All About MIDI Plug-Ins

All About MIDI Plug-ins

The Major Midi Plug-ins for Netscape Navigator

Netscape Media Player (LiveAudio)

This plug-in normally ships with Netscape and also contains other audio-related MIME types as well as support for "audio/midi" and "audio/x-midi", two of the types we are interested in.

The following files are installed in the PlugIns folder:

npaudio.dll
npaudio.zip
sub-folder "mplayer"

- Color of the console (black) can not be changed.
- Works well under most situations.
- Can NOT be targeted to a frame.
- Sliding volume control does NOT work.
- Minimal right-click functions.
- The right-click "Save As.." function displays "untitled.mid" by
default and the file name must be manually typed in.
- Free from Netscape

Yamaha MidPlug

The following files are installed in the PlugIns folder:

npmidy32.dll
Npmidy32.zip
sub-folder "Npmidy"

- Midi console available in two different color schemes,
determined by the web-page author.
- Two control sizes, determined by the author.
- Good assortment of right-click functions which allow you to
change the tempo and transpose up or down.
Available MIDI drivers can also be changed from console.
- Control works well. Can be targeted to a frame. Variable
volume control on the console.
- The one annoying behaviour (to me) is the momentary pop-up
logo advising MidPlug is loading, each time you click on a new
selection.
- Download is free from Yamaha.
- Active-X plug-in available for Internet Explorer.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE (2006)

Crescendo! MIDI Plugin by Live UpDate

The following files are installed in the PlugIns folder:

Npmidi.dll
Sequence.dll

- The default colors of green and yellow can be changed by the
web page author.
- Full consoles available in two sizes; 200 x 55 and 144 x 60.
A 16 x 16 Icon is also available. Determined by author.
- All the midi mimi types are recognized, as well a the
proprietory Crescendo mime type "music/crescendo".
- Right-click functions are plentiful, offer full control which can
over-ride parameters set by the page author.
- Can be targeted to a frame.
- The non-streaming version is free from LiveUpdate.
- Active-X version available for Internet Explorer.
NO LONGER AVAILABLE (2006)

Crescendo's Streaming Midi

There is some controversey on the Web regarding LiveUpdate's methods and cost for Crescendo. However, as pointed out above, the non-streaming version of Crescendo is FREE! The benefit to streaming is that the song starts to play long before the entire file is downloaded. The free version will receive streaming midi, but only if you visit a Crescendo StreamSite. A StreamSite must purchase the "key" to make this happen. The alternative is for the user to purchase Crescendo PLUS for $20.00 US. The benefit to PLUS is that no matter which site you visit, streaming is always enabled. To quickly preview midi files from sites having hundreds of titles, the time saved is well worth the one-time cost. I haven't read any complaints about having to purchase an FTP utility if you wish to do any work in your directory on the Server. Software development for multiple operating systems and browsers is costly. The technical help and resources available from the LiveUpdate site are plentiful and constantly updated. Sorry, to the opponents, but $20.00 for excellent support and the streaming capabilities of Crescendo Plus doesn't seem to be out of the way for high-quality software.

As a courtesy, we have Crescendo MAX original install file available for download.

Plug-in Installation, Enabling and Disabling

As we will be discussing ".dll" files, first make sure that you can view these types. The default installation of Windows 95 DOES NOT allow you to view them. Open Windows 95 'Explorer' (I keep a short-cut on the DeskTop). From the menu, select "View"|"Options" and make sure the option button "Show all files" is set.

After downloading a plug-in, the Installer will prompt you for the location where you wish to install. This is always the "plugins" folder (sub-directory) of your browser. As the LiveAudio name implies, various audio mime-types, as well as midi, are supported. If you wish to install a dedicated midi plug-in such as Crescendo or MidPlug, then a specific installation precedure should be followed so the audio types are still supported by LiveAudio, but the midi types are not.

In Netscape, from the menu, let's examine the relationship between "Help|About Plug-ins" and "Options|General Preferences|Helpers". If the LiveAudio plug-in is installed, "Help|About Plug-ins" will list the Installed Plug-ins. Netscape LiveAudio will look like this:

Mime Type	Description	Suffixes	Enabled
audio/basic	AU	au	Yes
audio/x-aiff	AIFF	aif, aiff	Yes
audio/aiff	AIFF	AIF, AIFF	Yes
audio/x-wav	WAV	wav	Yes
audio/wav	WAV	wav	Yes
audio/x-midi	MIDI	mid. midi	Yes
audio/midi	MIDI	mid, midi	Yes
audio/nspaudio	Netscape Packetized Audio	la, lma	Yes
audio/x-nspaudio	Netscape Packetized Audio	la, lma	Yes

Above you will notice two MIDI mime-types are enabled.
Again, in Netscape, select "Options|General Preferences|Helpers" and you will see:

File Type	Action	Extensions
audio/x-mid	Ask User	mid
audio/x-midi		mid
audio/midi		mid

Note that the two MIDI types that are enabled in the plug-in have a blank entry in the "Action" column. The mime-type "audio/x-mid" is not handled by RealAudio so the Action is "Ask User" since Netscape does not know how to handle this mime-type. If you install Crescendo or MidPlug, the Action entry for "audio/x-mid" would also be blanks as it IS handled by these plug-ins.

All Netscape plug-in dll's begin with the letters "np". Let's disable RealAudio by renaming the file to "znpaudio.dll". The addition of the letter "z" will keep all disabled plug-ins at the end of the directory, where they are easy to find. Re-start Netscape and if you look in "Help|About Plug-ins" you will see that RealAudio is no longer listed. Go back to "Options|General Preferences|helpers" and the table will now show:

File Type	Action	Extensions
audio/x-mid	Ask User	mid
audio/x-midi	Ask User	mid
audio/midi	Ask User	mid

This simply means we do not have an installed plug-in to handle any of the listed mime-types.

The problem now is that we wish to retain the non-midi features of LiveAudio, but install a dedicated midi plug-in. This is accomplished by renaming "npaudio.dll" to "znpaudio.dll" as above, and then proceed with the installation of either Crescendo or MidPlug. Start Netscape and all the midi mime-types will be allocated to the new plug-in. Exit Netscape and again rename "znpaudio.dll" back to the original "npaudio.dll". Start Netscape and have a look at "Help|About Plug-ins". Both RealAudio and the newly installed midi plug-in will be listed. The midi plug-in will be enabled for all the midi mime-types and RealAudio will be enabled for all features except midi.

I have all three plug-ins in the directory and when testing I can use any one simply by renaming the files, shutting down and re-starting Netscape.

IMPORTANT! To retain the audio features of the LiveAudio plug-in, your choice of either Yamaha or Crescendo must be the LAST installed plug-in. Keep an uninstalled copy on your hard-drive to facilitate this. If you encounter problems, uninstall all plug-ins, except LiveAudio. Then re-install the midi plug-in you have chosen.

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