| General Instructions How to Create a ShockBox Server Contact Information Version History License Information Homepage |
1) Your Server Information
Server Specifications Show your server in the SB Server window
2) Preference Files
Server Preference File - server_prefs.txt Track Preference File - "album_name".txt Visual Representation of a directory listing
3) Shockwave/MP3 Preparation
How to process your audio Understanding Compression Quality File Naming
|  | 4) CD/Album Covers (optional)
Image Settings
5) Advertisements (optional)
Formats Accepted and Size Restrictions Content
FTP Advertisements reside on the "endresdesign.com" domain only. Go here if you wish to purchase an advertisement viewable through the FTP playback area of ShockBox.
1) Your Server Information (Server Specifications): Space - First and foremost when deciding on creating a ShockBox Server (SBS), you need a place for your files to reside. Remember that Shockwave or MPEG Layer III audio files can fill a hard drive or server very quickly. Internet Connection - Logistically you would need your server to have an Internet connection of at least T1 or greater. It is possible that many ShockBox users may access your site at the same time. If your SBS resides on a connection slower than a T1, it is possible that users connecting or connected to your server could be disconnected due to the collective large use of bandwidth. Access - Your server can be accessed by either website or FTP address. If you use a FTP address you must make sure that a password and login are not required when ShockBox attempts to access your SBS preference files. Password protected ftp sites will not be accepted into the SB Server window because of the involved security risks. Acceptible Audio Formats - ShockBox Web playback abilities allow you play the following formats off of the Web via a ShockBox Server (NOTE: Audio/video file suffixes are needed for ShockBox to recognize your files.):
Audio | Suffix
MPEG Layer III | .mp3
MPEG Layer II | .mp2
Shockwave Audio | .swa
Show your server in the ShockBox server window For your SBS description to be displayed in the server window of SB, you must provide the author of SB with a brief description of your server and its web or FTP address. Your server will made available within a short amount of time. E-mail your server submissions to lance@endresdesign.com. 2) Preference Files SB reads text preference files every time it connects to a server address. The total number of preference files that SB accesses is determined by the number of audio CD directories that you have available. Each CD directory will also require its own preference file. That preference file will contain the audio's track names and descriptions. SB also reads in a server preference file. The server preference file tells SB the location and number of audio directories available. Server Preference File The server preference file, "server_prefs.txt", contains information on the description and the location of your Shockwave audio files. An example of 2 entries in your "server_prefs.txt" text file: Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies aic_jarflies/aic_jarflies.txt Rush - Chronicles rush_chron/rush_chron.txt The first line contains the descriptive name of the album or CD that is shown in the volume field of the selection window of SB. The second line contains the directory location and the file name of the track preference file. The directory location and the track information file must be separated with a forward-slash character. NOTE: In the second line of each album entry, the text must have no extra spaces and it must be accurate. You may not have any non-web ascii characters, blank or extra lines present in your preference file. The Server Preference file must have the file name "server_prefs.txt".
Track Preference File The Track Preference File contains a description of the audio track and its file name. It is important that the audio description is first and then the audio file name is second. This preference file resides in the directory where the Shockwave audio files are located. NOTE: This file must not have any blank lines or any additional blank spaces at the end of the file name. Example "aic_jarflies.txt" text file: Rotten Apple track01.swa Nutshell track02.swa I Stay Away track03.swa No Excuses track04.swa Whale & Wasp track05.swa Don't Follow track06.swa Swing on This track07.swa Fig. 1 - Example of how your ShockBox Server directory would appear.
