Music on the net At the MIDI Home Page (http://www.eeb.ele.tue.nl/midi.index.html) both beginners and advanced users of MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) will find something to their benefit. If you are a novice at MIDI then you are in luck: this home page will teach you how to play MIDI inside out. From here you can download MIDI software and get a lot of advice on how to use it as well. There are many links to other MIDI sites, such has MIDI Tools And Resources, MIDI Farm, Yamaha TX-16w, and more. (Thanks to FoxSimpson for the site description.) The Worldwide Internet Music Resources page found at http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/ is a great place to find a wide variety of information and links related to, you guessed it, music. From Classical Composers to the Commercial World of Music to Making Instruments, this site has it all. And for those who are baud-rate challenged net surfers this site is sans graphics so viewing is a snap! (or a click, as the case may be.)Moving on, or under, to the Internet Underground Music Archive (IUMA) at http://www.iuma.com/. From the opening page you can tell this site is, at the very least, fun! From the IUMA home page you have a choice of 4 categories: Bands (short for On-Line Artists) which houses the entire collection of independent artists on IUMA; What's Brewin' where you will find all the latest multimedia projects in which IUMA is involved. This area also serves as IUMA's archive vault; Record Labels is the next category and it contains the complete listing of all the recording lables IUMA is working with in their venture to bring the music industry "into the future and onto the Internet"; last but not least Publications which is an index of both traditional and on-line only publications working with IUMA. This site is jam (no pun intended) packed with information and may take more than one visit to see everything. I'd also highly recommended that "first timers" follow the guided tour complete with IUMA history and folklore. Oh, don't forget to complete the survey at the opening screen, it's as entertaining as the rest of the site. (Thanks to Aminie Elsberry [CJ Eagle] for the site description.)Haven't heard much of your favorite band lately? Want to know when their next CD will be released? Check out The Ultimate Band List at http://ubl.com/index.html. You can find that tidbit of info that in future years will be a Trivial Pursuit question! Searching for your favorite band is very easy (even painless) providing you with links to band web pages, FAQs, mailing list info, newsgroup info, lyrics, and guitar tabs. You'll also find some fun facts on individual artists, radio stations, record labels, club and concerts, record stores (what are records??), music news and chat, magazines and ezines.This site is a huge index to everything that carries a tune on the Net. Music Link Central, at http://www.musician.com/mlc/page15.html is your "One-Stop-Cyber-Hop" to the Internet music world. From artists to record labels; music reference sites to on-line music e-zines; musical instrument manufacturers to the coolest MIDI sites on the net, Music Link Central is a great place to start your Internet journey into music on the Web. On this Web page you can find links to musicial artists, CD-related Sites, digital & techno sites, radio station links and more. chat related(not in chat archives):OnlineHost: Copyright 1996 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved. OnlineHost: Your AOL Live MC for tonight is KatieAE. AOLiveMC14: Welcome to AOL Live, AnswerMan! AnswerMan: Thanks. Hi all! AOLiveMC14: Are you ready to dive right in and start with some questions? AnswerMan: Sure, let's go. AOLiveMC14: Here we go! Question: Good evening, Answer Man. What extra software is needed to listen to music on home pages and other sites? Under Windows? AnswerMan: Well, it depends on the kind of music. The AOL 3.0 browser can play MIDI tunes that are built into some Web pages automatically. Now, a lot of Web pages and FTP sites have audio files in other formats -- .au, .aiff and .WAV, for example. You can find several good free and shareware programs for playing these at keyword FILE SEARCH (search for "audio player") and at keyword VIEWERS. Frankly, though, most multimedia PCs sold today come loaded wit h the software to play digitized audio files. On the Mac, I use a little shareware program called SoundMachine, which can play just about every audio file. Question: Mr. AnswerMan: I have always loved Mozart! Can you suggest a good web site for information on both his work and his personal life? AnswerMan: Sure. For a big index of Mozart sites on the Web, try: http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Composition/Composers/Masters/Classical_Period/Mozart__Wolfgang_Amadeus__1756_1791_/ (That's a huge URL, but it works :) Try the History of Mozart, at