The Many Options of Sonification

Within the Web Authoring Documentation on its website, Beatnik provides Music Object Extensions, a number of which you should use. When you use this link, you have to pull the left scroll bar more than half-way down to find the free JavaScripts that we'll discuss.

The music-object.js
The music-object.js is the core Application Program Interface, or API, that makes Beatnik tick. The API (yeah, yeah, you know this already, hotshot. Bear with us...) is a set of software routines, protocols, and tools for building applications. To keep the core API file size down Beatnik has created a series of Music Object Extensions that enhance the API's capabilities. Here is an overview of which extensions do what.

Callbacks
This extension allows multiple code modules (like the addOnPlay command) to painlessly add and remove more play events at a time. For example, upon viewing a page a .rmf could make a music file start while simutaneously starting to load the next song to play. You could even create the magic illusion of freshness to each visit by using this extension to give every viewer a different song within a library of .rmf music.

Chords
Uses an 11-step coding system to designate exactly what note the Beatnik Player should play. The playChord method lets you program the MIDI channel, Beatnik Player synth bank, instrument patch number, chord type (A#13, for example), octave, note, velocity, and duration for the chord triggered by the Instance. You can, for example, trigger jazz standards chord changes with multiple mouseover playChord events. And don't forget the ever-popular button and click-thru options either.

Debug
Pretty self-explanatory. This extension can assist you throughout your sonification development. It will display error messages in the Java browser. It gets an Angry Coffee "thumbs up" for handiness.

Dynamic
This is the extension that we use to sonify our tutorial navigation menu in the Sonification tutorial. It gprovides a random element to trigger different notes by their pitch, velocity, duration, volume, and pan. It can also help randomize Groovoids or custom .rmf music collections in many different ways, so each webpage visitor gets a unique experience.

Fades
In real-time music production, remixing this extension enables you to fade musical parts in and fade out, pan them, and ultimately control tempo and MIDI controllers within an .rmf file.

Flash
By using two Static Methods Music.embedFlashMovie and Music.wireFlashMovie you can add "Flashnik" to your site. You can get to Beatnik through Flash by triggering an .rmf file, or conversely you can use the FSCommand in Flash to trigger Beatnik via this extension.

Groups
Another extension for real-time music production, re-mixing this extension enables you to get and set a number of channel mutes, channel solos, track mutes, and track solos. All this with relatively few lines of code.

Instruments
When creating interactive interfaces for Beatnik applications and remixes you can use this extension to label groups of instruments or to rename instruments.

Wizards
Use Wizards to sonify all the links in your site with relatively few lines of code.

Quick Clips
This enables optimal playback quality of a 3-7 second sample of audio while loading all of a webpage first, and then the audio in the background. The icon that will trigger the sound is gray until the sound is ready to play. Beatnik has a great tutorial on these little gems.

What's especially nifty about all these extensions is that once you've mastered how to use them individually, you can combine them and create your own. Beatnik's Web Authoring Docs and tutorials are very informative as well.