Streaming media formats: Beatnik's Rich Music Format (RMF)
Beatnik's Rich Music Format (RMF) is an HTML-based format that utilizes common scripting languages such as JavaScript to sync sophisticated interactive soundtracks that combine MIDI sounds and short audio samples to web content. Beatnik allows you to create full-scale, multilayered, interactive soundtracks and compositions that transform and change with user actions. Beatnik presentations sound excellent and download fast. And Beatnik can be incorporated into a web page along with other technologies such as commerce engines and backend databases.
Beatnik has a few distinct advantages over technologies such as Shockwave and Flash. For one, it uses MIDI, a highly compact language for scoring music, to play back audio from a dedicated synthesizer engine such as the Beatnik player. With the same file size (15 to 30 KB) as a two-second Flash audio loop, Beatnik can transmit a great-sounding MIDI score several minutes in length. But Beatnik is much more than MIDI--it also supports the delivery and playback of short customizable digital audio samples, making it far richer than MIDI playback alone.
The downside to Beatnik is that it has a steep learning curve and takes a considerable amount of time to debug to ensure smooth playback. Unlike Flash, Beatnik relies on the Beatnik plug-in, as well as a scripting language like JavaScript to control audio playback and synchronization. Beatnik will likely become more stable and reliable as the technology is refined and as more authoring tools such as Dreamweaver and NetObjects begin to include built-in JavaScript support.
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