Web Audio Review: Web-Site-Audio

NOTE: This is not a sales letter. This is a critical review and analysis of this web audio program.

What it is: An all-in-one web audio creation tool that allows you to record audio or import audio files, convert them to a Flash format, and upload to your website. Features audio postcard options and a cost-effective phone-to-web conversion.

Computing Platform: Windows

Who created it: Derek Barker, North Carolina

How it Works: You follow the four steps on the right side of the main screen. You either record audio through your sound card, or you load audio saved in MP3 or WAV format. Then you convert the file and create your postcard, and the necessary files are uploaded to your website. .

Web Audio Advisor Review:

I first came across this program when it cost $97 and had one rather amateurish looking audio controller. Derek took the site down for a few months while he reworked the program, and has since come back with more controller options, a little more flexibility, and a lower price.

No other desktop-based web audio program on the market features so much functionality in one piece of software. Your audio can either come from your sound card or can be imported into the software in MP3 or WAV format. Once your audio is in the program, you click the Convert button and the sound file is converted at 11020 Hz into Flash audio. Web-Site-Audio produces one Flash movie SWF that contains both the controller and audio track in the same file.

I found the controls on the right side of the screen a little confusing at first. It was clear to me that the "Record" button meant I could record from my sound card microphone. However, I wasn't really sure if the "Load Saved Audio" button was part of Step 1. Apparently it is meant to be "Record" OR "Load Saved Audio". Perhaps the word "OR" should be nestled between the buttons to make it clearer. The same clarification would help with Step 2 for the "Stop" and "Play" buttons.

The "Convert" button is straightforward, and when pressed, the conversion process is shown in a progress bar that appears at the bottom of the screen. There is no indication as to where the resulting SWF file is stored, so it took me a few minutes to find the file in the program's "Output" folder on my hard drive.

I found a problem in the "Generated HTML Code". At startup, the code window contains generic code with variables in place of file names. However, the code never changed despite my repeated attempts with different sound files. The variables are in place, but there they don't change.

Cost: (no longer available)

Website: (no longer available)

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