Plug-ins and Browser Help

Several of the pages at this site are MIDI enhanced.
If you are not hearing background music on the home page and the other primary pages at this site:

1. Turn on your speakers and check the volume. (DOH! It could happen!)

2. Be sure that "sound out" is selected in your control panel or control strip (Mac) rather than "sound in" for your microphone. Windows users: you're on your own here - same principle, though.

3. Check in your browser's "Plug-ins" folder to see if you have a plug-in that can play MIDI sounds. Netscape 4.0x installs with the "Live Audio" plug-in. This ought to do the trick. If it doesn't, QuickTime plug-in 2.0x will certainly fix the problem. Plus, it's better because it uses streaming technology which means that the media file can begin playing before it has completly downloaded. Netscape 4.5 is now available and installs with the QuickTime plug-in.

MacZilla for Macintosh or Mozilla for Windows will also work, but you don't need more than one of these. Which ever you choose, be sure that it will play audio/midi, audio/x-midi, and audio/x-mid files. Note that all of the above applies to Internet Explorer 4x, too. (Just install QuickTime!)

4. AOL users: You have undoubtly been getting an error message at the top of the MIDI enhanced pages, and may have been sent to AOL's plug-in page. AOL doesn't think that they have a plug-in for MIDI files, but the QuickTime plug-in does indeed work! Just put it in the "Plug-ins" folder. (And then write a letter to Steve Case, explaining all of this to AOL.)

You also definitely want to upgrade to the newest versions of AOL - v. 6 for Windows or v. 5 for Mac. (As of January 13, 2001.)

If You Still Don't Hear the MIDIs:

5. Check your browser's applications settings. Netscape: Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Applications. Look for the file type "audio/midi" and choose QuickTime. IE uses similar procedure, and you shouldn't have to do anything to AOL.

The file hierarchy above is Macintosh; Windows is "Options", etc.

6. Make sure that you have allotted your browser sufficient memory, and that you have given the browser cache enough memory, too.

Plug-ins Sources:*
Netscape: Browser Plug-ins
Plugins.com

For the newest version of all of the QuickTime software:
Apple QuickTime

Browser Upgrades:
Netscape: Download
Internet Explorer Home
AOL Keyword: Upgrade

*The Macintosh version of the QuickTime plug-in is also available from Mr. Sedivy's classroom computer. As are the plug-ins for: Speech, Crescendo, and Shockwave. (PPC versions) Just bring in a floppy (or 2) and copy them.