http://www.hkstar.com/~tslw/mozart.html And the W.A. Mozart Page at http://www.mhrcc.org/mozart/mozart.html AOLiveMC14: Don't forget, folks. An easy way to get to these URL's is to do a Ctrl-K (keyword), then cut and paste the "http:"...etc. into the keyword box! Question: What music-based websites are available? AnswerMan: Literally thousands. I was looking at Yahoo! for music sites, and was completely overwhelmed by them all. Go to the URL http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/ so you can be overwhelmed, too :) The topics there include music history, discographies, Karaoke, music news, Bootlegs, awards, Independent Music, etc. Lots. If you are interested in getting information about your favorite band --no matter what it is-- use an Internet search tool like WebCrawler (at keyword WEBCRAWLER) Just go there, type in the name of the band, and you should see a list of Web pages about them. It's truly difficult to think of a band that is NOT talked about somewhere on the Web. AnswerMan: Even the smallest bands have a following, and often have web pages. Bands that you forgot about (like, say, Jefferson Airplane) often have multiple Web sites dedicated to them. Most are "fan pages" but some bands have "official" web pages. Question: What is real time audio?? AnswerMan: Real-time audio is a cool system that allows you to hear an audio file as it downloads to your computer. In the olden days of the Internet (like 3 years ago) you had to download an entire audio file before you could enjoy it. With real- time audio, like RealAudio and StreamWorks (there are others too) you use special software that plays the file as it downloads. I think RealAudio works with AOL 3.0, but honestly I haven't tried it with AOL 3 yet. It works well with my other Internet provider though. The sound quality is like AM radio at 14.4 KPBS, and closer to FM at 28.8 KBPS. Question: AnswerMan: I've always been interested in downloading clips from the Web but I am not really sure about what can happen. Are there some important facts I should take into account before downloading clips or MIDI tunes from the Net? AnswerMan: Audio clips, if they're not real-time, can take a while to download . . . depending on the audio format and the quality of the audio. So, short clips download quickly but can be unsatisfying because they're, well, short. With MIDI tunes, your computer actually generates the music from a sort of digital sheet music, so the files are usually quite small and fast to download. Then again, unless you have an expensive MIDI system, MIDI tunes can sound more like computer music than real music. :) One of my favorite music sites of all time is the Internet Underground Music Archive at http://www.iuma.com -- IUMA as a pioneer of Internet music. They've collected hundreds of artists and labels together at one site, as well as music news, and links to the best audio utilities for every modern computer system. It's a must-see site for all music lovers. Question: How do I get to Much Music online? AnswerMan: It's at http://www.muchmusic.com/ -- just pick KEYWORD from your GO TO menu and enter that URL. Copious amounts of popular music news are there. Question: Where can I go to find 80's rock music sites? AnswerMan: A personal favorite of mine. Try www.80s.com -- a huge site dedicated to all things 1980's, including, of course, its music. There are a couple of really great music games there -- one, called is a sort of Name that Tune for 80s music -- you listen to 1-second (then progressively longer) music clips and try to decide what song you're hearing. (Are we not men? We are Devo.) Question: Do you know any good Nirvina Sites?? AnswerMan: I don't use "good" and "Nirvana" in the same sentence. (Just kidding!!) Try http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Artists/By_Genre/Rock/Nirvana/ It lists, literally, 100 Nirvana pages. Question: How does a MAC listen to a .WAV file that it gets off the web? AnswerMan: Get SoundMachine, a shareware program that plays WAV files and a slew of other formats. You can get it from AOL's file search or from http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Archive/gst/snd/sound-machine-262.hqx Question: Where can I find an Internet site with good oldies? AnswerMan: Depends on how old you mean by oldies. Let's see . . . http://members.aol.com/gggail/index.htm -- Rock & Roll Relics - oldies band playing songs from the fifties and sixties. For Oldies, or any other music genre, Yahoo has another great index, at http://www.