Beatnik Player 2.2 is now available from Beatnik, a provider of enhanced audio solutions and content for the digital devices, games and the Web. The Beatniks say that, for the first time, Macintosh Internet Explorer users can enjoy “the rich interactive musical experience” that Beatnik’s audio technologies enable, like Beatnik sonified Web pages and Mixman eMixes.
Beatnik has also posted an update to the Beatnik MusicObject API for Web developers, which will provide support for the Mac IE version of the Beatnik Player.
Beatnik is one of the first companies to successfully create a technology that allows plug-in code to communicate directly with JavaScript for Mac IE, according to Bahman Dara, vice president of marketing. While the LiveConnect method is available on Netscape products for the Mac, there is no equivalent on the Mac IE, he added. Beatnik has used high-level Apple Events and will post code examples so that other plug-in developers may benefit from their experience, Dara said.
“Support for Mac IE was the final piece needed to complete our robust cross platform and cross device solution suite for Mac, Windows, and Pocket PC infrastructures,” he said in a statement. “We are proud to be the first to deliver such a cutting-edge solution for this rapidly changing environment.”
The Beatnik Audio Engine (BAE), the core of the Beatnik Player, enables users to experience CD-quality audio and music through a variety of digital devices including mobile phones, PDAs and set-top boxes using extremely small file sizes, Dara said. It doesn’t require special hardware and provides a low bandwidth audio solution for digital devices. The BAE can play back popular formats such as MP3, WAV, AIFF and enhances MIDI by adding custom samples to recreate the original sound of the music.
“This expanded capacity gives composers an unprecedented variety of sounds to use in their creative productions,” Dara said. “The BAE’s true strength is its ability to play Rich Music Format (RMF) files. RMF files are very compact and play back instantly when started. This technology makes it possible to create truly interactive audio environments and games on the Web and in digital devices. RMF files are typically in the range of 10 k to 400 K while the equivalent MP3 file would be 1MB to 4 MB.”
Beatnik is the company behind the Mixman line of remixing and performance music software and consumer audio products for mainstream music fans, enthusiasts and hobbyists. Mixman products allow consumers to interact with, customize, control and perform music.
Last September the company announced Mixman Radio, a free Internet radio station created to showcase music made with Beatnik’s Mixman Studio software. And in October 2000, the company introduced version 4.0 of Mixman StudioPro 4.0 for the Mac. The US$90 program lets music fans create, perform and publish personalized music from concept to completion.