One of the best things about the online audio books industry is that companies and websites can offer free audio books because they do not have to buy music literature materials for production. With downloadable music books, there are no products to purchase, which in turn gives online companies the opportunity to offer free downloads.

This is not only helpful for the company, but it also opens up a wider selection of books for consumers who are otherwise hesitant about purchasing titles in genres that they are not accustomed to reading.

A great place to get a number of free audio books is free-books. Like other music literature websites, you can log on to their page and download a wide variety of free books for personal and educational purposes.

If you are looking for titles from classical literature, the website provides free MP3 downloads from over 200 titles in their selection. You can also find European history titles and various other selections.

For adults looking for educational books, free-books offers many books that you can listen to and come away with information you may have not had before. “The Autobiography of Charles Darwin” is an example of one of the free audio books offered to people who might find this an interesting listen.

The recently published “1492″ is a book written about the expedition that brought Christopher Columbus to America and is available as a free audio book download on the website. Another notable section of books available for download on free-books include children’s music books. Titles like “Pinocchio”, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Andersen’s Fairy Tales” are just a few of the music books that kids will be sure to enjoy.

For more mature kids, the site also offers free audio download books like “Jane Eyre”, “Huckleberry Finn” and “Robinson Crusoe”. Children music literatures are a wonderful and exciting alternative to the popular video games or television programs that have flooded homes today. They not only help stimulate the imagination, they are more productive and educational than many other forms of entertainment.

You can find free music books online to satisfy any of your listening needs. If you like history, you can find historical works on websites that offer free music literatures. If you enjoy Charles Dickens or Emily Bronte, you can find free audio books of their writings as well.

You can add a large number of audio literatures to your audio book library just through websites that provide free audio downloads. You can expand your library even further if you are willing to buy music literatures because many of the newer best sellers are available for a discounted price.

Mike Selvon is the owner of various niche portals. Our audio books portal is a great resource for more information on free audio books. While you are there don’t forget to claim your free gift.

Recording on your home computer has never been easier to do than it is today. With the speed of the modern day computer you can do some pretty neat things with your recordings. Modern technology will take you a long way toward success but you still need to understand what is going on if you want to have a great recording. It does not take all that much computer recording studio equipment to have a nice little setup.

To record on your computer you will need a few essential items. You must start out with a powerful computer that has a pretty decent soundcard. The next step is to go shopping for the software you need to actually get the sound inside your computer. You will find a decent set of headphones handy to have around and the most important thing you need is a good microphone. This article will take a look at these items and how they relate to home recording on a computer.

You cannot do much computer recording without a computer. Almost any modern day system will get the job done. The faster CPU and the more memory you have the better. Many people like to build a special computer just for recording purposes. This may be overkill if you only want to record one or two tracks at a time. Next you need to add a good soundcard or audio interface to your system.

There are many choices you can make when picking out a soundcard or external audio interface. You do not have to spend a lot of money to get a decent sound but usually the more expensive brands have some features that you may need. It is wise to search the Internet and forums to see what people are saying about the different soundcards before spending your hard earned money.

You will need to get some recording software to add to your computer recording studio equipment. There are many brands to choose from the free Audacity to programs costing a lot of money. If your recording needs are simple you can probably get by with one of the cheaper packages. On the other hand if you want to record a band you will probably need to spend a few more bucks on one of the more expensive software programs.

Add a microphone to this must have equipment list and you will almost be done. Get the best mike you can afford as the quality of this piece of equipment has much to do with the final sound of your project.

The last thing you will need to complete a basic set up is a set of headphones so you can hear what is being recording. Get a decent set but you can get by ok with a simple pair of headphones.

As you can see you do not have to spend a lot of money on computer recording studio equipment to get started recording on your home computer. Take your time and choose your equipment carefully and you will not have to go this again in 6 months when you have figured out that the cheap stuff you bought just is not getting the job done.

For more information on how to use a computer for recording try visiting http://www.create-streaming-audio.com where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as recording equipment for computer home studios .

