Setting your Web Browser, Sounds, Music Score Graphics & MIDI icons/files etc

Software Requirements for Macintosh | Recommendations for allocation of application/plug-ins for different media types | Files & Icons used in this site | Setting up Netscape 4.7x with QuickTime plug-in | Setting up Netscape 4.7x with MIDPlug for XG plug-in | Setting up Netscape 4.7x with Acrobat PDFViewer plug-in | Setting up Netscape 3 with LiveAudio plug-in installed | Appendices

Software Requirements for Apple Macintosh

Apple Operating System

  • Mac OS 9.1 or higher

Netscape Navigator/Communicator

  • recommended: Netscape 4.76 (You can download the free software from the Netscape site) with QuickTime 5.0.1 plug-in or;
  • minimum: at least Netscape 3.x with LiveAudio plug-in (provided as part of Netscape instal)

Apple QuickTime

  • recommended : QuickTime 5.0.1. You can download the free software from Apple's QuickTime site. See an overview of QT5 features (at Appendices below). A great benefit of QT5 is the inclusion of the Roland GM/GS software synthesizer (QuickTime™ Musical Instruments and QuickTime™ PowerPlug extensions in your System Folder). See an overview of Roland features (at Appendices below).
  • handles still images, movies, audio and MIDI files.
  • Available for both Mac and PC/Windows.
  • minimum: at least QuickTime™ 2.5 full instal with QuickTime™ Musical Instruments and QuickTime™ PowerPlug extensions in your System Folder.

Yamaha MIDPlug for XG

  • recommended : Yamaha MIDPLug for XG v.1.00. You can download the free software from Yamaha XG site or download a copy of MIDPLug for XG v.1.00 for Mac from my web site "Public" folder by clicking here (it's a 1.3MB stuffit archive).
  • For comprehensive information on MIDPLug click here (local resource) or go the Yamaha XG site. The MIDPlug for XG is effectively a Yamaha SYG20 synthesizer, but in software. An oustanding benefit of MIDPlug software synthesizer is the extra features beyond General (GM) and GS MIDI yet maintaining compatibility with Roland's GM/GS features. Some of the MIDI files on this site were implemented using the XG features.
  • handles audio and MIDI files.
  • Available for both Mac and PC/Windows.
  • If you've installed the MIDPlug, then here are two awesome MIDI XG files to savour: Hendrix's Voodoo Chile and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. These MIDI files are copyrighted by Yamaha. PS: you can still play this MIDI files on any other .mid plug-in but you won't get the glorious effects of the XG features.

Adobe Acrobat Reader and plug-in

  • recommended : Adobe Acrobat Reader v.5.0. You can download the free software from Adobe's Acrobat site. The package includes a standalone Acrobat Reader application and the Web Browser Plug-in. See an overview of Acrobat Reader's features (at Appendices below). A great benefit of Acrobat Reader 5 is the capacity to scale the view window to a range of magnifications and perform Find/Search functions.
  • handles pdf files.
  • Available for both Mac and PC/Windows.

Recommendations for allocation of application/plug-ins for different media types:

  • MP3 audio: QuickTime 5
  • AIFF audio: QuickTime 5
  • MIDI (compatible with SMF formats 0/1 and GM/GS): MIDPlug for XG or QuickTime 5
  • MIDI XG: MIDPlug for XG or QuickTime 5
  • gif: QuickTime 5
  • jpeg: QuickTime 5 PictureViewer
  • pdf: Adobe Acrobate Reader Plug-in

 

Files & Icons used in this site

MP3 sounds playback:

  • recommended: Netscape 4.7.6 or higher with QuickTime 5 plug-in recommended.
  • The QT plug-in can be setup with different features enabling such things as audio streaming etc. Setup these features in the QuickTime™ Settings control panel.
  • Soundbytes are available when you see the soundbyte icon Soundbyte icon
  • All downloadable sound files (click on the soundbyte playback button Soundbyte playback button ) are in MP3 format. Click on a sound button to playback a file.
  • All MP3 files were converted from AIFF format files that were sampled at 11025Hz, 16 bit, mono. These in turn were 'downsampled' from originals at 44.1KHz stereo files. Click on a sound button to playback a file.

