We have a user in a workshop who has selected some music using the music tool. The music plays in the computer itself, but when we attempt to play the music inside the book inside bloom, we do not get any sound. The only thing that I can think of is that her audio might be too large. Is there a maximum file size for music?
Hi Scott. It’s hard to say. Could you please send us your book using the “report a problem” in Bloom? Be sure to tick the box “include book” and describe what you are experiencing. We’ll take a look.
is there a maximum file size for music?
Not that I know of. But in terms of portability, it would be wise to only import music files in .mp3 format with reasonable compression, otherwise your book will be unnecessarily large. In Bloom Beta, our publish to Audio uses 64kbps with good results.
Thank you Colin, the workshop has ended and I no longer have access to the machine. I suspect it was a file size issue as the file was 30+MB in size and Bloom was able to play smaller files from other participants without issue. 30MB is quite large, not something we would have used in an actual publication.
Hi Scott. I ran a few tests this morning with an .mp3 file 60MB and even using a 80MB .WAV file (not recommended).
In both cases, I was able to play the music in Edit mode using the Music Tool, and in Bloom Reader preview.
I suspect audio file was simply corrupt.
Thanks for running this Bloom workshop.
I was the trainer at the workshop Scott referred to. This user asked me for some individual help today, so I also looked at the issue with the music not playing. I reported the problem and attached the book. The audio file is 80MB.
Thanks Liz. I looked at the book. The music file is a .WAV file. I don’t know why it won’t play.
I confirmed that converting this .WAV file to .mp3 and importing that works file. Since .mp3 is recommended over .WAV, I’d recommend doing that.
Cheers
I’m thinking we should remove the option to add WAV files. Such files don’t really make sense for music, now that the patent on mp3 is long gone.
@Liz_Pfeifer @Scott_Dysart does that sound right to you?
WAV files is normally larger in size than mp3, so if people are wanting to keep the size of the book smaller, then mp3 would probably be better.
Are there still people who are using/inserting WAV files?
That’s fine with me. Thanks.
Thanks for the quick feedback.
Are there still people who are using/inserting WAV files?
Isn’t that what this issue is about? Someone doing that?
Yes, the post is about someone inserting a WAV file.
But, I was really asking if there are others using WAV.
I’m fine with the removal of the option to insert WAV files, but wonder if some may have valid reasons for using them. (And may need to know why mp3 is better)
If the option is removed, it would be good to include a note (in help files) that other formats can/should be converted to mp3.
Is there recommended software for converting?
If the option is removed, it would be good to include a note (in help files) that other formats can/should be converted to mp3.
Yes, good point. We’ll do that.
Is there recommended software for converting?
Personally, I’ve found Audacity to be a free and reliable product and would recommend it. On the other hand, I’m sure there are other products which only do the audio conversion, and so would be a more simple product to recommend. But offhand, I don’t know of any that I could recommend with certainty.
Someone with a .WAV music file suggests they are doing their own recording of live music (or a studio recording). (Commercially purchased recordings would typically be .mp3 I think.) Audio recorders such as the Zoom recorder products allow the user to record in .mp3 rather than .WAV, or sometimes to target both. This approach would obviate the need for a software conversion.
The main issue is that WAV files are uncompressed and thus recreate the audio as clear as possible.
WAV files generally run 10x the length (2 minutes = 20MB)
FLAC is a loss-less compression format runs around 6x the length (2 minutes = 13MB)
MP3 varies with the chosen compression/bit rate:
MP3 at 256kps runs 2x the length (2 minutes = 4MB)
MP3 at 192kps runs ~1.5x (2 minutes = 3MB)
MP3 at 128kps runs <1x (2 minutes < 2MB)
MP3 at 96kps runs 0.7x (2 minutes = 1.4MB)
MP3 at 64kps runs ~0.5x (2 minutes = 1MB)
(These are all approximate)
My personal preference is going no lower than 96kps, and much prefer 128kps or 196kps (especially for music).
Some apps like YouVersion’s and FCBH’s compress their audio down to 64kps or lower. But the distortion and compression artifacts are noticeable and distracting to listeners at those low file sizes, especially if they use headphones.
As for Bloom, it is probably unreasonable to expect a typical native-speaker Bloom creator to be savvy enough to know how convert and compress audio files. What is needed instead is an automatic process built into Bloom which converts any imported audio to MP3 and compresses it down to a default (or user-specified) bit rate. (Yeah, easy to ask for, much harder to implement! 
)
That said though, Bloom is an awesome tool! You all are doing an amazing job. Much appreciated.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts David. Since we have a long list in our internal “road map” of upcoming developments for Bloom, when additional requests come along it’s always good for us to get a sense of how important this might be to user base. We do this by submitting a feature request post on this board, and users voting on them.
Could I ask you to post this feature request here. Thanks.
Thanks. I’ve done this.