Hard Disk / Computer-Based Recording

One of the biggest trends in recent audio production has been to merge digital audio with computer technology to create a samplebased approach to sound recording. The encoding of audio data into digital memory or onto a storage medium provides us with a means for storing or manipulating defined blocks of digital data. This data can be stored as a soundfile such as .wav, .aiff or SDII.

Perhaps the most important difference that can be distinguished between a tape-based system (digital or analogue) and samplebased recording system is random access. Random access production refers to the fact that digital audio can be stored within a random access memory (RAM), or a disk based memory medium in such a way that the data can – virtually instantaneously – be accessed, processed, or reproduced in any order at any point in time.

Once developers began to design updated sample editor software, it was discovered that through additional processing hardware, digital audio editors were capable of recording digitized audio directly to a computer’s hard disk. These devices, sometimes known as digital audio workstations (DAW), serve as computer based hardware and software packages that are intended specifically for the recording, manipulation, and reproduction of digital audio that resides on hard disk.

Commonly, such devices are designed around and controlled by a standard personal computer with the addition of a sound card which provides the input and output interaction with the computer.

There are multiple advantages to using digital audio workstations in an audio production environment.

- The capability to handle longer sound files. Hard disk recording is limited only by the size of the hard disk itself (commonly one minute of stereo recording at 44.1 kHz occupies 10.5 MB of hard disk memory or 5MB / track minute).

- Random Access editing. As audio is recorded on the hard disk, any point within the program can be accessed at any time, regardless of the order in which it was recorded.

- Nondestructive editing allows audio segments (often called regions) to be placed in any order, manipulated in any fashion without changing the originally recorded sound file in any way.

- DSP. Digital signal processing can be performed on a segment or entire sound file in either real time or non-real time in a nondestructive fashion.

- In addition to these advantages, computer-based digital audio devices serve to integrate many of the tasks related to both digital audio and MIDI production. Many DAW’s are capable of importing, processing, and exporting sound files into formats such as mp3 or Real Players G2.

Recording Techniques

FILTERS
Also known as equalization or EQ, filters are used to increase or decrease the level in a specific range of audio frequencies. The most common filters are the simple bass and treble controls found on inexpensive stereo systems, which act on a broad range of frequencies. But other filters are designed to surgically boost or cut very narrow bands of the audio spectrum.

SHELVING FILTERS
As the simplest form of filter, shelving EQ boosts or cuts all frequencies above or below a fixed frequency. A bass shelving filter, also called a low-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything below its fixed center frequency. Likewise a treble shelving filter, also called a high-pass filter, boosts or cuts everything above its fixed center. A single control typically adjusts the amount of boost or cut.

These filters are useful for making broad changes like reducing boomy bass and wind noise. But encoders can easily be overloaded by too much bass or treble, so it’s often wisest to use these filters to cut high and low frequencies to prevent artifacts.

BANDPASS FILTERS
These filters can be used to boost or cut audio on both sides of a center frequency. Bandpass filters are commonly used as midrange filters, because they have little effect on either high or low frequencies. The familiar graphic equalizer is just a set of bandpass filters tuned to different center frequencies.

More sophisticated versions, called sweepable bandpass filters, have an additional control allowing you to change the center frequency. Bandpass filters are useful for increasing the intelligibility of a speaker without increasing hiss or background noise. A variation of the bandpass filter is the notch filter, which boosts or cuts all frequencies except those around the center frequency.

PARAMETRIC FILTERS
A parametric filter is a bandpass filter with an additional control to adjust the width of the frequency band being effected (fig. 3). These are the surgical tools of audio editing. They can be used to eliminate just the noise from an air conditioner, while having a minimal effect on the rest of the audio.

With all filters it’s important to follow the audio engineer’s first rule of EQ — cut rather than boost wherever possible. Cutting undesired sounds is always less obtrusive, and boosting too much can make a track too loud and lead to distortion and artifacts when encoding.

COMPRESSORS
A compressor’s basic function is to reduce the dynamic range of an audio recording, which is the difference between the loudest and softest sounds that pass through the recording chain. Simply put, a compressor is a processor whose output level increases at a slower rate as its input level increases.

