It seems plugin authors behave as if the web page author is the same person
as the web page visitor! As author, I cannot make assumptions about what
plugins and browsers my visitors use, much less ask them to use a specific
one. So all the fancy stuff is pretty useless. What an author needs is
standardized functionality that works the same on all browsers and plugins.
I have had
a lot of trouble with plugins (esp. when many of them are embedded on a page),
and I've only explored a few of them.
I finally settled for the structure in the demo page
(that you probably come from) after some experimentation.
Some comments follow.
- LiveAudio (included with Netscape Navigator 3.x and above):
shortens first beat of some pieces when they start at time zero.
Refuses to play certain files (possibly with error message complaining about fname and cache size, accompanied with frequent system freezes/crashes), e.g. the intervals test.
Rather slow processing. I can't recommend it right now (at least under
my environment: Navigator 3.01, MacOS 7.5.5).
The organ has a vibrato.
- Beatnik (from Headspace): in some cases, plays only the notes above a certain note (F above middle C), for some instruments.
I got interested in this plugin in part because of the above problems with
LiveAudio, in part because Java's JMF and JavaSound use the same audio engine (HAE) as Beatnik.
Faster than LiveAudio, less buggy.
- Yamaha's MidPlug: LiveConnect aware (starting version 3). The play() function won't load a new URL!
Fast, beats clearly audible.
But the violin has a vibrato.
- Crescendo: Mac version doesn't support LiveConnect. Windows version
apparently does.
- Quicktime: apparently doesn't support LiveConnect.
I had little luck in making the EMBED tag work correctly for any plugin,
esp. wrt WIDTH and HEIGHT
(black instead of control panel for example), so I tried
using JavaScript and hidden plugin controls: this worked better (except for MidPlug),
but probably restricts the number of usable plugins because it requires
a LiveConnect-aware plugin. Anyway, I finally settled on a single visible plugin and LiveConnect calls.
Also, software synths will often try to make the sound more natural (e.g. by
introducing a vibrato) which is nice in the general case, but which can get in
the way of hearing tuning differences. For the sound, I prefer LiveAudio
or MidPlug over Beatnik (wrt making the differences in tuning audible).
The current arrangement has the advantage that only one plugin instance needs to
be loaded and configured (for example, to send MIDI data to OMS). And, with
only one instance, there are fewer chances of bugs I hope!
On the other hand, it
makes things a bit slower when clicking because the MIDI file is downloaded only
when requested.
Are we condemned to work with beta software forever?
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