dotPhoto has licensed about 300 songs that are already in the dotPhoto Show, and many of these are quite interesting. Of course, you choose your own images so you’ll want your own music, too.
You can find interesting sounds and music on the Internet, edit songs for length, add sounds together and upload the resulting MP3s to your dotPhoto Shows to add colorful, evocative music. Here’s how…
Changing music in a dotPhoto Show
If you are the owner of a dotPhoto Show, you can click on “Edit” at the top of the screen, and then choose “Music” from the button bar. (Guests will not see the Edit option.) You can sample and select music in 22 categories, or upload your own music by clicking on the “Upload Music” button:
Finding MP3 files
Alta Vista has a good search routine that finds interesting MP3 files. You may be pleasantly surprised by the breadth of audio files available to add character to your show.
Click here to search for MP3 files at Alta Vista
Editing and combining sound filesWavePad offers a nice sound editing package that you can download free and use without significant limitations. The web site notes, “We make WavePad free in the hope you will like it so much you will be tempted to upgrade to WavePad Masters Edition.” (dotPhoto has no business relationship with WavePad.)
Click here to download WavePad MP3 Editing Software FREE!
WavePad is great for picking out the parts of a sound file that you really want to use, and also for combining multiple files to give some variety to a show. Since most dotPhoto Shows are only 30 to 40 photos, it’s a waste to upload an entire song, and it also takes longer to load and play each song. With WavePad, I was able to cut a four minute song down to 58 seconds – and down from 4.6 MB to 824 K – that the dotPhoto Show automatically loops
The dotPhoto Show is an Adobe Flash tool that plays MP3s, so, in order to get your sound file to play at the correct speed, you must follow these instructions:
1. In WavePad, convert the sample rate of the file to 22050:
2. Save your MP3 with these settings:
When you’re ready to upload your music, click on the “Upload Music” button in the dotPhoto Show, find your MP3 file and start the upload.
Back in the dotPhoto Show, hit the “Refresh” button, find your new file, and select it as the music for your dotPhoto Show!
Getting more out of dotPhoto 