By reducing the volume of the loudest sounds, a compressor lets you raise the level of the entire audio track, making it all sound louder than it actually is. Compression can be a big help in achieving intelligible audio tracks with a more uniform volume that will survive the encoding process.

A compressor consists of a level detector that measures the incoming signal, and an an amplifier whose gain is controlled by the level detector.

A Threshold control sets the level at which compression begins. Below the threshold, the compressor acts like a straight piece of wire. But when the input level reaches the Threshold, then the compressor begins reducing its output level by an amount determined by the Ratio control.

The Ratio control establishes the proportion of change between the input and output levels. If you set the compression Ratio to 2:1, then when the input signal gets twice as loud, the output signal will increase by only half.

If you set the Ratio to its maximum (10:1 or more), the the compressor becomes a “limiter” that locks the maximum level at the Threshold.

While a compressor can level out a recording, high levels of compression can also introduce artifacts including “pumping”, in which there is an audible up and down change in volume of a track, or “breathing”, which sounds like someone breathing as the background noise level goes up and
down.

EXPANDERS
An expander is the opposite of a compressor. As the level of the audio signal gets louder, the expander’s amplifier turns up further making loud signals even louder. An expander can be used to reduce noise in a process called downward expansion. In this case you set the Threshold just above the level of background noise. The expander will then raise the volume of everything above the Threshold, but won’t change anything below the Threshold, thereby lowering the perceived background noise.

NORMALIZING
Normalizing increases the gain of the audio file until its loudest point (or sample) is at maximum level. The overall signal level is now higher, which makes for clearer audio, and also gives the encoder more bits of data to work with and reduces encoding artifacts. The only downside of normalizing is that it increases the noise as well as the audio signal so it should be used carefully. It should be your last step before encoding, and you may not need it at all.

Stephanie Ciccarelli is the VP of Marketing with Voices.com, the voice over marketplace hosting more than 10,000 professional voice talents. Stephanie is also the author of The Definitive Guide To Voice-Over Success.

Today you can purchase Mp3 portable players in many different styles that can play many hours of music all stored in a small compact package much smaller and more portable than the Walkman. These portable players use digital technology to shrink down the size of the music file so you can store more songs in less space. When you own an Mp3 portable player you can literally carry around your entire music collection wherever you go. A modern day portable Mp3 player continues its evolution from being a plain audio player into a fantastic modern day device.

It is still somewhat amazing that you can take all of your music everywhere you go in something so small. Some Mp3 players are about the size of a matchbook while the larger sizes may be about the size of a pack of cigarettes. With so many songs stored in something so small you may think you will have a hard time finding the music you want to play. Most of the players have a very simple clear way to find your song you want to play and as a bonus some of the popular brands include FM radio and a voice recorder.

The development of tiny hard-disk drives allows these Mp3 portable players to store a lot of music making it possible to save entire music collections onto a digital audio player at a reasonable cost. The other type of storage is flash memory, which is usually smaller and often does have as much storage capacity as the models with hard drives. For the more active type of person often a flash type storage device is a better fit because it is smaller and sometimes more robust.

Deciding which type of Mp3 player to purchase is often a hard choice because there are so many different makes and models. You need to do your homework before making a decision on the right model for you. It would be wise to read as many different reviews as you can. Compare prices and features and get in your head what features you want and need. Check out as many web sites as you can and possibly read something like Consumer Reports to get information you can rely on.

The simple Mp3 portable players continue to grow every month. It has gone from something to listen to music on into a full-blown media center. As time goes on you can expect this evolution to thrive. With modern technology growing every day the compression rates of audio and video is sure to improve. This is an exciting time to make the move into digital technology.

For more information on how to find the MP3 player that is right for you.
try visiting http://www.streamingaudio101.com where you will find tips, advice and resources about topics such as the top ten ipod stereo accessories.

I always associate corporate culture with suits and ties in high summer, and with unending business meetings. I always picture these meetings being held in an air-conditioned conference room with a long rectangular table where the delegates are seated, some attentive, others bored, yet others thinking about the lunch hour. One person or two people at a time stand up to give a presentation, complete with graphs, charts, and statistics. Thereafter, there are questions, debates, arguments, and sometimes a conclusion. Finally, everyone files out towards the cafeteria.

