Harpers Hall

Happy Harping & colorful sunsets!

Some notes for downloading and playing mp3 music files

The first thing is (I know it's obvious, but I have to ask): Do you have a sound card and speakers? Not just your computers' built-in speaker which goes "tah-dah" at boot up, but external speakers. Are they plugged into the back of the sound card? If you've moved anything around your computer recently, the chances are that the jack has popped out of the back of the sound card. Is the volume knob turned up a bit? Make a quick sound check by playing an audio disk in your CD-ROM, or playing a music file off of your hard drive. In Win98, the CD player is found at Start\Programs\Accessories\Entertainment\CD Player. OK, everything works, right? If not, go to Win98 help files and look in Start\Help\IndexTab\troubleshooting\sound.

To play mp3 music you need a music player (software) and a music file. You can download a free music player at Harpers Hall home page, near the bottom under "Music Clip". This link will take you to mp3.com's home page. They list about 6 music players available for download. Using MusicMatch Jukebox as an example, choose the free demo version, fill out the registration form, but DON'T download it yet! Get a pencil and write down the file name so you'll know what you're looking for once it's downloaded. How many folks have downloaded something and then couldn't find it - everyone! I download files to my Windows' desktop so that I don't have to hunt for it on my hard drive's never-never land. Some browsers like Opera, let you easily choose where to download the files to by selecting a small, up-down carrot (arrow) in its' download window prompt. If you're using IE5, the default location on your hard drive will be a folder called "Temporary". OK, now that you know the file's name, and where you're going to put it, start downloading. Once it's finished, go to that file and double-click "setup". Follow the directions (if you want), and when it's done installing you'll wind up with a MusicMatch icon on your desktop.

Phew, stay with it, we're almost done. Now return to Harpers Hall and get the harp music by clicking on the "PLAY MP3 MUSIC" button near the bottom of the page. Another small pop-up window will appear that says, "Click button to begin download". For those of you with mp3 music players already installed and operational, the harp music will start playing automatically after the download is complete (takes maybe 5 minutes to download the music file, depending on your internet connection). For those who don't, there's one last hiccup! Double-click the MusicMatch icon on your desktop, then the "add" button in the middle portion called "Music Library". A pop-up window will appear. Scroll to Windows\Temporary Internet Files\ Content IE5\(file name that you wrote down earlier)\. Select it, push the "OK" button, and it will be added to your music library. Finally, push the "PLAY" button located in the upper portion of MusicMatch's window. Enjoy!

Tip: Sometimes even the best of us can't find a downloaded file. In that case, go to Start\Find\FilesorFolders\, then type "*.mp3" (without the quotes) in the "named" box. It'll point to the file that's playing hide-and-seek.