Fame Stems
Writing last week’s article Here Comes The Solo really got me thinking about that old Fame remix and the Beatnik Editor again.
In a fit of uncontrollable nostalgia, I went through some old files, and found a likely candidate amidst a pile of other detritus: fame.rmf.
Now, all I needed was something to play it in. The Beatnik Player Plugin, circa 2001, looks like it’ll work great in Netscape Communicator from the same epoch, but unlikely to work in Chrome 2012 (!!!)
So, I managed to scrounge up a barely-working copy of the Beatnik Editor, loaded it up, and was surprised to see that the file played and I could solo the various tracks. It’s very low quality- the entire RMF is only 325Kb- but it’s all about the magnificent vibe! I recorded a bit of the fun:
Here Comes the Solo - Planet Z
February 10, 2012 @ 5:28 pm
[…] Update Feb 10, 2012: I dug up the old Beatnik Fame remix and posted a recording of it here. […]
March 15, 2012 @ 3:51 pm
Is is still possible to get a copy of the Beatnik Editor for Windows? I know one existed at one point. I have seen a Mac version on CNet, but don’t readily have access to a Mac, so that’s slightly out of the question.
The reason I ask is I am doing a music major at university, and send emails back to my folks and friends. It would be cool to send an HTML page with embedded music and sound files, which Beatnik let you do.
If there is no Windows version anymore, and if I bought the Mac version of the Beatnik editor, does that include the player as well, do you know? If that was so, I might just have a reason to get a Macbook Air…
Many thanks for any help you can provide,
Joseph Karl.
March 15, 2012 @ 4:29 pm
Hi Joseph,
As far as I know, Beatnik closed its doors a few years ago, so I don’t think you will be able to buy a version of the editor. I have a Windows installer here for the last version of the editor that I worked on – v2.1.0.1. That probably is the latest version, but it is 10 years old, so I don’t know whether you’ll be able to get much useful work done with it. I also have an older v1.0 of the editor, from before my time at Beatnik.
Let me know if you want me to send any of these to you.
John
January 19, 2015 @ 5:31 pm
ok i see now