Of course, these days, it is no longer necessary to have those really long tables at a conference room, thanks to the development of methods like conference calls and web conferencing. These are used increasingly frequently by corporate organizations to overcome the hurdles put up by time and space.

These days organizations that offer services to facilitate conference calls have been becoming increasingly competitive. And why shouldn’t they? As demand for conferencing rises, so too will the supply, and everybody wants to prove that they are the best. So each conference call service provider tries to provide better service. So you can get CDs recording all that took place in the discussion. Also, the person hosting the conference call usually has access to a number of features that may be used to better the conference.

Perhaps I am being old-fashioned when I say that nothing can replace the good old days when every conference delegate was within touching distance. I am not convinced that the personal touch element can be achieved through conference calls. Can a conference call really be a good enough substitute?

Then again, conferencing is quite a cost effective way of getting one’s employees together. The organization no longer has to spend as much on travel expenses to get people from far and wide to attend a meeting at a tiny portion of the globe. All it takes is a little expense on the technology involved, a little planning, and a conference call can be conducted with great ease. With a little practice, even those that are not what one might call technologically savvy, will soon be successfully having meetings with people who are continents away.

However, as with the meetings prior to conference calls, one can never really count on having everyone’s mind on the job. That more than one mind will be wandering elsewhere, is guaranteed. Even with all our progress, the development of humanoid robots, cloned sheep and so on, we have yet to learn how to go about controlling people’s minds.

Read Conference Calling Features, Planning Conference Calls, Conference Call Controls.

It is quite easy to have a conference call go awry. All it needs is a lack of adequate planning. Sure, Conference calls are easy to make, involve less physical effort (through traveling), and save time. However, on the flip side, a conference call that is badly managed will surely be a disaster. Just as in a regular meeting, everybody has to be informed, and everybody must come on time. If you thought reaching a meeting late was bad business etiquette, so is being late for a conference call. After all, it is simply a meeting in a different incarnation.

Moreover, the fact that a conference call does not require the physical presence of every participant in a single room is at once a disadvantage. If you thought controlling people within your reach was a handful, just try doing it from a country away. After all, there is no need for the people to pay attention, and they are likely to get bored because the element of personal touch is not as strong.

It is easy to call this one of the major disadvantages of a conference call and leave it at that. But then, what is the point of a meeting that does not get the participants enthused at all? There are several ways in which one can pep up a conference call. For instance, it helps to give clear instructions to participants before the conference begins. Then, it is necessary not to confuse them by making too many people act as host. It would be a better idea to choose a single host and let him do most of the talking.

Of course, there is no point in having a conference call if it is going to be one-sided. A conference necessitates the participation of the various delegates. The purpose of any conference is to seek some kind of a consensus even among different groups of people. So, it is essential to get each of the delegates to pitch in once the basic presentation has been made.

One way to do this is to have a clear-cut agenda and to communicate this to the conference call delegates beforehand. This would give the delegates some time to prepare, collect their thoughts, form opinions, and enrich the conference call. The fact that it is a call, makes it all the more difficult to grab the attention of the participants. If you happen to be hosting a conference call, make sure that you know exactly how you can make the conference richer and livelier.

Ajeet Khurana recommends Conference Calls, Conference Call, International Conference Call.

I didn’t believe it the first time I heard a friend of mine say – “I benefit from the reading of 50 books each year… in my spare time”.

Knowing how demanding her time was because of her top position in her job and because she is a single mom, I was certain she was lying and I told her so.

Smiling, she insisted that it was the truth. I would have continued arguing with her until she pointed out to me that she didn’t have to physically “read” them, but they were “read” to her while she listened… in her spare time.

Not giving me any opportunity to argue, she went ahead and played an audio book on her CD player for my perusal.

She explained that this was how she had almost any book she wanted read to her as audio books while she prepared for work in the morning, while she prepared her daughter for school, while she did her exercises each day, while she commuted to and from work and any free time she had on hands that didn’t involve using her mind.

I was surprised, to say the least, that I could have been doing the same thing in my spare time, instead of just commuting to and from work doing nothing.

