Seven ways to add to your own multimedia library. (includes related article) (Compute's Getting Started with Multimedia)
by Heidi E.H. Aycock

Producing the graphics and audio material for a presentation may seem daunting, but several companies can help. In addition to the clip libraries included with many of the presentation packages, you can buy a wide variety of stand-alone clip collections.

Because you can work with much more than plain graphics, you can buy clips of much more than plain graphics. Some companies offer animated clips; others offer sound clips; still others offer titling clips that fold, bend, spindle, and mutilate text.

You can use these libraries in the same way you used old-fashioned clip art--cut and paste them into your creations, whether they're images, sound, or animation. You also can edit the clips using software designed for the particular sort of clip you're using. For example, if you choose Voyetra's MusiClips, you can use MIDI sequencing software to modify and reorchestrate the clips in any way you choose. Like old-fashioned clip art you may be familiar with, the materials distributed in most of these packages come royalty-free.

Clip packages released for Windows with Multimedia include MusiClips, a collection of digital audio and MIDI-controlled synthesized music, from Voyetra Technologies (333 Fifth Avenue, Pelham, New York 10803; 914-738-4500); Music-Bytes, a 650-megabyte CD-ROM of modular production music, MIDI data, sound effects, and instrument samples, from Prosonus (11126 Weddington Street, North Hollywood, California 91601; 818-766-5221); Digisound Starter Disc, a CD-ROM of more than 600 sound effects and MIDI music clips, from Presentation Graphics Group (270 North Canon Drive, Suite 103, Beverly Hills, California 90210; 213-277-3050); ClipMedia Volume I: Business and Technology, a CD-ROM collection of graphics, animations, digitized video, sound effects, and music, from MacroMind (600 Townsend, San Francisco, California 94103; 415-442-0200); Killer Tracks, three separate CD-ROM collections of music, from Killer Tracks (6534 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, California 90028; 213-957-4455); HyperClips, a CD-ROM containing 1001 animation and sound clips, from The HyperMedia Group (5900 Hollis Street, Suite O, Emeryville, California 94608; 415-601-0900); and Mediasource, a collection of 1500 images and sounds, from Applied Optical Media Corporation (1450 Boot Road, Building 400, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19380; 215-429-3701).