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Hi,

I'm currently writing a thesis about acoustic architecture and I want to have something embedded in the final book which is capable of playing a series of (previously recorded) sounds at the push of a button, either through tiny speakers (a bit like those kids books which play songs, but less corny) or through some attached headphones (the messy option) Is there anything out there which is:

1. tiny and can be embedded in the back cover of a hardback book
2. lets me upload multiple sound files to it
3. allows playback through mini speakers at the push of a button

Or would I be better off buying a mini (cheap) Mp3 player and little headphones?

Thanks :)
Emma

Comments

Jeemy Sun, 03/06/2011 - 17:42

at any appreciable quality, no.

at a very poor level of quality, yes - if you are producing a run of 5-10,000 or more.

short answer this is a rock and a hard place. do the MP3 thing (not sure if this is implying you showing the thesis 1-by-1 to people?) or provide a CD with each copy, or links to an audio hosting site for reference, or both.

dvdhawk Mon, 03/07/2011 - 08:23

In which case, you can make the contents of the CD interactive and visually interesting. You would organize the files just like a webpage - the only difference is, all the site resources (including your uncompresses sound files) can be on the disc rather than being fetched from the internet.

Name the index page "Start" and create a custom icon for it. Keep ALL the other html pages, image files, and sound files in a resources folder. If you've got any webdesign savvy it's really easy. If you stick to the basics - it can be beautiful to look at and still be watchable on virtually any computer with a web browser. Since you're reading from a disc and not reliant on internet speed - it can be very graphic oriented but in simple html. [if you can avoid Flash animations, and things that might need updated to run in the browser - that would be best in this case]

The sound file format would be the only decision left to make. A wav. file might be the most universal uncompressed format readable by Windows Media Player, and/or Quicktime and anything in between. Odds are their browser will be configured to open wav. files in the app of their choosing.

But since it's interactive you can provide live hyperlinks where they can download Quicktime, or WMP, or Acrobat Reader, or anything that might be relevant as a contingency plan.