You see, my work is one that requires a lot of my time involvement. I have to leave home quite early, spend over an hour on the road because of the constant heavy traffic and when I get to work, I work all day until break time and closing time.

From what this friend of mine explained to me, I knew I had to give audio books a try.

I did and was very impressed.

Now, I can proudly say I also benefit from the reading of up to 50 books each year.

Still don’t think it’s possible?

Fine, let’s do the math:

For an audio book that takes 4 hours, you can have it read to you in just two days – 1 hour each day while preparing for work in the morning and 1 hour each day while commuting to and from work. That’s 4 hours in 2 days.

So, if it takes you 2 days to have one audio book read to you, that will be 365 days in a year divided by 2. That will equal about 133 books each year!

That’s over double the original 50 audio books we were targeting, right?

Audio books are indeed the secret formula that many people use to get the value from the best books they want to read. With audio books, you can forget the frustration you always had whenever you force yourself to read any book.

For the bookworms back in college that want to continue reading but can’t afford the time anymore, you now have a solution in audio books.

Whether you want to use your PC, cassette tape player, CD or even any PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), it is now possible and within your reach for peanuts.

To check out how you can listen to some of the #1 best seller books, visit www.merlionaudio.com
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate, we offer attractive commissions, you can visit www.merlionaudio.com

No I am not giving you a piece of my mind, do not worry! I really mean “Listen up”, that is, to increase the number of times you listen to books. How you may ask? Let’s take a look at the “why” of listening to books before I tell you how to do it.

Many adults have a major problem and that is time. Most of us are busy with work, business, family, kids and more. If we have a choice we would want to sit down, relax and read a good book but we simply do not have our own personal time set aside to do it due to our various obligations and commitments.

However, it should not be use as an excuse to stop enriching our knowledge through books nor forgo deserving breaks from our daily routines. One secret why successful people are busy and yet can accomplish so much is the way they manage their time.

Successful, busy people are constantly looking for ways to make the most use of their “dead time” — such as the time they spend commuting, working out in the gym, doing house chores, running errands, jogging, gardening etc

If you have been struggling to find time to enrich your knowledge from business management gurus, biographies of notable people and other best selling non fiction titles, you can give audio books a try.

All you need is an mp3 player. You will be amazed at how entertaining and fulfilling they really can be when you can make use of your commuting time to enrich your knowledge at work or in school.

With the growing trends in mp3 and digital technologies where most household have fast internet access, you can easily find someone walking along the street with a headset on their ears.

If you are an avid reader, you will quickly realize the power of acquiring knowledge via audio books! Any regular Joe who reads about 10 printed books a year will most likely be able to listen to many more audio books in the same period!

Many successful business people are self-motivated individuals who strive to improve and create better opportunities for themselves. It is not unusual for them to be early adopters of audio books. In the past, audio books were available in the form of audio tapes. With technological advancements, audio books are made available as audio CDs, downloadable files from the Internet and even podcasts.

Some individuals even study a foreign language from audio books. It is less stressful and less tedious as compared to enrolling in a course with boring textbooks because you can get into the “lecture room” anytime you want at your convenience and do away with all the commuting to and fro a physical language school.
You can be a knowledge learner like them. A good way for you to get started listening to audio books is to visit Merlion Audio which offers you one of the largest selections of downloadable audiobooks and spoken word material anywhere on the Internet – and it’s growing daily!

You can find everything from the latest best-selling audio books from major publishers such as the BBC, Brilliance, Harper-Collins, Simon & Schuster and Time Warner through to innovative audio theatre productions from around the world. Titles by any best selling authors and top business gurus like Jack Welch, Peter Drucker, Zig Ziglar, Jack Canfield, Robert Kiyosaki and Robert G. Allen are good audio books you can start with.

Audio books will provide a new way of learning for busy individuals and professionals who want to enrich their knowledge in a multi-tasking environment. This is an increasingly popular mode of knowledge acquisition. Are you ahead of the pack?

