Audible Beauty | Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

How did this site begin?

I first learned and subsequently taught myself the rest of HTML many years ago, like about 1995. It started largely with America Online and continued to a "Global Networking" class in high school where I created a multi-page web site using only the DOS text editor. Years followed and I could never come up with a compelling enough idea for my own web site. Then, in 2000, I downloaded a couple clips of music from the forthcoming Gladiator. Using newly acquired editing software I whittled a few down to the essential theme and created my first sound events. Ah-ha, here was finally something nice enough to share with the world :)

Audible Beauty, what's that?

Now that I had a concept, I wanted a good name. Audible Beauty was the result of an afternoon's contemplation. It has turned out to be something quite usefully unique. The first incarnation appeared on my Yahoo/Geocities account, a little blue marble design and about a half-dozen sounds to be offered from Gladiator, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, on May 28, 2001 [See a screenshot!]. Registration of the domain came in September 2001, right about the time that LOTR kind of took over my passions. Bandwidth and web space was never enough there though, even with those few sounds, so in May 2002 came the move to PowWeb.

From about March 2002 to July there were number of re-designs, including this labor-intensive but ultimately failed one here. The idea was to have unique pages for each movie with different backgrounds and ranges of images - too much! There was a lovely home page of rich brown with buttons for each film and boxed what's new at the bottom at one point also. The current design, especially the logo and the "back to blues" look, was locked in about July 2002. The only major addition since then is the Trailer Music page in September 2002.

What sounds do you have here?

To keep my sanity, I have limited the site to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Moulin Rouge (the later two rather neglected lately, sorry). I used to have some stuff from Gladiator (like those original music clips) but they are offline right now. These are my top films and so in focusing on them I aim for depth that some other "wav" sites do not have. As far I have discovered, very few even fan sites come close to matching the number of sounds from Lord of the Rings here.

How about types of sounds?

Two categories: music clips and quotes. Music clips almost always come from the film's soundtrack, from which I glean the best--or at least my favorite--themes. However some of the best movie music does not great sound events make, like particularly drawn out moments or really big orchestra ones. Pretty much all the music clips that make it online have been tried and tested on my own computer for both compatibility (Windows for instance will not play sounds longer than 30 seconds to exit) and quality. Quotes are the dialogue or "lines" that really stand out in the movie. Here's the tricky part. I will gladly agree or argue as the case may be about the great conversations, scenes or cinematic moments in these films, but again most do not make great sound events. I at least do not want to hear Samwise's window speech every time the computer goofs up. It is this belief that informs the requests guidelines.

So, do you take requests?

Yes and no. At first I did, to connect with visitors and have them help me find the best lines, then it got to be too much. So at the moment, No I do not take requests. I can only do so much at once so I'll be going to work, practicing music, sewing costumes, planning trips and so on. You are still welcome to post on the messageboard any questions or discussion, or send me an email. I usually reply to everyone's email...eventually.

What is all this about directly linking?

It's called Bandwidth Theft, and I don't really appreciate it. You see, I cannot know or control what you do with files after you have downloaded it from this site. That's fine, as I of course do not own the copyright to any of this stuff. I do hope you would respect and credit the work I did in editing though. However, knowingly or not, if you provide a link to a download on your site that actually downloads from this site, you are using my resources for your visitors. Even in the wilds of the Internet that is not considered good behavior. If you are excited to share the sounds offered here, simply provide a link to the main page or even on the specific film/trailer pages. I appreciate your enthusiasm but don't make me pay for it. Above all, DO NOT set a directly linked sound as a background sound, that is worst of all. Every time your page loads, bandwidth is wasted.

What do you use to make or edit sound files?

I use the program CoolEdit 2000 which unfortunately is no longer being sold, having been bought entirely by Adobe couple years back. I have not tried the new (and expensive) Audition product that resulted so cannot comment on its quality. However you can still download a shareware limited version of Cool Edit 96, or peruse this extensive list of audio editors I found. I am entirely self-taught so if one is interested all I can say is go for it! Especially if you've run into one of my length, copyright or source issues...

Disclaimer

AudibleBeauty.net has been online since September 1, 2001.