 

MIDI file playback:

  • recommended: Netscape 4.7.6 or higher with Yahama MIDPlug for XG plug-in. You can download the free software from Yamaha XG site. If this is not available, use QuickTime 5 plug-in with the in-built Roland GM/GS soundset.
  • minimum : QuickTime 5.0.1. You can download the free software from Apple's QuickTime site. See an overview of QT5 features (at Appendices below). A benefit of QT5 is the inclusion of the Roland GM/GS software synthesizer (QuickTime™ Musical Instruments and QuickTime™ PowerPlug extensions in your System Folder). See an overview of Roland features (at Appendices below).
  • MIDI file previews are available when you see the MIDI icon MIDI icon
  • All downloadable MIDI files are in SMF 0 or 1 formats (single or multi-track). Click on a the link shown to playback a file.
  • Some of the MIDI files on this site were implemented using the XG features.

Soundbyte playback button
Sound Playback (Active) Button
Pressing the button downloads a sound file (AIFF) for playback by the Netscape browser with LiveAudio plug-in

Soundbyte icon

Speaker Icon/Button
Speaker Icon/Button may indicate :
  • a link to a Sound/MIDI page for playback
  • a place adjacent to active Sound Playback buttons

Score graphic icon

Icon (Inactive)

This icon is used adjacent to linked text that, when clicked, will download a score example graphic (eg one page of music) in GIF, PDF or other formats

MIDI icon

MIDI Playback (Active) Button

Pressing the button downloads a MIDI file (midi) for playback by the Netscape browser with Yamaha MIDPlug for XG plug-in or the LiveAudio/QuickTime plug-ins.

Vinly record icon

Vinyl Record Icon/Button
Vinyl Record Icon/Button denotes that the original sound source is a vinyl microgroove record and may indicate :
  • a link to a Sound/MIDI page for playback
  • a place adjacent to active Sound Playback buttons

Setting up Netscape 4.7x with QuickTime plug-in

Selecting QuickTime plug-in to handle MP3 file format

  • Install the QuickTime suite of applications. During the installation process a dialog box requests from you the location of your web browser software. Once you indicate the location the QuickTime plug-in will be installed in the browser's plug-ins folder;
  • once you have installed the QT plug-in you will find in your System Control Panels folder the QuickTime™ Settings. Open the control panel QuickTime™ Settings and choose Browser Plug-in from the menu. Then click on the MIME settings... button. You will have a selection box as follows:
QT Browser plugin settings

Using the pull-down menus, select Use QuickTime for each of the various MIME formats you wish to allocate to QT. Since all of the audio file formats in this site are MP3, select Use QuickTime for the MP3 row.

 

Setting up Netscape 4.7x with MIDPlug for XG plug-in

For comprehensive information including installing/un-installing of the MIDPLug click here (local resource).

Installation

The downloaded file will auto-decompress to create a ".sea" file.After downloading the file, create a folder with the desired name on your hard disk, move the file into the folder, and double-click the file to automatically decompress it.
When the file is decompressed, the following two objects will be created in the folder:
  • "MIDPLUG for XG vxxxxx" (the plug-in itself. "xxxxx" is the version number.)
  • "Readme First!"(a folder include readme.html etc.)

Copy just MIDPLUG for XG itself to the "Plug-ins" folder of "Netscape Navigator (or Communicator)", and restart Netscape Navigator.



On the Netscape Navigator 3.0 series, there are cases in which if a MIDI playback plug-in such as LiveAudio is already present, simply adding MIDPLUG for XG will not allow it to be started up correctly. In this case, try the following procedure.

 

  1. Place the MIDPLUG for XG icon in the Netscape Navigator "Plug-ins" folder, and re-start Netscape Navigator. (It is not necessary to remove LiveAudio.)
  2. In Netscape Navigator's "Options" menu, select "General Preferences."
  3. Select the "Helpers" card.
  4. Now you can choose the plug-in that will handle each of the different MIME types. MIDPLUG for XG supports the following nine MIME types.

     

    • audio/mid
    • audio/x-mid
    • audio/midi
    • audio/x-midi
    • audio/wav
    • audio/x-wav
    • audio/aiff
    • audio/x-aiff
    • audio/basic
    •  

Server settings

MIME type

action

suffix

type

audio/midi
audio/x-midi
audio/mid
audio/x-mid

binary

.mid

midi

audio/aiff
audio/x-aiff

.aif
.aiff


audio/wav
audio/x-wav

.wav


audio/basic

.au


  1. If you want MIDPLUG for XG to handle MIDI and audio playback, you must assign all nine of the above MIME types to MIDPLUG for XG. (Normally, simply copying MIDPLUG for XG to the "Plug-in" folder will change this automatically, but depending on your environment, you may need to set this manually.)
    As an example, here's how to change "audio/midi." Use a similar procedure to change the other eight types.

    In the "Description" item, choose "audio/midi" and click "EDIT."

