This collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) provides
brief answers to many common questions about
JavaTM Sound.
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The Java Sound API specifies mechanisms for capturing, processing,
and playing back audio and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
data in a framework that promotes extensibility and flexibility.
Sun's reference implementation for the Java Sound API, also
known as the Java Sound engine, is a 32 channel audio rendering and
MIDI controlled sound synthesis engine which offers
reliable, high quality sound on all
JavaTM 2 Platforms.
This implementation also supports a set of high-quality General MIDI
sound banks.
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Who needs Java Sound?
Anyone who is interested in adding sound capabilities into
their Java applets and applications will benefit from the Java Sound API.
Java Sound will enable a wide variety of markets, such as education,
advertising and telecommunications, to take advantage of its
high quality audio to make communication more effective and accessible.
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When will Java Sound be available?
The full featured Java Sound API will be available as a core API in
the Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, v. 1.3. The Beta release of this
product is now available on the
Java Developer Connection.
The full featured Java Sound API will also be made available as part of
the Java Media Framework 2.0 for use
on older JDK 1.x platforms.
Please note that the Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition, v. 1.3
Beta release for Win32 does not include a soundbank. To use the software
synthesizer with this release bundle, you must manually install
a soundbank. Soundbanks can be downloaded from the
Java Sound page.
This API provides comprehensive access to the features of the Java
Sound engine, and allows musicians and sound designers to integrate
their work into Java applets and applications.
The Java Sound engine has been integrated into previous releases
of the Java 2 platform (formerly known as JDK 1.2), and uses the existing
AudioClip interface to access it. This means AudioClips may be created
from any of the supported file formats using any of the supported data types.
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What are the benefits of Java Sound?
Consistent and Reliable Sound:
Java Sound will allow consistent, reliable,
high-quality audio on all Java-enabled platforms.
Developers will have the assurance their audio content will
sound great across all platforms, with the only requirement
being a simple digital to audio converter (DAC).
CPU Efficient:
Java Sound uses only
a small amount of a system's CPU to process sound files. For example:
a 24-voice MIDI file uses only 20% of the CPU on a Pentium 90 MHz system.
Complete Audio API:
The fully featured Java Sound API allows total access to
the underlying synthesis and rendering engine. This provides
musicians with the capability to create new musical instruments
and engineers the ability to capture microphone data
for telephony or audio conferencing applications.
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What audio formats will Java Sound support?
Java Sound supports the following audio file formats:
AIFF, AU and WAV. It also supports
the following MIDI based song file formats: TYPE 0 MIDI,
TYPE 1 MIDI and RMF.
The Java Sound engine can render 8 or 16 bit audio data, in mono
or stereo, with sample rates from 8KHz to 48KHz, that might be found
in streaming audio or any of the supported file formats.
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How do you stream audio using Java Sound?
Java Sound can begin playing as soon as it starts
getting audio samples or MIDI requests -- there is no need
to wait for the entire audio file to be loaded into memory.
Java Sound can be used in conjunction with the Java Media
Framework API software (JMF)
to stream audio data over the network. Third
parties can also use Java Sound to present audio within their
own streaming framework.
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What other APIs that Sun is creating that relate to Java Sound?
Java Sound is part of a family of APIs that work together
to provide customers with enhanced multimedia capabilities.
These APIs include:
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