Beatnik authoring system (Designing Web Audio)

It hides the differences between the various browsers and platforms your audience may use to view your web site.
It allows access to a set of methods and properties that you can use to make your pages come alive with sound.

More technically:

The Music Object wraps the Beatnik Player so that it works consistently with Netscape's LiveConnect API and with Microsoft Internet Explorer's ActiveX API, and it writes both EMBED and OBJECT tags for you.
The Music Object is also the Beatnik Player's JavaScript command set (or API). The Beatnik Player file sits on the user's computer, and the Music Object sits on a web server and is included with your sonified web pages. Interactive sound control is enabled when the two come together in a browser.

To begin authoring with the Music Object, follow these steps:

Source the Music Object into your HTML page.

"Sourcing" a JavaScript file is the same idea as "including" a source file in other languages like C++ or C. While the script code resides in an external file, it's treated as though its contents actually appeared in the parent file.

Simply copy this bit of code just below the <BODY> tag in your HTML page:
```
<SCRIPT SRC="http://sonify.beatnik.com/music-object.js"></SCRIPT>
```
This code will retrieve the Music Object from Beatnik's servers whenever someone visits your site.
Create a Music Object instance.

After sourcing in the Music Object, you need to instantiate a new Object of type Music before you can use it. This is your first Beatnik operation that requires actual JavaScript programming. To execute this operation, first open a new script tag and designate the language you will be working with:
```
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
```
Provide a name for the new instance, then use the JavaScript keyword new, and the name of the object class Music. For example:
```
theNameYouWantToUse = new Music (); 
```
Embed an RMF file into the Music object using the preloadEmbed method, like this:
```
theNameYouWantToUse.preloadEmbed ('yourRMFfile.rmf'); 
```
Then end the script tag:
```
</SCRIPT> 
```

Set up the RMF file to play back when the user interacts with the page. This can be as easy as calling:

<A HREF="JavaScript://" onMouseOver="theNameYouWantToUse.play();">
your gif, link, or page element here</a>

11.2. Beatnik authoring system