There are currently 22 songs in the jukebox, all encoded in MP3 format. Some songs are large in size, and although they might take a while to "fully" load for people with dial-up or slower internet connections, that should not propose any problem at all. Why? The music is "streamed" through the use of m3u playlist files and even for people with slower connections, the music will begin streaming immediately, even if the song file is not fully loaded.
See this article for more on how it is done, and also look at the Multiple Track Streaming Example (36 track playlist) on my main page to see another method of applying it. You can also incorporate the same technique for use on your own website. *NOTE: It's recommended to stop any currently playing music first before viewing the article.
Once the automated jukebox starts you can either allow the jukebox to automatically advance and play through each song in sequence without user intervention, or you may jump to any song you like by clicking on the respective song link. Lyrics for each song will be displayed in an auto-scrolling iframe as well.
Klicking on the above button will start the Automated Jukebox. The jukebox will open in a separate window. This will allow you to browse through the site while also listening to the music.
|
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Music
I also realize that there are many MIDI afficionados still browsing the internet. Therefore, I've included Nunzio's MIDI Music Archive at this site for those of you who are interested in MIDI music. The archive currently contains more than 390 MIDI songs by various artists and also features a Random MIDI Player.
Directly below are 3 sample MIDI songs from both the "Mixed Bag" and "McCartney" sections of my archive. Click on and listen to each of them...
|
Mission Impossible Theme |
|
House Of The Rising Sun |
|
Heart Of The Country |
If you liked listening to the 3 MIDIs above and are interested in other MIDI music selections, visit Nunzio's MIDI Music Archive.
But there is one problem... listening to the MIDIs in this web browser, including the 3 samples above and the selections in my archive, will only output sound through whatever MIDI device your system defaults to and may not (probably won't) output the best sound quality. If you REALLY want awesome sound quality then once a MIDI is fully loaded and you can see the player controls on my archive webpage, SAVE that MIDI to your local hard drive. Do this by right-clicking on the embedded player controls and selecting "Save as.." from the dropdown menu. Then listen to the MIDI using the DirectMusic MIDI device in Winamp. Yes... Winamp is by FAR the best media player around. Beats everything else hands-down. If you haven't already done so, read more about Winamp on the main page of this site.
Directly below is an example of the output of the same Mission Impossible Theme MIDI you listened to above, but this time it will be very close to the way it would sound in Winamp using the DirectMusic MIDI device...
How is it that the above example sounds so different from the first one? How is it that it did not output sound in this web browser through whatever MIDI device your system defaults to? Here's how... I used Winamp's Disk Writer to convert the output of the MIDI to PCM Wave format. I then used dBpowerAMP Music Converter to convert the WAV file to MP3 format, which was "streamed" above and is what you heard. You were actually listening to an MP3 stream (same as the rest of the music at this site). I did this so you could hear the MIDI in very nearly the same way it would sound in Winamp with the DirectMusic MIDI device enabled. *Note: dBpowerAMP's Audio Player totally SUCKS when compared to Winamp, but their Music Converter is very good.
OK. Now it's up to YOU to decide! You've heard both examples. Notice how much fuller and richer the MIDI will sound listening to it in Winamp with the DirectMusic MIDI device enabled.
Refer to these directions/this screenshot on how to set up the DirectMusic MIDI device in Winamp Preferences.
*Note: Do not download the "Lite" version of the free Winamp player. It's just too lacking in features and capabilities. Download either the "Full" version (what I have) or the "Bundled" version (only if you like the MP3 song included in the Bundle). The only difference between the Full and Bundled version is the inclusion of that MP3.
|
|