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Genres/ -- Blues, Cajun/Zydeco, Ska, and so on. I hate to sound like a broken record (pun intended) but Yahoo is great for music sites all around. Question: Is there a site on the web that gives current concert information? AnswerMan: Hmm. Well, TicketMaster has a new web site at http://www.ticketmaster.com/ and you can get concert info there for the bands TM sells for. That's all I know of right now. AOLiveMC14: All right, we have time for one more question for the AnswerMan tonight! Question: Can you refer me to a site that can answer vdo player questions? AnswerMan: You can try the Internet Pros Corner (keyword PROS). Or the makers of VDO, which I think are at http://www.vdo.com. So before we wrap up: I'd like to invite you all to go to keyword ANSWERMAN, where you can leave questions about the Internet on the message board, subscribe to the FREE weekly newsletter where I talk about great sites for music, and how to find just about everything else on the Internet, and visit the AnswerMan Focus, where every week we talk about a certain aspect of using the Internet. Check it out when you can :) AOLiveMC14: Thanks for joining us tonight, AnswerMan! And thanks to all of our audience members. :) AnswerMan: Thank you all for coming. I'm sorry if we didn't have time to get to your question this hour. :( You can leave it in the ANSWERMAN message board. Goodnight, all! AOLiveMC14: Goodnight! OnlineHost: Copyright 1996 America Online, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Jazz: The 1950's - Records and Photography (http://www.book.uci.edu/Jazz/JPRA2.html) is a readable and interesting page includes links to TIME magazine articles from the 1950's, the "Stars of Jazz" TV series, nightclubs, a list of books that focus on the West Coast Jazz movement, an index of musicians, and more. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)The COMMUNITY-MUSIC list was formed to promote the discussion of issues relating to community bands and orchestras. The majority of these ensembles are volunteer groups where musicians perform out of the sheer enjoyment of making music, although there are some exceptions. Among the topics which may be discussed are locating (or creating) an ensemble in your area, selecting music, retaining key musicians (and dealing with substandard ones), finding a good conductor, raising funds, announcing upcoming concerts, and more. The Web page (http://www.io.com/~rboerger/community.html) contains the FAQ for the group and other community music-related links and information. To subscribe, send email to: MAJORDOMO@MPD.TANDEM.COM in the body of the message type: subscribe community-music (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)Melodic-Rock-Digest is a moderated discussion list that focuses on music that is electric- or acoustic-based, intelligent, and melodic. It doesn't discuss thrash, rap, industrial, punk, metal, goth, or pure folk. In general, it doesn't discuss music that is image-conscious. It may be edgy, it may be heavy, it may even be folky, or it may simply be rock and roll. This list likes to hear from both musicians and listeners. It encourages posts about the business of music, reviews of live shows and recordings, personal experiences in the music industry, or announcements about people and places that may be of interest to the rest of us. This is not a place to bash musical styles or tastes, nor is this the place for shameless self-promotion. Welcome, and feel free to introduce yourself. Note: this discussion list is available only in digest form. To subscribe send email to: majordomo@automatrix.com In the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE MELODIC-ROCK-DIGEST Your E-mail Address (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)RootsWorld (http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/) offers the world of jazz, roots, rock, folk, world music and other unique sounds from good artists and labels not in the mainstream. The idea is to make a common place for folks to look for information on new releases, tours and back catalogs of music from small independent record labels and individual artists. The site also includes regularly updated editorial content. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)CD NOW (http://cdnow.com) offers Christmas music, dance music, soundtracks, techno, Cajun, Zydeco, Bluegrass, Gospel and even sound effects can be found at CD Now, a one-stop virtual music store. This commercial site is well planned and popular. Visitors can navigate through different music offerings. There is also a "text only" option that significantly increases the download speed. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)RealAudio provides audio-on-demand for the Internet. From their Web page (http://www.realaudio.com/) you can download the player for the Mac (Mac users need AOL for Mac version 3.0) or Windows (Windows users need to go to keyword Winsock first to get special Winsock software before using RealAudio.) Use the RealAudio player to listen to audio files from dozens of sites around the Internet. The news with RealAudio is that you can begin listening to the audio immediately, while it's downloading, rather than waiting until the entire file has been loaded to your hard disk. This feature provides a more pleasant experience for impatient Internauts. Listen to current news, information, or music files from sites such as ABC, NPR, Metaverse (ex-MTV VJ Adam Curry's music and entertainment site), CSPAN, ESPN, Fortune Magazine, Green Peace, Internet Multicasting Service or others from a wide selection of links on the RealAudio page. