Russell Beattie

I whipped up a prototype AudioBlogger in Java. I ripped up a Java Media Framework demo app, made it into a standalone little .wav audio recorder and added a MP3 converter (called LAME) to change the wav into mp3 (sorry that last bit's for Windows only). You can download the code here: audioBlogger.zip.

Okay, so here's how to get it running. Sorry if it's not as point and click as it should be. First know that this is a complete prototype and to use at your own risk.

1)I'm using Java 1.4 right now which may mean that you need it too. Or you'll need the Java Media Framework libraries. I would just go for the first option, though it's like a 10 meg download.

2) Download the audioBlogger.zip file and unzip it.

3) Run the runAudioBlogger.bat file (double click it). You Unix guys will have to command line it: java com.manywhere.audio.AudioBlogger

4) Click the record button and talk. It's set for low everything - bandwidth, voice quality, etc. to save memory and disk space. It's just your voice afterall. If you end up sounding like a cyborg email me.

5) When you're done, name your .wav file (with a .wav extension!) and click the save button. It'll run in the same directory as the .bat file.

6) Then run the convertToMP3.bat file which will use the enclosed lame.exe file to convert all the .wav files it finds into .mp3 files.

THEN you'll want to upload the MP3 file to your server. It shouldn't be too huge. The wav file will be big, like 500k a minute, but the MP3 file should be more like 20k a minute.

You can include the code on your web page by adding a normal link - this is recommended - or with this bit of Quicktime embedding code below. NOTE: If you embed the sound file in the page like this, it'll start downloading instantly, even if the person is not listening to the file. If you have one large audio file or even several small audio files, this bandwidth can really add up!:

<object
CLASSID="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="20"
CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<param NAME="SRC" VALUE="audio/audioblog1.mp3">
<param NAME="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="FALSE">
<param NAME="CONTROLLER" VALUE="TRUE">
<param NAME="HREF" VALUE="audio/audioblog1.mp3">
<param NAME="TARGET" VALUE="myself">
<embed WIDTH="100" TARGET=MYSELF SRC="audio/audioblog1.mp3"
HREF="audio/audioblog1.mp3" HEIGHT="20"
PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/index.html"
CONTROLLER="TRUE">
</object>

That's it (Whew!). For you early adopter Java hackers, send me a link to your audioBlogs! Goodnight!

Note: You might want to check out this later post too.

-Russ