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Re: Orniphonics

Subject: Re: Orniphonics
From: Walter Knapp <>
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 21:58:23 -0500
Vicki Powys wrote:
> Rich and All,
> 
> I had a quick look at Rich's new "Orniphonics" birdsong site.  It seems like
> a generous plan to make North American birdsong available free to all, no
> questions asked as to useage.  So I'm wondering how many contributors will
> be forthcoming?  Is there potential here for a commercial rip-off of these
> recordings?  
> 
> I also listened to Rich's Ruffed Grouse, a 20 second 1.8 MB recording (very
> nice too) but it took me 15 minutes to download it, with my (admittedly
> slow) 28 kbps rural phone connection.  There needs to be some indication of
> the file size and type, before the potential listener clicks the "play"
> button.  I take it the WAV files are uncompressed?  Would it be better to
> use good quality MP3 recordings to reduce the file size?
> 
> This isn't a site where I would be browsing, as the file sizes are too big
> for me to quickly download.  But the general idea is a good one.  Good luck
> with it Rich.

I almost always use mp3 on my frogsite, it was designed for this 
purpose, only later became a format for music listening. By careful 
choice of compression level you can reach a good compromise of file size 
vs quality.

Calls for ID/learning can be somewhat different quality than listening 
recordings. You don't have to preserve the ambiance too much. Which 
makes getting good compression of mp3's a little simpler.

The other advantage of a customized mp3 just good enough for the site is 
it will be less attractive for ripoff's. And if you ever got into legal 
action, being able to provide a higher quality version would help your 
case I'd think. I do the same thing with the photos on my site, they are 
much reduced from higher quality photos. This also saves on site load 
time. It's surprising how often folks will have a small photo that's 
actually a big one downloaded and rescaled by the browser, a big waste 
of download time. Photos, like sounds should be custom sized and 
optimized for the page they will be on.

I have noted a tendency of those with high speed connections to forget 
that even today most non-business users are using a 56k modem or less. 
While I don't feel it's justified to try and accomodate really slow 
modems, sites should still provide good service for 56k modem users. The 
average user of my site spends just a few minutes, not time to wait for 
big files to download.

The call clips for my site are targeted at 30 seconds each, enough time 
to show some variations. The originals in aiff format are 5-6 megs each 
in size. As mp3's on the site they are under 200k each. This is still 
fairly large for easy use with a 56k modem, but manageable for those 
that want to listen. And I get email from a great many who do. For some 
it takes many sessions to get through it all.

I just finished replacing nearly all my sound clips with new ones, 
reselected from material I worked on for the CD. I'm planning to somehow 
get the last species from Georgia this spring. Or at worst go into South 
Carolina to get it as I had to do for the Carpenter Frogs to get them in 
time for the CD.

In case anyone wants to look/listen and does not have the link:
http://wwknapp.home.mindspring.com/GAFrog.Toad.html

Walt




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