The Audio Starts. What about Storage?

Begun to post new audio on our church website at - www.claridonucc.org - it being easier for some because I do run my own server. However, I have set up a G-mail remote storage client which shows up within your storage panel on your desktop (ie - just like c:) and although I have not shot up any audio, I plan to work through it and see how the remote hosting works. This is FREE, another G-mail plug-in.

As for the audio I am posting, the plan is to 1 - create short 60 second snippets of the message/sermon just to give a taste of invitation, 2 - congregation singing and 3 - choir anthem selections.

On another note, I recored a 1 1/2 hour Messiah concert, an annual benefit event for the local county Hunger Task Force. Actually it is performed during both the Christmas and Easter seasons. The chorus and brass ensemble make up the program. Turned out to be a double-CD set. I suggested this could be another fund raiser for the group.

I used a super FREE audio manipulation program allowing you to encode both to and from WAV and MP3. It did a great job of cleaning up and adjusting the files. All kinds of goodies. Take a look at - www.audacity.com - a GPL program with a consortium of world-wide developers and coders. Works just as well as Sound Forge. Not a blip.

The Portable ZOOM H2 Pocket Audio Recorder

Audio and websites. I have seriously thought about the reasons for putting sermons online especially audio/video. And, thinking about that in the context of our church.

My wife is a pastor and an excellent writer/speaker. However, in some ways alot is lost when just reading the text.

The WEB is an excellent medium for church shoppers and many folks now do as much, especially if they are new to the area. In my mind, our church, like many others is/should be more concerned about the attention step, giving folks some idea of what they can expect when entering the door on Sunday. It is much like, I suspect, the band or music sites you visit which allow one to hear a short cut of a song or playlist.

In that vein, I am working on posting a 45-60 second snippet of each sermon the day before (although my wife works a month in advance, the sermons are always polished on Saturday) Sunday worship. I sense this will offer folks with a decision-maker to ponder if they might come for the first time or back again.

I also plan to have them archived.

This is pretty much the marketing side of me deciding on what is useful/effective and efficient in proclaiming the unique presence our church has in this community. I have heard too many bible-thumping/off-the-cuff/long-winded drones (on the web too /grin) to wish to compete with them.

So, what do you use to get this audio accomplished? I have been pondering and looking for over a year and finally found the answer. An awesome tool. I purchased and received ($199.97 in the door) a Zoom H2 which records WAV at CD quality and MP3 at several optional bit-rates. The feature list is much to long to write down here, but, it is an amazing tool that will record in stereo and surround. Take a look at this Extensive Review. I could not have written better.

Is There a Widget in Your Future?

Yes. I've been toying around with them. You can find a zillion at http://www.widget.com/.

Xmas countdown

Testing a Multiple You Tube Embed

This is really pretty easy stuff. Simple HTML and you can copy and paste the FLASH object code that You Tube gives you with each and every audio/video. I am using one on the site, the search function is great too, but, you could embed your own MP3's that you shoot up to You Tube.. The only thing you have to learn is the table tag. Go for it!

More About Audio and Possibilities

If you are seeking to put music on the WEB or to stream what is already there or to direct folks to it ... hey, more possibilities. Music sharing. First, take a look at Pandora.Com. An internet radio project with a wide range of selection and styles. Don't believe? Go direct to the Neil Young page.

As written in WikiPedia, This is a brainchild of the Music Genome Project, created in January 2000, an effort founded by Will Glaser, Jon Kraft, and Tim Westergren to "capture the essence of music at the fundamental level" using over 400 attributes to describe songs and a complex mathematical algorithm to organize them. A given song is represented by a vector containing approximately 150 genes. Each gene corresponds to a characteristic of the music, for example, gender of lead vocalist, level of distortion on the electric guitar, type of background vocals, etc. Rock and pop songs have 150 genes, rap songs have 350, and jazz songs have approximately 400. Other genres of music, such as world and classical, have 300-500 genes. The system depends on a sufficient number of genes to render useful results. Each gene is a number between 1 and 5. Fractional values are allowed but are limited to half integers. (The term genome is borrowed from genetics.) You can search songs, artists, albums. You can listen to the entire selection FREELY through streaming of internet radio. You can listen to a sample. And, if desired can purchase the selection online. Many options and a great interface.

Nice. Another is Garage Band. Don't let the name fool you. Kinda a You Tube for audio, the styles range from the obvious to classic church choirs. Take a look.

Working Audio and Video

The simple fact is that you cannot do much better than the combination of Google and You Tube for the displaying and playing of audio and video. In fact, the way that you can seamlessly work this into your pages by providing a link-bar (really as many and as many categories as you want) and after clicking/selecting the media choice with the displaying of that media in an enlarged window at the top of the page within your content frame is nice and done well. If you are toying with how to display audio and video on your website, perhaps sermons and or choir selections this will work and work well. Of course I will give it a try.

I just purchased a ZOOM H-2 portable digital recorder which I plan to use for this very thing. $199.97 in the door. FREE shipping and nada tax. Bought online of course. From Sweetwater in Fort Wayne, IN. These folks are pros with a very extensive catalog and superb customer service. Their website and shopping cart are the the best I have seen in this category. Adios. William

Testing the BlogbyE-mail Feature

This is testing the BloggerbyE-mail feature of Blogspot. I had thesame thing working (well, kinda) in WordPress. But, remember, this ishosted for FREE and I am still learning all the bells and whistles ofthis program. Especially looking at other sites in Blogger. That ishow I learned site design, HTML and coding in the first place. You caneven invite your friends or a team to do this blogging right fromtheir desktop without opening to the blog site at all. Just log on toG-mail. I have the idea that you can do inline images since that ispossible with G-mail. So, as far as I can tell the security is allthere. Don't ya think? Hmmmmmmmmm. So ... What the heck, I'll give ita try. Adios. Bill

So You Want a Church Website!

Just a first post to establish some content for the template. This is an exercise is working through the possibilities of how you can use the FREE and very versatile blogger online software to create a very nicely done and functional church website.

You could use others such as Geocities, but, there is the bandwidth problem. You could use Tripod, but, there is both the unwieldy ads on your page and the god-awful number of pop-ups when you leave the site. So, here will be a working example of how blogger could manage exactly what you need (surely for the beginner to the WEB) and at the right price; FREE. Adios - William

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