mp3 embedded in a .swf file format.

To give a visual behind this I created a simple 3 slide presentation.

– Slide 1 = embedded .wav
– Slide 2 = linked .mp3
– slide 3 = embedded .swf

You can download it here – 1MB

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T12:30:33-07:00September 26th, 2008|Tutorial|

Embed Large .Wav Audio Files

I have covered this before, but it keeps coming up. This week I created this quick tutorial for a client, so here it is in a bit more detail.

1. The only audio format that can be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation is a .wav

2. By default PowerPoint will only embedd a .wav file if it is under 100k (very small – generally less than 10 seconds)

3. You can raise the embeddable file size to 50 MB!

4. Go to TOOLS >> OPTIONS

5. Go to the GENERAL tab

6. Change the 100 to 50000 (do not add a comma)

7. Done!

– Troy @ TLC

By |2016-11-17T15:29:56-07:00January 10th, 2007|Tutorial|

Adding Sounds To Interactive Elements

It is the fine details that make a project perfect. On a current project with lots of interactivity, includes mouse over / roll over sounds. Of course what is a good mouse over sound is somewhat subjective. To make communication easy I quickly created this mini-application that allowed the client to preview a selection of sounds, with the selected being added to the presentation. Click here to open, or download (500k).

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:47:21-07:00April 24th, 2006|Tutorial|

What is an .M4A?

.MP3 and .Wav are audio file formats that PowerPoint recognizes. Another very common format is .M4A (audi-only version of an .MP4), and you have heard of even if you do not think so.

.M4A is the format of Apple iTunes music files. It is for the most part a higher quality file than an .mp3 and a smaller files size. Here is what an “M4A” looks like:
.M4A is an audio-only version of an .MP4

Unfortunately PowerPoint does not support the .M4A format, so if you download a song from iTunes it will need to be converted to another format (.mp3 or .wav).

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:39:30-07:00April 6th, 2006|Tutorial|

What’s an “Ogg”?

.MP3 and .Wav are audio file formats. Another is .ogg, which is much common but with many .mp3 players supporting it you are likely to encounter one when developing a presentation at some point.

Vorbis is the group behind the .ogg format and it is for the most part a higher quality file than an .mp3. The Ogg Vorbis is a fully open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free, general-purpose compressed audio format for mid to high quality audio and music. Here is what an “ogg” looks like:

Unfortunately PowerPoint does not support the .ogg format, so if someone sends one to you for a presentation you will need to convert it to another format (.mp3 or .wav) in an audio editing application.

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:38:38-07:00April 4th, 2006|Tutorial|

Making a Small .Wav

So, for maximum useability it great to embed multimedia into the presentation. PowerPoint allows the .wav audio format to embedded – great! But the .wav format makes the largest file size – bummer! The good news is, with a basic audio editing application you can dramatically reduce the size of your .wav files.

Here is my sample audio file; a huge 22MB!
Original .wav is 22MB!

I opened the file in Sound Forge Studio, went to Save As, choose .wav as the format and then clicked on the ‘Customize’ button to further modify the settings. As you can see I:
– Reduced the SAMPLE RATE to 22,050 (from 44,100)
– Reduced the BIT DEPTH to 8 (from 16)
– Changed the CHANNELS to mono (from stereo)
Custom Settings for Presentation .Wav files

Needless to say, this is a lower quality audio track than the original. But most presentations are viewed with computer speakers, have no stereo recording attributes and act as an enhancement to the presentation – no one will notice 🙂

Here is the same audio file saved with the above settings – a mere 2MB!
Using optimized settings it is now 2MB

For comparison, here is what the same file looks like saved as a lower quality .MP3 (64k, 16 bit, stereo), but higher quality than our optimized .wav the .MP3 is only 1MB:
As a lower quality .MP3 it is only 1MB

You will need to find the balance between the benefits of larger – embedded audio and smaller linked audio to know which is better for your presentation. Best of luck!

-Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:37:08-07:00April 2nd, 2006|Tutorial|

.Wav – The Exception To The Rule

As we know, multimedia files are linked to the PowerPoint presentation. The exception is the .wav audio file. This file can be embedded in the presentation!
Positive: It is a part of the presentation, so there are no links to worry about.
Negative: .wav is one of the largest audio file sizes, so the presentation gets much larger.

By default PowerPoint will embed a .wav file if it is under 100k – which is a very short audio file (1-5 seconds). You can increase the size PowerPoint will embed up to 50 MB. Go to: TOOLS >> OPTIONS >> GENERAL tab >> change the 100k to 50000k.

Update so .wav files up to 50MB can be embedded

Troy @ TLC

By |2016-09-16T11:36:40-07:00March 31st, 2006|Tutorial|
Copyright TLC Creative Services, Inc | All Rights Reserved
Go to Top