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Dedicated to providing resources and information for supporters and
participants in the ministry of Black Gospel Music. |
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RioVolt
Portable MP3-CD Player
Plays MP3, WMA, and standard audio
CDs
Creative Labs
Nomad Jukebox "C" (Blue)
Portable digital audio player with
6 GB of built-in storage |
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Computer/Online Music Formats
 When listening to music with your computer that's stored there or
from the internet, you need to understand the different types of
files out there. Music or sound files are identified by their file
extensions. These extensions represent the standard that required to
make the electronic music. There are many musical formats available
on the Internet. Here are more but here are the most popular types.
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MP3 (.mp3)
MP3 files have
revolutionized the way many people find, obtain, organize and
listen to music. MP3 files contain audio in a digital format that
can be stored and played from a computer or other digital audio
device. The power of MP3 files lies in their ability to store
music and audio using substantially less memory than other
formats, such as audio on CDs and .wav files on the computer.
Smaller file sizes translate to faster downloads and less
expensive storage requirements, making it possible to store and
play MP3s with reasonable priced hardware. All of this amounts to
a more flexible and affordable way of distributing, managing and
listening to music.
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RealAudio (.ra, .ram, .rm)
A proprietary streaming
audio format called RealAudio.
Developed by RealNetworks, RealAudio allows you to play sound
files in real-time. This type of file requires the
RealPlayer,
available for both Macintosh and Windows.
RealNetworks is
the biggest name in streaming media and has a bewildering array
of file formats, such as RA (RealAudio), RM
(RealMedia, RealAudio G2), RMX (RealAudio Secured), and
many more. Most sites simply call such files “Real.”
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Windows Media (.wmf)
Microsoft’s Windows Media
Audio 7 (.WMA files) is a compressed, discrete, or streaming
format designed to be a secure alternative to MP3
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MIDI (.mid)
MIDI stands for Music Instrument Digital Interface. It's a
standard for transmitting musical information between electronic
instruments and computers. MIDI is only able to produce music from
sound boards, which means that you cannot expect to hear human
voice or the noise of dog bark from the MIDI files. However, the
size of a MIDI file is small, and it does not take much disk
space. The quality of music is very good. If you are a starter at
playing computer music, the MIDI file is the first music format you
should try. A MIDI file has an extension .mid or .midi.
MIDI lets digital synthesizers and other devices exchange data.
A MID file is not an audio recording, but instructions telling a
sound card how to reproduce the music. This lets a MID file
store a minute of music in about 5-10KB. Today, MID files are
mainly used for original instrumental works, amateur renditions
of popular songs, and soundtracks to games and online greeting
cards.
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WAV (.wav)
This is an extension for Wave Form Audio File Format. WAV
is also called RIFF WAVE format. It is a Microsoft Windows
sound standard. WAV files are sound data - digital representation
of an analog signal, which are different from MIDI files that
contain no sound data but lists of commands for MIDI devices.
Therefore, WAV files are huge data files that take great amount of
disk space. You need one megabyte disk space to play music for
only one minute. A WAV file has an extension .wav.
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Liquid Audio (.wav)
Record companies and
musicians can encode their streaming or discrete music files in
Liquid Audio’s secure LQT (Liquid Track) format and then let the
company sell the songs on more than 800 sites such as Amazon.com
(http://www.amazon.com).
Consumers can download tracks for free or a dollar or two each
and listen to them on the free Liquid Player 5 (
http://www.liquidaudio.com), which can burn many Liquid
Tracks to CD-Rs playable in all modern CD players. You can even
play your Liquid Audio files on different computers with a
special “passport” file.
LQT files are compressed, yet bigger than MP3s because of
security features. However, they offer CD-quality audio and
sometimes liner notes, album art, or lyrics you can view while
listening.
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