The soundfiles on this site are in three different formats: MIDI (.mid), RealAudio (.ra/rm), and MP3 (.mp3). These formats should be automatically handled by your browser. If this is not happening then, as a first step, please check which format is causing you problems, and consult the notes below.

When you see one of the blue and red headphone icons, this indicates a link to a RealAudio™ file.

If you cannot hear these files, then you may need to download the RealPlayer. Start this process by following the link below:

Help with downloading and installing the RealPlayer is available at RealPlayer Installation

The Windows version of RealPlayer you need depends on whether uyou have a 16- or a 32-bit winsock (winsock.dll). Refer to the RealPlayer System Requirements for details.

You may need to manually configure your browser to work with RealPlayer and/or the RealPlayer plug-in. Refer to Configuring RealPlayer for details.

The sound files are encoded to work best with an ISDN connection, such as in the Music Computer Lab. It should be possible to listen to the files using a slower connection, but streaming will not work--you will have to download all the file before you can play it back--and audio quality may be poor.

This problem sometimes occurs when the browser does not have enough memory left to open the files. As a temporary measure, try quitting and re-opening your browser. You may also need to give your browser a higher memory allocation.

Comprehensive help and troubleshooting information can be found in the RealNetworks FAQ.

When you see one of the yellow and green headphone icons, this indicates a link to an MP3 file.

If you cannot listen to this file, you will need to download an MP3 player.
Many such players are freely available, including the Apple's Quicktime Player which can also play MIDI files, Microsoft's Windows Media Player, and RealPlayer 7, which also plays RealAudio files. (However, we have received some complaints about the RealPlayer's handling of the MP3 files on the Music 70 site, especially over slower connections.)
For a comprehensive list of MP3 players, and much more information about this file format, visit MP3.com.

Due to the many different available MP3 players, we can't attempt to provide anything close to a trouble-shooting guide on this site. If your player does not work satisfactorily, you should contact the site where you obtained it, or download it again, or try another player.

If you find that you can use the player on other sites, but not on this one, then please email the site administrators including all relevant details, and we will try to be of assistance.

On this site, the MIDI format is used only for soundfiles which do not have direct links: i.e. they download automatically with the relevant page. There is therefore no single icon for MIDI files.

As with the MP3 format, there are many web players and plug-ins that handle MIDI files successfully. The computer lab uses Apple's Quicktime Player which can also play MP3 files.

You may need to set your browser to automatically use the right plug-in. In Netscape, you do this through going to Edit>Preferences, and then choosing Navigator>Applications.

Scroll through the list of file types until you find "MIDI" and/or "audio/midi". Click on "Edit" and make sure that the browser knows to use the corect plug-in (e.g. the Quicktime Plug-in 4.0.3). Click OK to exit.

If you're using an earlier version of Netscape. you may need to get rid of the LiveAudio plugin, which automatically overrides the choices you made above.

Locate the "Plugins" folder on your hard drive. This is usually to be found inside the "Netscape Navigator" or "Netscape Communicator" folder. Remove the file "LiveAudio plugin". If you want to keep this file, place it in a different folder, otherwise delete it. Reboot Netscape.
If this does not fix your problem, please contact us.