     

  2. The Edit Type window will open. From the menu located beside the "plug-in" check button, select "MIDPLUG for XG."

     

  3. Press "OK" and perform the same process for the other type (audio/midi).

    With the above settings, the Helper should be as follows. Verify this, and click "OK."


    With the above settings, MIDPLUG for XG will start up correctly.

 

Setting up Netscape 4.7x with Acrobat PDFViewer plug-in

Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 for Macintosh


To install Acrobat Reader 5.0, follow these steps:

-Make sure you have at least 24 MB of available disk space for an installation of Acrobat 5.0 Reader.

-Double-click on the Acrobat 5.0 Reader installer and follow the steps to install Acrobat Reader.

Installing the PDFViewer plug-in for multiple copies of Netscape or Internet Explorer


When you install Acrobat Reader 5.0, if multiple copies of Netscape or Internet Explorer are found on your Macintosh, you are prompted to select which one will receive the PDFViewer plug-in that enables the viewing of PDF files within the browser. If you later use a copy of Netscape or Internet Explorer which does not have the PDFViewer installed into it, you will not be able to view PDF files in that browser. The workaround is to copy the PDFViewer plug-in from your Acrobat Reader 5.0 folder into your default Netscape or Internet Explorer plug-in folders.

Older versions of Netscape: Setting up Netscape 3 with LiveAudio plug-in installed

Selecting LiveAudio plug-in

  • in top Menu bar click-hold Options and choose General Preferences;
  • In General Preferences the default dialog box will be "Appearance";
  • choose "Applications" from the folder tabs;
  • from the scrol list of file types select :
    • For GIF, AIFF & MIDI files to open with Netscape browser select the file types 'Description' column in turn;
    • in the "Handled By" column should be a corresponding icon of "Netscape (internal)" selected. If not, press the "Edit" button from the right hand side. In the new dialog box at "Handled By" choose "Navigator" for each file type in turn.

Alternative 'helper' applications settings in Netscape 3

  • in top Menu bar click-hold Options and choose General Preferences;
  • In General Preferences the default dialog box will be "Appearance";
  • choose "Applications" from the folder tabs;
  • from the scrol list of file types select :
    • audio/aiff files: assuming 'Netscape (internal) appears in the "Handled By" column, then select "Edit" button from the right hand side. In the new dialog box at "Handled By" choose the "Application" radio button; then press the "Browse" button on the right hand side. This brings up the usual file dialog box and navigate your hard disk folders until you can select your favourite alternative sound players eg SoundMachine or SoundApp; or
    • GIF graphics/score files: choose your favourite graphic viewer as above eg GraphicConverter etc; or
    • MIDI files: choose your favourite MIDI sequencer/score writer to open these files eg MidiGraphy, Opcode's Vision, Steinberg's Cubase, Coda's Finale etc.

 

Appendices


Features of QuickTime 5

A true all-in-one cross-platform media tool, QuickTime 5 delivers a host of new features that include:

• An enhanced QuickTime Player interface

• Media Skins, customized interfaces for media

• Macromedia Flash 4

• DLS-compatible Music Synthesizer

• MPEG-1 Streaming

• Hot Picks, bringing you the best in QuickTime content

• 360-degree immersive environments with Cubic VR

• Seamless updates to QuickTime with automatic software updates

• Enhanced AppleScript support (Macintosh Only)

This is just a brief sampling of the new capabilities of QuickTime 5. For more details on these and the rest of the QuickTime 5 capabilities, please visit the QuickTime web site at <www.apple.com/quicktime>. The QuickTime web site also provides many links to cool QuickTime content and to other Internet sites that showcase QuickTime.

 


About Roland's Sound Set for General MIDI and GS Format

This release of QuickTime includes an instrument sound set licensed from Roland Corporation that makes a complete General MIDI compatible sound set. It also includes additional sounds necessary to make a complete GS Format compatible sound set.

What is the GS Format?

The GS Format is a standardized set of specifications for sound sources that defines the manner in which multitimbral sound generating devices will respond to the MIDI messages. The GS Format complies with the General MIDI System Level - 1. The GS Format also defines a number of other details over and above the features of General MIDI. These include unique specifications for sound and functions available for tone editing, effects, and other specifications concerning the manner in which sound sources will respond to MIDI messages. Any device that is equipped with GS Format sound sources can faithfully reproduce both General MIDI sound recordings and GS Format MIDI sound recordings.

How to contact Roland:

Roland Corporation

4-16, Dojimahama 1-chome,

Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0004, Japan

For more information about Roland and its line of products, visit their website at <http://www.rolandcorp.com>.