3) Shockwave/MP3 Preparation How to process your audio Suggested audio software for creating Shockwave audio: Macintosh - Macromedia SoundEdit w/ SWA xtras, BIAS Peak 2.0 Windows - Macromedia Director, Sonic Foundry - Soundforge Suggested free audio software for creating MPEG Layer III & II audio: Macintosh - MPecker Encoder Windows - Canna MP3 Maker , EmP3-N-Coder Understanding Shockwave Compression Quality This area talks about how to compress Shockwave Audio but it still proves relavent when creating MPEG Layer III or Layer II audio. Shockwave Audio compresses sounds using advanced methods that are quite different from most other sound compression schemes. Some of the techniques you currently use to make sounds smaller may be inappropriate for use with Shockwave Audio. There is often no advantage to reducing the sampling rate of source sounds before compressing with Shockwave Audio. Reducing the sampling rate degrades the quality of the final compressed sound and makes no difference in its size. Set the amount of compression for Shockwave Audio by choosing a bit rate setting in any of the Shockwave Audio Xtras. The bit rate specifies the number of bits per second Shockwave Audio uses to render the sound, regardless of the source material. One second of any type of sound compressed to 16 Kbps = 16,000 bits = 2 K bytes. The bit rate does not specify the compression ratio or the sampling rate. For example, 10 seconds of 16 bit audio sampled at 22 Megahertz would be 440K in the AIFF format. Compressed at 16 Kbps by Shockwave Audio, the same sound would end up being 20 K. (Do not confuse Kilo bits per seconds (Kbps) with Kilobytes (K). A byte is eight bits. Kilo bits per second is commonly used to indicate the speed of data transmission; Kilobytes is used for file sizes. This is, unfortunately, the accepted industry terminology.) Although Shockwave Audio uses advanced compression technology that alters original sounds as little as possible, the more a sound is compressed the more it is changed. Try compressing the same sound at several different bit rates to see how the sound changes and how much compression is achieved. Choose the bit rate appropriate for the intended delivery system (modems, ISDN, CD-ROM, hard disk, and so on). A voice-over, for example, may not need to be as high quality as music. Test the sound on several systems to find the right balance between quality and performance. The more compressed a sound is, the better it streams. If you choose to use a high bit stream rate, a slow delivery system may not be able to send the data fast enough. This causes gaps during playback. Most developers choose 16 Kbps for the best results for streaming over the internet with 28.8 modems. For smaller internal sounds, choose 64 Kbps for the best balance of size and quality. The table below suggests some general guidelines for setting the bit rate for different delivery systems. It also provides a rough estimate of perceived quality for different rates of compression.
Delivery | Bit Rate | Quality
T1 | 64-128 Kbps | Equal to source material
ISDN or CD-ROM | 32-56 Kbps | FM stereo to CD
28.8 modem | 16 Kbps | FM mono or good quality AM
14.4 modem | 8 Kbps | Telephone
NOTE: Any sound compressed at less than 48 Kbps is converted to mono. Preferred Settings for Compression of Internet Audio Below is a brief description of how to compress your audio files. Although I recommend these settings for Internet audio, you may want to experiment with your own compression settings. Extract your audio tracks from CD with your software of choice. Save your audio as 44 mHz, AIFF or WAV files. Your audio compression settings will determine much about how many people will visit your server. If your compression is set too low, your audio file will sound awesome, but it's size will be enormous and typical users on a 56 kbps modem will not be able to pull the audio file down fast enough to enjoy it. The settings below will allow the optimum amount of people to access your audio while maintaining excellent audio quality.
Bit Rate: | 24 Kbits/second
Accuracy Radio Button: | High
Copyright Info field: | "artist name" - "album title"
Example Copyright Info field: Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies For the copyright info field, please use this format for a consistent look and feel to each SB Server. File Naming You may name your audio files whatever you wish. These names must reflect in your track preference file. NOTE: You should not have a "/" or ":" character in any file name. 4) CD/Album Covers (optional) Image Settings With each album or CD that you have available to users, you also have the ability to display a JPEG image in the playback window of SB. This JPEG image may be the album or CD cover of the audio files it represents. The image should of course be saved in JPEG format, labeled as "cd.jpg" and placed in the same folder as its relevant audio tracks. If no JPEG file is present while SB in running, the spinning CD graphic will be displayed in the playback window. Although the JPEG image will be resized to the correct proportions it is suggested that you save the JPEG at the following dimensions: CD Width and Height Dimensions:
Width: 72 pixels Height: 72 pixels Suggested JPEG Resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch)
5) Advertisements (optional) Formats Accepted and Size Restrictions If you wish to have advertisements present in the ad area of ShockBox, you must have a directory called "advert" in the same directory as your audio file directories. The advert folder must then contain a preference file "advert.txt", and the ad image files. The preference file is a text file that contains the name of the ad image file and the web address the user will be taken to when clicking upon the ad within ShockBox. The example below shows the contents of an ad preference file with entries for 3 advertisements. NOTE: This preference file must not have any blank lines or any additional blank spaces at the end of the file name or web address. Example of "advert.txt": http://www.specialdeal.com/ ad1.gif http://www.freestuff.com/ ad2.jpg http://www.example.com/specials/ ad3.swf Advertisements can be of three different file types:
JPEG Non-animated GIF Shockwave Flash (.swf) - Flash files should not have audio present in the file.
Ad Width and Height Dimensions:
Width: 311 pixels Height: 48 pixels Suggested Resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch)
Content Endres Design is in no way responsible for the content of advertisements shown on independent SB Servers. Please note that individuals concerned with the content of advertisements will be informed to contact the owner of that server, not Endres Design. IMPORTANT: Endres Design requests 30% of the fee charged per advertisment sold on servers other than the Official ShockBox Server. Alot of time and effort went into developing this application, I believe I deserve some compensation. Free advertisements given by individual servers do not require reimbursement. For a snail mail address send your request to here. ©1999 endres design. Comments, questions or bug reports can be directed to lance@endresdesign.com