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Help: MPEG 3 Sound
Help: MIDI Sound
Help: RealAudio Sound
Help: NetShow 2.0 Sound
Comparison: MPEG3 v MIDI v RealAudio v Netshow
Sound test area
Access statistics: 1997, 1998, 1999, last four weeks, from 11 September 1997

Help: MPEG 3 sound

What is MPEG3 sound?

CD-quality sound takes about ten megabytes for each minute of recorded sound. That's way too much to put on a web-site, let alone download! We therefore compress the sound by a factor of about 100, using a compression scheme known as MPEG3. This gives excellent sound quality and doesn't have the "Steam Radio" quality of competing technologies such as RealAudio.
We also use a technique known as HTTP pseudo-streaming so you can listen to the recordings more or less instantly, rather than having to download the whole audio clip first.

What do I need to listen to the MPEG3 audio clips?

A 28.8 modem or better
A 16-bit sound card
A reasonably fast computer
An MPEG3 player that supports HTTP pseudo-streaming. The one from AudioActive is free and you can download versions for Windows 3.1, Windows 95/NT, and the Macintosh here. There are quite a few other players available for download; see the CD Now Audio & Video Page.

Help: Midi sound

What is a MIDI clip?

MIDI files record the keys pressed when the music is played, together with time, key pressure, aftertouch and so on. MIDI files are therefore very compact in comparison with audio clips.

What do I need to listen to the MIDI clips?

A 16-bit sound card with MIDI support (most sound cards include MIDI support; to get really good sound connect an electric piano to your sound card)
A browser that is properly configured to play MIDI files

Help: RealAudio sound

RealAudio is the one with lots of marketing behind it.

What do I need to listen to the RealAudio clips?

A 28.8 modem or better
A 16-bit sound card
A reasonably fast computer
The RealAudio player available free from Realnetworks.

Help: NetShow sound

The NetShow 2.0 format is now available using MPEG3 as the encoding scheme. This gives excellent sound quality and doesn't have the "Steam Radio" quality of competing technologies such as RealAudio.
It can also use a technique known as HTTP pseudo-streaming so you can listen to the recordings more or less instantly, rather than having to download the whole audio clip first.

What do I need to listen to the NetShow audio clips?

A 28.8 modem or better
A 16-bit sound card
A reasonably fast computer
Microsoft's NetShow player. This is available for free downloading until the end of the year. It is also part of Internet Explorer 4.0 (full install).

Comparison: MPEG3 v MIDI v RealAudio v NetShow

	MPEG3	MIDI	RealAudio	NetShow
Sound quality	Very good	Synthetic	Poor	Very good
File size	Big	Small	Big	Biggest
Cost of player	Free	Free	Free	Free until December

Test Area

Sound format	File type	Extension	Mime type	Mime type info	Player dowload	Test
RealAudio	Playlist	RAM	audio/x-pn-realaudio	RealNetworks	RealNetworks	Test
	Sound	RA	audio/x-pn-realaudio	as above	as above	Test
	Plugin	RPM	audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin	as above	as above	N/A
MPEG 3	Playlist	M3U	audio/x-mpegurl	Fraunhofer	AudioActive	Test
	Sound	MP3	audio/x-mpeg	as above	as above	Test
NetShow 2.0	Playlist	ASX	video/x-ms-asf	Microsoft US, Microsoft Europe	Microsoft US, Microsoft Europe (also part of Explorer 4.0 full install)	Test
	Sound	ASF	video/x-ms-asf	as above	as above	Test
MIDI	Sound	MID	audio/midi	-	Comes with Explorer 3.0+ and Navigator 3+	Test