Beginning in the spring of 1999 I began working at Dubey Tunes Studios in San Francisco as a commercial audio recording engineer. Right around that same time, at the peak of the first internet boom, a new interactive audio technology was released that allowed javascript control of the virtual sound engine. This technology was called the Beatnik Audio Engine and the parent company, Beatnik Inc., was founded by the musician, Thomas ‘Dolby’ Robertson.
The technology allowed, among other things, the ability to trigger sound files interactively from web page actions such as page loads, mouseovers, and clicks. Not only could sounds be triggered, but entire compositions could be mixed interactively by muting and unmuting tracks from user interactions.
This amazing technology was embedded in a very small browser plug-in that was only a few hundred bytes in size which meant it could load into a web page very quickly, even in the time of dial-up internet speeds. However, like most web technologies of the day, a user would need to install the browser plug-in which contained the sound library if they wanted to experience the interactive soundtrack.
Dubey Tunes Studios was located in a building that was also home to Macromedia and a plethora of well funded internet start-ups. There were lavish parties in the lobby of our building on a near daily basis as start-ups tried to recruit talent and build massive consumer brands for the inevitable IPO.
It was a heady time, and we didn’t want to be left out of the party. So we did what any unsuspecting entrepreneur would do – we founded our own start up. Sonicopia was an interactive audio production company that used the BAE to compose interactive soundscapes for web sites. We later built technology to make it easy for anyone to drag-and-drop icons to any web page object which would then allow them to interactively enhance the site without needing knowledge of html or javascript.
One of our clients was an emerging interactive television company called ICTV, hired Sonicopia to develop an interactive audio presentation for their newest set-top box interface. I worked closely with the ICTV marketing group to envision how the sound design would augment the UI.
The concept we developed was a primary theme that would change in musical styles for each section of the interface as people clicked through. In addition to the shift in theme (from pop to reggae to jazz), buttons on each page would trigger off scale tones that matched the key of the primary composition. This would allow users to ‘improvise’ against the background theme as they moused over different links on each page.
This was a very ambitious production and I wish the live, interactive version of the composition was still available for people to play with. It was compelling and fun, and quite advanced creatively and technologically.
However, all that remains of that project is the long-form composition that I created. Perhaps you can imagine how the styles would dynamically shift as you move from page-to-page of the user interface, and how you could jam along to the music by mousing around the page.
It sure was a great time to be a musician and a technologist. I miss those times.
