ServerMaker - Easily creates servers!
ServerMaker is a Macintosh based application that makes creating a ShockBox Server preference files easy. For information about ServerMaker and its author Steve Rusher visit here: http://tern.damnsw.net/servermaker/

Or use instructions below:

1) ShockBox Server Specifications:

Internet Connection - Logistically you would need your server to have an Internet connection of at least T1 or greater. It is possible that many users may access your site at the same time. If your ShockBox Server 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.

Website - Your server can reside on either a website or at a FTP address. Anyone can build a free ShockBox Server. First find a company online that can supply you with a free website. Geocities is a great place to start, it's free, and you get 15 MB of space for your audio files, and you can get as many free websites as you want.

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 Official ShockBox Server window because of the involved security risks.

Acceptible Audio Formats - The following audio formats are supported for ShockBox Servers:

 Audio  Suffix
 MPEG Layer III  .mp3
 MPEG Layer II  .mp2
 Shockwave Audio  .swa

(NOTE: Audio file suffixes are needed for ShockBox to recognize your files.)

2) Preference Files

You will need to create the following preference files to successfully build a ShockBox Server. The preferences are text files and can be created in SimpleText or any plain-text editor:

| Server Preference | Track Preference | CD JPEG & Hyperlink | Advertisements | Adding An Agreement | Testing Your Server & Visual Representation |

1) Server Preference
The server preference file, "server_prefs.txt", contains information on the description and the location of your audio files.

1) Create a file in SimpleText (or any other equivalent plain-text editor). It will contain two lines per audio directory. The first line contains the descriptive name of the directory that is shown in the volume field of the selection window of ShockBox. The second line is the directory location and the filename of the track preference file. The track preference file contains info about the audio files located in the directory location. The directory location and the track information on the second line must be separated with a forward-slash character. Below is an example of 1 audio directory being referenced:

Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
aic_jarflies/aic_jarflies.txt

2) Save the file as "server_prefs.txt" (no quotes).

(NOTE: Do not have any non-web ascii characters, blank or extra lines present in your preference file.)

2) Track Preference
The Track Preference file contains a description of the audio tracks and the corresponding file name. It is important that the audio description is first and the audio file name is second. This preference file resides in the directory where the audio files are located, also known as the directory location of the second line in the "server_prefs.txt".

1) Create a file in SimpleText (or any other equivalent plain-text editor). It will contain two lines per audio directory entry. Below is an example of 3 audio files being referenced:

Rotten Apple 
track01.swa
Nutshell
track02.swa
I Stay Away
track03.swa

2) Save the file as "name.txt" (no quotes). "Name" would be a descriptive title of your choice. For reference purposes the above track preference would be labeled "aic_jarflies.txt".

(NOTE: Do not have any non-web ascii characters, blank or extra lines present in your preference file.)

3) CD JPEG & Hyperlink (optional)
With each directory of audio that you have available to users, you also have the ability to display a JPEG image in the playback window of ShockBox. The JPEG image could be the CD cover of the audio files that it represents. The JPEG image also has the option of becoming a hyperlink that will launch the users default browser and proceed to any website.

1) The image should be saved in JPEG format and labeled as "cd.jpg" (no quotes) and placed in the same folder as its relevant audio tracks. For example it would be placed in "aic_jarflies" directory. If no JPEG file is present, the spinning CD graphic will be displayed in the playback window.

Save the CD JPEG with the following dimensions:
  • Width: 72 pixels
  • Height: 72 pixels
  • Suggested JPEG Resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch)

2) CD Hyperlink - Any displayed CD image during playback may also be a hyperlink to a website. You must create a preference file named "cd.txt" (no quotes) and it must reside in the same directory as your "server_prefs.txt" preference file. The contents of the "cd.txt" file is directly relevent to the contents of the "server_prefs.txt" file. Every audio reference in the "server_prefs.txt" file would become a one line website address.

If your "server_prefs.txt" file contains:
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
aic_jarflies/aic_jarflies.txt

Your "cd.txt" file would contain the following example URL:
http://www.example.com/link_to_alice_in_chains/index.htm

4) Advertisements (optional)

1) Create a folder called "advert" (no quotes) in the same directory as the "server_prefs.txt".

2) Create a file in SimpleText (or any other equivalent plain-text editor). It will contain two lines per advertisement image. The first line contains the web address the user will be directed to and the second line contains the name of the ad image file. Below is an example of 3 advertisements being referenced:

http://www.specialdeal.com/
ad1.gif
http://www.freestuff.com/
ad2.jpg
http://www.example.com/specials/
ad3.swf

3) Save the file as "advert.txt" (no quotes). The file should be saved in the "advert" folder. Also place your advertisement image files in the "advert" directory.

(NOTE: The preference file must not have any blank lines or any additional blank spaces at the end of the file name or web address.)

Advertisements can be of 3 different types:
  • JPEG (.jpg)
  • Non-animated GIF (.gif)
  • Macromedia Flash (.swf)

Ad Width and Height Dimensions:
  • Width: 392 pixels
  • Height: 72 pixels
  • Suggested Resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch)

5) Adding an Agreement (optional)

What if you want your users to know what the rules of the server are? Have you ever logged on to a server and wanted an Agreement window to appear? How is this done? Simply and easily:

1) Create a file in SimpleText (or any other equivalent plain-text editor). It should contain the text of the agreement you want to be shown.

2) Save this file as "agreement.txt" (no quotes) along side your "server_prefs.txt" file.

To have a splash image displayed also, create a graphic and label it "splash.jpg" (no quotes). If no splash graphic is created a default ShockBox animation will be shown.

Splash JPEG Dimensions:
  • Width: 392 pixels
  • Height: 72 pixels
  • Suggested JPEG Resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch)

6) Testing Your Server & Visual Representation

If all goes well you've just create a ShockBox server! Here are a few more steps to complete the process:

1) Upload your audio files and server preferences to your website or FTP address. Lets say you create a special directory on your website to house the ShockBox Server and its called "mp3". So if your web address is "http://www.example.com/" then the server location is offically at: "http://www.example.com/mp3/".

You could then test out your server by entering that address into the remote address field in the ShockBox Server listing area. Once you are satisfied that everything is working properly and you want your ShockBox Server to be displayed in the Official ShockBox Server listings window, provide the author of SB with these two pieces of information:

1) A name for your server
2) Web or FTP address of your "server_prefs.txt"
(ex: http://www.example.com/mp3/)

Your server will made visible to the public within a short amount of time. E-mail your server submissions to lance@endresdesign.com.

Click here to see a graphic representation of how your ShockBox Server directory structure would appear.

3) MP3/Shockwave Audio Compression

How to process your audio

Suggested FREE audio software for creating MPEG Layer III audio:

Macintosh
MPecker Encoder

Windows
Canna MP3 Maker
EmP3-N-Coder

Understanding MP3 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) Server Disclaimer

Endres Design is in no way responsible for the audio files present and 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.

©1998-2000 endres design. Comments, questions or bug reports can be directed to lance@endresdesign.com