 


Yamaha MIDPlug for XG

You can download the free software from Yamaha XG site. For comprehensive information on MIDPLug click here (local resource) or go the Yamaha XG site. An oustanding benefit of MIDPlug software synthesizer is the extra features beyond General (GM) and GS MIDI yet maintaining compatibility with Roland's GM/GS features.

MIDPLUG for XG has "stream playback" functionality which allows playback to begin before a MIDI file has been completely downloaded. However, stream playback is possible only for MIDI files which were saved in Format 0.

Main features

  • Compatible with Netscape Navigator 3.0 and later
  • MIDI file playback, stop, tempo adjustment, transposition, and volume control
  • Soft Synthesizer
  • GM compatible. 360 voices and 11 drum kits (including two SFX kits) compatible with the XG format, and reverb.
  • 32 note polyphony
  • Compatible with SMF formats 0/1
  • Simple and compact interface Three screen sizes can be selected: 150 x 40, 100 x 30, or 40 x 35 pixels
  • Select from two types of design to match the style of your home page.
  • Stream playback of MIDI (SMF format 0)
  • Supports Opcode Corporation's OMS (Open Music System). External tone generators can be controlled via a serial port
  • Playback of three digital audio file formats (wav, aiff, au)
  • File save function

     

 


Adobe® Acrobat® Reader for Macintosh excerpts from the Read Me file (March 13, 2001)


Welcome to the Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 5.0 Read Me. Adobe Acrobat Reader is the free viewing companion to Adobe Acrobat 5.0. Acrobat Reader lets you view, navigate and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is a complete solution for creating, enhancing, reviewing, editing, and sharing information in PDF. To learn more about Adobe Acrobat 5.0, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat

This Read Me contains information on:

System Requirements

Installation Instructions

Troubleshooting Issues (selection)


System Requirements

System Requirements for Acrobat Reader for Macintosh

-PowerPC® processor
-Apple® Mac® OS 8.6, 9.0.4, or 9.1
-16 MB of RAM (24 recommended)
-24 MB of available hard disk space
-Additional 32 MB of hard-disk space for Asian fonts (optional)

Web Browser Support

The web browsers within which PDF files may be viewed are:
Internet Explorer 5.0
Netscape Navigator 4.x

Installation Instructions

Installing Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 for Macintosh

To install Acrobat Reader 5.0, follow these steps:

-Make sure you have at least 24 MB of available disk space for an installation of Acrobat 5.0 Reader.

-Double-click on the Acrobat 5.0 Reader installer and follow the steps to install Acrobat Reader.

Installing the PDFViewer plug-in for multiple copies of Netscape or Internet Explorer

When you install Acrobat Reader 5.0, if multiple copies of Netscape or Internet Explorer are found on your Macintosh, you are prompted to select which one will receive the PDFViewer plug-in that enables the viewing of PDF files within the browser. If you later use a copy of Netscape or Internet Explorer which does not have the PDFViewer installed into it, you will not be able to view PDF files in that browser. The workaround is to copy the PDFViewer plug-in from your Acrobat Reader 5.0 folder into your default Netscape or Internet Explorer plug-in folders.

Adobe SVG Viewer 2.0

Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 installs Adobe SVG Viewer 2.0. To learn more about Adobe SVG Viewer 2.0 use your browser to open the ReadMeSVGViewer.html file located within your browser's plugins folder.

Installing Asian Language Files for Acrobat Reader 5.0

Asian Language Files are available for Acrobat Reader 5.0. With any language version of Acrobat Reader 5.0, you can display Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files that contain text in Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, and Korean (CJK). All you need to do is install the appropriate Asian font pack for use with Acrobat Reader. To install Asian Language support launch the Acrobat Reader installer, select Custom Install and select the Asian Language files option.

STSong™ is a trademark of ChangZhou SinoType Technology Co., Ltd

Asian Language Files will only install to one Acrobat Reader Folder
If you have more than one copy of Acrobat Reader on your system the Asian Language Files will only install fonts into a single Acrobat Reader folder. You may manually copy the installed fonts which are located in Adobe Acrobat (Reader) 5.0 / Resource/ CIDFont. [289100]


Troubleshooting Issues

Select the Auto-Configure Browser preference to view PDF files in the browser
When this preference is checked (Edit > Preferences > Options > Web Browser Options > Auto-Configure Browser), Acrobat Reader 5.0 will check to see that all MIME types are correctly established in the Internet Configuration database and in Netscape preferences.
Also, Acrobat Reader 5.0 will scan all installed browsers to verify that a current version of the PDFViewer plug-in has been installed. See the section entitled "Installing the PDFViewer plug-in for multiple copies of Netscape" for more details. [414484]

