Learn how to loop a sound clip across slides in various versions of PowerPoint.
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Sound can add character to a presentation -- it's easy to bring a presentation to life with sound of any kind, be it a background score, a narration or an event sound. Nevertheless, sound in PowerPoint can enhance the slide experience, only if used with relevance and restraint.
Upbeat music clips can be great accompaniments to slideshows, photo album slides, and portfolio presentations. On the other hand, corporate profiles and demo presentations require background scores that are more understated and soft. Any presentation that has a live presenter should never include a background music score!
Whichever music clip you choose, we will explain the method which is a little different in various versions of PowerPoint.
Colin Adams of IndigoRose discusses their Liquid Cabaret
collection of music tracks for PowerPoint -- he also speaks about his favorite track selection for use in a corporate presentation scenario.
Vivian MacPartland of Opuzz (Vivian chose that avatar!)
discusses Opuzz, their music, and the use of music tracks in PowerPoint presentations. She goes into details about how sound can enrich a PowerPoint
presentation -- and what guidelines one should follow when using music within a presentation.
Mike Bielenberg of Jupitertunes explains which genre of music
works best in PowerPoint presentations. And then he says that genre is not everything -- it's more about tempo and emotions.
John Bickerton of UniqueTracks discusses how important
is it to use sound in a presentation. He also says that users who have some type of ability to edit audio on the computer can multiply the power of
production music hundred times.
Jeffrey P. Fisher provides audio, video, music, writing, training, and media
production services. He discusses whether narrations and background scores should be mixed together in PowerPoint presentations. And also, how loud
should the volumes for the music and narrations be.
You can often use transition sounds to play across slides and loop. This is an option of choice when one needs to incorporate narrations along with a background music score.
Right-click the first slide in Slide Sorter view, choose Transition - and under the Transition Sounds option, choose your WAV file (this trick works only with WAV files, so no MIDI, WMA or MP3 here!) - be sure to select the 'Loop' option. Whenever you need to stop this sound, right-click the respective slide, choose Transition and under Transition Sounds, choose 'Stop Playing Sound'.
Choose your PowerPoint version below:
How do I loop sound/music for a looped presentation
GlennaShaw discusses this often questioned topic in complete detail.
What is Royalty Free Music?
John Bickerton explains the entire concept to the uninitiated.
Pause Slides, Sounds, and Movies - and Resume!
Geetesh Bajaj shows you how you can tame sounds and movies so that they pause when you want.
Break Time PowerPoint Presentations
Dian Chapman creates quick music equipped presentations for those break times.
Here is a list of links to free sounds - although all these links provide free sounds for download, some of them do not allow commercial usage. When in doubt, always mail to the concerned contact person mentioned on the site.
Interactive Voices has royalty free music clips and sound effects available for download.
The Winamp site has some free music.
WAVCentral has tons of sounds in WAV and MP3 format.
My Fave WAVs has a new sound everyday.
Samplenet UK is a treasure trove of free samples.
Download free sound fx from the FlashKit site.
The Daily WAV site has speech sound samples added daily.
WAVSounds has thousands of searchable, funny wavs and sounds.
See also: PowerPoint And Narration | PowerPoint And Sound | Sound Fades in Sony Sound Forge | PowerPoint Services -- Music | Music Span -- Free Add-in | Using Transition Sounds To Loop
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