For Gary and all: audio files and web site ideas

Gary,

>I use a Mac, and I'm 90% certain that the Mac version of Netscape supports
>WAV files. I have not downloaded any audio-playing plug-ins, and yet have
>played audio from at least one web page - a web page that also played fine
>from my SPARCstation at work. It seems unlikely that Netscape for the Mac
>supports something more exotic than WAV, so I'd think it likely that the
audio
>I've played were WAV files.

It is certainly possible that Netscape/Mac supports .wav files, since we've
been inundated with them (courtesy Bill Gates). The original Mac audio file
format was .aiff (Audio Interchange File Format), which has been well
supported by players/plugins. From the early days of the Net, when UNIX
stations ruled, the .au file format still hangs on, though much less
supported due to its lesser sound qualities.

More than we *all* wanted to know about audio/web file formats, Jon. :)

> Oooo cool! Where can I find them those players (URL)? Everytime I've
>attempted to download a Real Audio player, the first question they asked was
>"what's your credit card number?".

Should be able to get the RealPlayer at http://www.real.com/ If they have
somehow started charging, I'll be surprised.

As to 'where to do a web site', how about some of the free places, like
Geocities or Tripod? I know they're supported by ads, but they'd be
'relatively' free. Whoever decides to be Webmaster could have people email
him/her the web pages and/or graphics/soundfiles as attachments, and he/she
could upload them. And, yes, I'd expect the submitters to do the work on
the pages/graphics/etc so you wouldn't have to; if you can do the math for
non-12tet like some of the folks here, hacking html in a wysiwyg editor
should be a piece of pastry. (I sometimes hand code only because it's the
only way to really produce clean, optimized html, as yet. But I use good
tools...)

Sound like a bit of work? Yep. I know, having had a site up for almost 3
years running. But the words of thanks that come back make it worthwhile,
if you've got the time, energy, etc.

All: lest we forget what started this, Gary's idea was to go beyond ascii
and when talking about music and intonation to be able to HEAR music and
intonation, and it is a worth and noble effort!!! If I didn't already have
a site to curate, I'd take it on, but if someone else wants to be
webmaster, I'll certainly try and help somehow. In any event, Gary, keep up
the brainstorming til we/you find a way...

Cheers,
Jon

P.S. to Allen: Yep, I mis-remembered the lumbering circuit-boards -- the
big beast at SDSU was a Buchla setup. I didn't spend a lot of time in
there, mainly when Pete Middleton showed me some basic patching and I went
nuts with ... oh well, it was a long time ago! :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan M. Szanto | Corporeal Meadows: Harry Partch, online. . .
jszanto@adnc.com | http://www.corporeal.com/

> The original Mac audio file
> format was .aiff (Audio Interchange File Format), which has been well
> supported by players/plugins.

(Actually, the first format was "snd" resources, and AIFF files came about
with Inside Macintosh Volume V if I remember correctly, but no matter.)
.
.
.

> In any event, Gary, keep up the brainstorming til we/you find a way...

I more or less gave up on the Xenharmonic Alliance because it's purpose
is/was to foster communication between xenharmonicists, but the tuning list has
vastly outdone anything one guy could do. Perhaps some sort of web-based
repository for microtonal illustrations more in conjunction with this list could
be my next such effort.

Hmm... Let me think about that a bit.