ATTENTION! The samples here are highly compressed and turned into mono for fast download and streaming... they are a pale imitation of the real thing, and aren't even close to the sound quality of the original! The mp3 files sound better than the asf.
mp3 has become the standard for music on the internet, so you might as well jump in now! It's simply a mathematical method to store music in a more compact format than CD... it can shrink (compress) the music down to a fraction of the size of a regular cd song. This makes it ideal for sending over the clogged up and slow Internet. Unfortunately, even compressed and turned into mono, the song is still a fairly large file, so the best way to listen to a mp3 with a regular modem is to download it first. You can right click on the link and "save target as" to the desktop, then when it's done downloading, just double click on the song to play it. Our samples will only take a couple of minutes to download. Of course, if you're fortunate enough to have big pipes like a cable modem or DSL, just left click on the link.
If you're using Windows and you don't have a player pop up when you try to play a mp3 or asf song, you can download the newest Windows media player free from Microsoft, ( be sure to download the right version for your system!) which also will play many other formats. Another good free mp3 player is from Winamp. I'm sorry, but I have no idea what players are available for Mac or Linux...
asf stands for "advanced streaming format", which is Microsoft's answer to Real Audio and mp3. Again, the songs are compressed for fast delivery over slow connections, but are designed to start playing without downloading first (this is called streaming). On this site the asfs are even more compressed than the mp3s, so if you're using the latest Microsoft media player, and have a reasonably good connection, you can just click on the asf link and the song will play after a little while. Here again, if you have a very slow connection, you can download the asf first and play it from your computer. If you have to do this, look into getting a new modem, and/ or ISP...
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