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)BMG 's Welcome to the World of Classical Music is a site for all classical music lovers. (http://classicalmus.com/ ). You can journey to the Concert Hall for audio and video clips of classical performances. There is a CD Catalog where you can search the complete release database of RCA Victor Red Seal, Gold Seal, Living Stereo, duetsche harmonia mundi, Catalyst and other classical labels in the BMG family. There are links to discussion groups on Opera Talk, New Music, General Classical and Early Music. Check out the Artists and Composer areas for bieographies, recordings, tour schedules, audio/video and more. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)RockShots (http://niels.com/) is a gallery of Rock 'n Roll photography on the Web by photographer Niels Van Iperen. Niels has been shooting musicians, fans and festivals for over 12 years in Europe and the U.S. His clients include the magazines Rolling Stone, Musician, Metal Hammer, OOR and Guitar World . Rock Shots brings you face to face with Aerosmith live in Brazil, Pearl Jam in their dressing room, the Red Hot Chili Peppers in a swimming pool and more ... on stage, backstage and audience rage. Portraits are viewed in Rock Shots through a custom-made search engine and is updated weekly with new artists. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)Rolling Stone magazine and Magellan have teamed up to create this Internet rock resource directory (http://www.rockguide.com/). Whether you want to find out about an artist or a genre of music, obtain tickets for a show, or even gather information on starting your own music career, this site is an excellent starting point. Content for the site is contributed by Rolling Stone, but the structure is very similar to Magellan (discussed in the September 1, 1995 Scout Report). The Rock Guide consists of Internet resources that are categorized, reviewed, and rated. Users can browse by genre or search the directory. There are sections on artists, music genres, magazines, books, merchandise, musical instruction, the music business, performances, clubs, online chat and discussion and more. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)As saxophonist Benny Carter approaches his ninetieth year, a web site that pays tribute to this jazz pioneer brings his career to the Web. (http://www.lpb.com/benny). The site includes a selected discography (all currently available on CD) and many photographs of the musician's life and career, as well as information about recent and upcoming tributes and live appearances. There are links to other Web resources about Benny Carter, and the site itself is well designed and easy to navigate. Duke Ellington once wrote, "The problem of expressing the contributions that Benny Carter has made to popular music is so tremendous it completely fazes me, so extraordinary a musician is he." This Web site makes it easy to find out why. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)Indiana University's Archives of African American Music and Culture (http://www.indiana.edu/~aaamc/index.html) contains a searchable and browsable collection of bibliographic records of its over 2500 sound recordings and 200 video cassettes, as well as a searchable-only collection of bibliographic records of its photographic archive. It also contains information about its Undine Smith Moore Collection of Original Scores and Manuscripts of Black Composers. AAAMC's usage policy is on the home page, as well as selected links to other African American Internet resources. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)For lovers of Johann Sebastian Bach, a visit to the J.S. Bach Home Page (http://tile.net/bach/index.html) will be worth the trip. This very comprehensive site appears to include pointers to everything about Bach available on the Net, including listings of his complete works, MIDI files of his recordings, and a calendar of upcoming events related to his music. The site is searchable, and the complete works listing can be browsed by category, title, year, instrument & title, instrument & year, BWV number, or even by key. The Recommended Recordings section is organized by title, conductor/performer, instrument, BWV, record label, and recent submissions. Also available are links to biographies, photographs, literature, and other sites offering resources on Bach. (Site description courtesy of InterNIC Net Scout, Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin - Madison.)