SOUND ADVICE FROM THE BEATALLS

How to get the Players if you don't have them already:

Windows Media Player
  Version 7.1  
16-May-01 10,187K Win95/98/ME Freeware Never Expires No Install
49 min at 28.8K 23 min at 56K 2 min at Cable 256K
A highly advanced 32 bit jukebox for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Extensive features include a powerful command line interface for complete automation. As well as playing Wave files it also plays Midi files and CD-Audio. A Must-Get download it today!
Winamp
  Version 2.76  
07-Jun-01 2200K Win95/98/NT Freeware No Expiration Install & Uninstall
13 min at 28.8K 5 min at 56K <1 min at Cable 256K
A layer 3 MPEG Audio player for Windows 95 and NT Winamp provides all the features and performance you would expect in a mp3 player such as: spectrum analyzer, digital equalizer, downsampling, downmixing, playlists, a full-featured ID3 tag editor, enhanced windowshade mode, and even an oscilliscope!
RealPlayer
  Version 8.0 Basic Minimum  
14-Aug-00 4700K Win98 Freeware Never Expires Install & Uninstall
32 min at 28.8K 12 min at 56K 1 min at Cable 256K
RealNetwork's Media Player.

Hint:
To get the music to stream (play over the internet rather than waiting to download it):
Real Player will play direct / instantly from the web page if you set it up to do so in the Real Player options (tools - preferences - connection - play back settings - then tick 'instant playback' option box).
You can make them also play streaming by going into Windows Media Player and clicking (tools - options - format - and then select mp3 as a format for it to play).

Quality Guide

128kb - Reasonable audio quality, not quite up to CD

80kb - Medium audio quality, noticable loss

56kb - Fairly poor audio quality more like a cassette tape than a CD but should stream quickly

*.mp3 files and can be played on Window Media Player or Winamp; they can stream if set up correctly but may take time to create initial buffer depending on size of file

*.rm file can be played on Real Player; they should stream quickly if set up correctly

Notes if you are not too sure about playing sound files:

You can play the files directly over the net or you can copy on to your own PC by downloading the MP3 or wma file. MP3 and wma files are highly compressed file so they can be kept smaller to save time with data transferring on the net, this does cause the music to have a slightly lower quality sound than is on our demo CD but it is not very noticable...well to most ears anyway! Your PC should be configured for an audio player to automatically open when opening the sound file e.g. windows media player (MP3 and wma will play on windows media player which can be obtained from the Microsoft website if not already on your PC). Alternatively there are purpose built players available on the net (they have more control functions than windows media player), Winamp is perhaps the best known - find at www.winamp.com. Winamp has graphic controls and all sort of funky visual add ons. It's a 2.1Mbyte .exe file so it downloads in a few minutes on a normal modem. Other players can probably be found on the free download section (Music subsection) of your ISP (e.g. @ www.freeserve.com or whoever is your host). If you are experiencing problems then e-mail The Beatalls and we will e-mail the file to you directly our give you some assistance with the best set up for your system.