Allow mp3 upload for ambient noise

Since mp3 is standard format across the 'Net, there's no reason it couldn't become a standard for SL.

I propose:
Users could upload an mp3 for ambient noise in an estate sim.

Restrictions:
Maximum mp3 size... maybe 20mb for starters?

Upload the ambient noise to a website.

Set the parcel url to the mp3.

Voila.

LF

well, most free websites have a file size restriction, or will plainly say no mp3s. as for file size restriction, i think 10mb is plenty

I thought of that. It occurs to me that the average person does not have webspace. As SL grows, I think this will become even more true as a broader scope of people join.

Besides, why stream something, and then depend on the bandwidth from the website to SL, then from SL to each user, for every user request? Hard drive space is cheap, and 10 or 20mb for a nice, long ambient soundtrack is a small sacrifice to save the bandwidth. Eh?

the problem with uploading mp3s is that with the number of users in SL, all those mp3s will takes lots of space. What LL could do, is have something like URL you set for land stream, but be able to upload the mp3 just for that land. Once you change the mp3 or disable the music, it would delete the mp3 off the server, thus saving space.

SL uses the ogg audio format. in most cases an ogg stream is equivalent to an mp3 stream of twice the bitrate. you upload wave audio and it's converted to ogg on their end. you choose the ogg bitrate to convert to when you upload (that's the 32, 64, 96, 128 option). Not sure why you can't upload mp3 files for conversion other than the fact it's much more difficult to reliably convert an mp3 to another format. mp3s can be corrupt, non-standard, and have various other issues which might cause conversion to be unreliable, so most likely allowing wav upload of a specific format only is for stability/reliability purposes. Anyway, the more audio you use the more bandwidth sl has to use so why would they encourage you to upload by allowing smaller files to be uploaded .

Has it also occured to you that you can get free webspace in 5 seconds?
I dunno about you but in portugal every ISP account comes with free webspace. Mine is 50 megs, but since its shared with my email account, I dont use it.

Once again,

Limit the mp3s to just estates. Don't let people use it on every friggin' plot. We're talking 10 or 20 mb per sim. That amount of HD space is NOTHING compared to the lag of having the sim have to constantly be pulling streams from a 3rd party source in addition to it's bandwidth load to get the mp3 streamed to the player.

I seem to remember at a Town Meeting several months ago that LL indicated that the reason "sound" uploads are limited to 10 seconds was related to the fact that 10 seconds is considered "fair use" and not a copyright violation.

LL would probably be opening themselves to copyright suits if they ever allowed the upload (and thus THEIR hosting) of .mp3's.

- Ace

On a related note, I created a couple "Environmental Sounds" boxes that I have scattered around the ground level at Abbotts Aerodrome. One is for the sound of waves lapping at the beach and the other is for day and night-time temperate forest sounds (select birds and insects).

There are really only 6 or 7 different sounds in the boxes, but they do wonders for adding a feeling depth to the atmosphere. I am pretty sure you can pick up copies of the boxes at the Stillman bazaar if it still exists, otherwise IM me and I'll send a copy to anyone who wants it.

Hm, technically, the "10 second" rule is a fallacy. Copyrighted sounds of any length, recognizable enough in a court of law, are subject to prosecution. Hypothetically, anyway. Certain beat loops, as you know, have been used in el mucho hip-hop songs.

Fox once shut me down for my Ally McBeal fanpage... I had short clips of her saying "Hi!" and ironically, "Why can't life ever be easy?"

On a related note, how long before LucasFilm comes here to strongarm Kyron Dragon? I hope that doesn't happen because his fandom encourages interest in SW, I would think, but ya never know. Oh well, form on the SL website anyway.

I have come to notice that people are working around the 10-sec. thing a lot anyway by splitting whole songs into 10-sec. clips and then joining that back via scriptage.

OMG!!! Environmental sounds? Hey, Chip Midnight has GOTTA see this. I was visiting his fashions store (and the nice cave) and I noticed he has a nice stream of lush rain and thunder and stuff going on. It really, really added to the atmosphere.

A hallmark of computer entertainment doing this, and a decade old by now, of course, would be MYST.

Wind is okay but I like to hear varied textures of leaves rustling, insects -- on a longer loop so it isn't so robotically repetitive -- maybe even toasty fires... etc.

Cheerios.

I was not thinking about songs. I was hoping that some entrepenuerial music / sound composers would come out and create nice, ambient sounds for sims.

I actually point my land-sound to an mp3 mix that I've uploaded to my webspace. As for the sounds themselves, I have some very small 9 second .wavs that I place strategically when I need my sound effects.

Expanding on this theme, I have additional ways of incorporating more sounds. Somewhere, I found myself a robust script that allows me to play sounds very rarely (about 1% of the time). When you keep adding all these disparate sound elements they can overlap in interesting ways.

I know that this isn't quite the same thing as a 10mb ambient sound file and I understand what you mean, but I thought I'd at least offer an interim solution that might work. Also, I don't know what sort of additional drag this creates on the sim. I'm sure that my way can't be the most efficient.

Sure, microsonic construction -- make a lot out of a little, and I agree , it's really cool sometimes how small elements can combine. Some ambient noise generator programs have a constant sound like water running, while birds chirp in and out and alternate with insects and wind, but not all the time. It helps add to the liveliness because of the randomness factor underpinned by a steady ambience that you have come to expect.

Could do atonal textures... twisted sounds of grinding metal for a lonely industrial district, or plainative wind that sounds chorused and freaked out like no wind on Planet Earth. In your case, Goodwrench, a lot of 8-bit stretched-out goodness would be appropriate.