Using the Toolbar
Acrobat Reader's toolbars can be torn-off, docked on the top, and their geometry may be changed. Torn-off toolbars cannot be combined by dragging the title bar of the toolbar; use the drag handle of the toolbar instead.[398112]

Viewing PDF files within Internet Explorer and Netscape
When attempting to view relatively large PDF files, you may see an error message saying "Page processing error. File input/output error. Time out during connecting." Other symptoms that you may see are Acrobat Reader displays blank pages or Acrobat Reader may hang. Check with your systems or network administrator that the version of Apache being used is 1.3.17 or greater. Acrobat Reader may exhibit the symptoms listed above with earlier versions of Apache.[417553]

Acrobat Reader Web-Based Features on Mac OS 8.6
When Acrobat Reader 5.0 launches you may see this message: "Features that require internet access have been disabled due to operating system limitations. Please see the ReadMe file for more detail."
Acrobat Reader 5.0 features that require internet access are disabled on Mac OS 8.6 due to operating system limitations. The following features require an operating system library called URL Access:
- Application features delivered via remote services such as Create PDF Online and Search Adobe PDF Online are disabled and do not appear
-Update Acrobat and Update Web Services are not available - when you select Edit > Preferences > General > Update and then select Update Acrobat Now and Update Web Services Now, you see the message: "Acrobat cannot check for updates because it is missing plug-ins required to search for updates." Acrobat cannot load these plug-ins because URL Access is not available.[417483]
- Notification of product and service updates - while updates of your system through Acrobat Reader 5.0 are not available, you can download any available updates of your software by checking http://www.adobe.com/acrobat/ periodically.

Adobe Systems is not able to install this library on MacOS 8.6 as it has in the past. Currently Apple Computer Inc only supports it on MacOS 9.0 and above. [411146]

Helvetica and Times Fonts
Acrobat Reader 5.0 will now use Helvetica and Times Fonts on PDF files that do not have these files embedded. Acrobat Reader 4.0 required the user to place these fonts into the Acrobat Reader 4 folder and also required you to remove the ArialMT and or TimesNewRomanPSMT fonts from the Acrobat fonts folder before Times and Helvetica would be used.

MacOS X and Acrobat 5.0 Reader
Although Adobe has tested Acrobat Reader 5.0 on pre-release versions of MacOS X, Acrobat Reader 5.0 is not certified to run on MacOS X as final testing was not completed at the time Acrobat Reader 5.0 shipped. [413033, 413674]

Netscape 4
Avoid pressing the Back button while PDFViewer is reloading. Pressing the Back button within Netscape 4 while PDFViewer is reloading may cause an unexpected exit in Netscape 4 requiring you to restart Acrobat. To prevent this, wait until the PDFViewer completes reloading before pressing the Back button.[415737]

Netscape 6
Acrobat Reader installs a plug-in to work with Netscape 4.x browsers. This plug-in enables users to download, view, navigate and print Adobe PDF files, and to fill in PDF forms while working inside the browser. With Netscape 6, PDF files must be downloaded in their entirety before they can be viewed. Also, with Netscape 6, PDF forms cannot be filled in when viewed within the Browser. To print a PDF file from Netscape 6 use the print icon on the Acrobat Reader toolbar from within Netscape instead of File>Print.

Printer Specific Options
Due to a bug in CarbonLib (version CarbonLib 1.2.5 or before) if you use AdobePS as a printer driver and set options in the print dialog box (such as Layout-Pages per Sheet, or Paper Handling) these settings do not affect the printed output. The workaround is to use LaserWriter as a printer driver or to Save Setting, to commit the options and then print.[405522]

Reflow
Documents cannot be reflowed at certain magnification and window width combinations. Acrobat Reader magnifies the document to whatever magnification level it can display without failing. [401685]

Save A Copy
Acrobat Reader 5.0 contains a menu item and a toolbar icon called "Save A Copy". If you modify an Adobe PDF file in Acrobat Reader 5.0, your changes will not be preserved when you use this command. Only a copy of the original Adobe PDF file will be saved; saving updates is not a feature of Acrobat Reader.[414048]

Search
Search is not available within Acrobat Reader 5.0 on Mac OS X.

Temporary Files
There is a bug in MacOS 9.0.x in which Temporary Items are not deleted at Startup. This is corrected in MacOS 9.1. There is a description of the problem, and a workaround described in AppleCare Tech Info Library, case #25134. You can view this at:
http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n25134 [399690]

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Copyright © 1987-2001 Adobe Systems Incorporated and its licensors.

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Last updated: 21 September 2003

 

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