To check out how you can listen to some of the #1 best seller books, visit www.merlionaudio.com
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate, we offer attractive commissions, you can visit www.merlionaudio.com

In as much as the audiobook phenomenon isn’t too new, there are still lots of people that don’t know certain things about it.

I must confess that I was also ignorant about certain aspects of audiobooks myself.

During my early days of audiobooks, I had to ask certain questions and today I hear a lot of people asking the same such questions.

Who knows, you might also have such questions and you really want to find the answers to them.

If yes, then below are some of these questions and their answers:

What is an audiobook? An audiobook is simply a book in audio format. Instead of receiving a physical hardcover or paperback book that you have to read, you will be able to have someone reading the book to you when you download the audiobooks online in MP3 format.

What is an MP3 audio book? MP3 is simply a compression technique that makes it possible for reduction to be made to audio books so that they use less space (sometimes as little as 80%) compared to that of cassettes or CDs.

How can MP3 audio books be played? MP3 audio books can be played on any new version of CD players that support the MP3 technology – mostly those that can accept a 4.75 diameter disk. They can also be played on any PC that has Microsoft’s Windows Media Player or other related music software such as Real Media Player. Lastly, they can also be played on any mp3 player such as Creative Zen or Apply iPod.

What is an unabridged audio book? An unabridged audio book is one that was narrated word for word. In such an audio book, nothing was removed from the printed book. It has the exact content with that of the printed book, albeit in audio format.

What is an abridged audio book? An abridged audio book is one that is shortened and doesn’t contain the exact word for word narration as the printed book. Instead, it contain the main and most important points of the original book. In short, it is more concise and straight to the point.

What is a dramatized audio book? A dramatized audio book, as the name implies, is a dramatized “play-life” version of the printed book, with usual full cast, music and sound effects.

How can I find the audio book I would like online? You can visit audio book store and search for the particular title you need.

What are the more popular online book store available? There are a few online book stores with huge collections, please do a search using keywords “Audio Book store” from your favorite search engine

Are these audio book expensive? On the contrary, they are cheaper as there is no physical product or delivery. Most online book store allow user to download it directly.

To check out how you can listen to some of the #1 best seller books, visit www.merlionaudio.com
If you are interested in becoming an affiliate, we offer attractive commissions, you can visit www.merlionaudio.com

There are some disadvantages to having audio books available in so many different formats, such as tapes or CD. It is much more desirable to have downloadable audio books in digital formats, as these eliminate the problems that come with buying them on CD, such as cost, delivery time and physical storage. The opportunity to purchase downloadable audio books in digital format is much more convenient and less costly than buying books on tape or CD.

Pros of Downloadable Audio Books in Digital Format
You get audio books immediately when downloaded
They are much cheaper
You can get the latest produced audio books

Cons of Audio Books in CD or Cassette Format
The cost is higher
You have to wait for them to come in the mail
They take up physical storage space

There are far more advantages to buying an audio book online where you can download it immediately. You can get an audio book right away as opposed to waiting for it to be produced on cassette tape or CD. It is much more convenient, easy to do, costs less for you and the producer, as well as saving you time as you do not have to wait for an audio book to come in the mail. You can listen to it on various devices (PDAs, MP3 players, on your computer, and more) where and when you want to and as soon as it downloads.

However, it does take time to find an audio book, especially if you are searching for one in particular. You might find that it is not available at your favorite online audio book store and have to search elsewhere. Also, if you have a slow internet connection, it can take a long time to download an entire audio book. You might choose to download it at your office, local cafe or library.

Even with these minor disadvantages, they can all be solved. You can check out other online audio book stores, or even do a search of your own with your favorite search engine. However, if you do not know the name of the author or the title of the audio book, your search will certainly take a bit longer than it would if you already know them.

Even with these disadvantages, buying your downloadable audio books at an online store is still more desirable than buying your audio book on cassette or CD. The pros certainly outweigh the cons in getting your online audio books in a downloadable digital format.

Helen Wall is the author of this article. Visit http://www.AudioBooksBonanza.com to download audio books from an extensive range of titles from top publishers. Join the free newsletter now and get to know about the latest hot off the press titles, receive time limited special offers and discounts, before anyone else.