Author Topic: DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files (Read 54036 times)

superboyac · « **on:** April 21, 2009, 12:14 PM »

Would it be possible to create an audio player where a sample loop file can be loaded and just played back in a loop? The important key is to repeat the loop without any gaps in the beginning or end, because technically, the loop file is made such that it is exactly the right length to be looped on the beat. This won't work on a regular jukebox player. But the real looping programs are huge audio applications meant for much more.

steeladept · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2009, 02:46 PM »

Maybe this is one of the "huge" applications you spoke of, but doesn't Sony's Acid Music do what you are looking for? I believe it was/is free, but even if not, it is not that expensive.

superboyac · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2009, 03:20 PM »

Maybe this is one of the "huge" applications you spoke of, but doesn't Sony's Acid Music do what you are looking for? I believe it was/is free, but even if not, it is not that expensive.
-steeladept (April 21, 2009, 02:46 PM)

I've heard of it, but never looked into it. Yes, that would probably be one of the huge applications. Still, it's worth a look. Definitely not free though!

superboyac · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2009, 03:24 PM »

Well, there's this program:
http://sourceforge.n....php?forum_id=842496

But, it's a little TOO simple. Good grief.

skwire · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2009, 07:59 AM »

Try Looper...it's fairly minimal at this point but it ought to get the job done for you. If it's along the lines of what you had in mind, let me know, and I'll clean it up a bit.

Looper.zip (299.37 kB - downloaded 1439 times.)

superboyac · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2009, 11:36 AM »

Try Looper...it's fairly minimal at this point but it ought to get the job done for you. If it's along the lines of what you had in mind, let me know, and I'll clean it up a bit.
(see attachment in previous post)
-skwire (April 22, 2009, 07:59 AM)

I think that works...I don't have a drum loop here at work to tell for sure. I can write back later.

Would it be difficult to just do it in the trout player? because all the controls and stuff are already in there...keyboard shortcuts, playlist, drag/drop support.

steeladept · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2009, 12:05 AM »

Maybe this is one of the "huge" applications you spoke of, but doesn't Sony's Acid Music do what you are looking for? I believe it was/is free, but even if not, it is not that expensive.
-steeladept (April 21, 2009, 02:46 PM)
I've heard of it, but never looked into it. Yes, that would probably be one of the huge applications. Still, it's worth a look. Definitely not free though!
-superboyac (April 21, 2009, 03:20 PM)

Sorry, haven't really played with it since version 3. There is a free one that is called Acid Xpress, though it has many limits. Acid Music Studio is there as well, with fewer restricitions for ~$60 retail, but the full Pro version is going to set you back a lot. As I recall, however, it wasn't "heavy" and with what you do with music, it may well be worth the ~$60. Just a thought. What I found nice was the loops were already available, most of them royalty free. Here is where you can get the free version.

skwire · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2009, 03:16 AM »

Would it be difficult to just do it in the trout player? because all the controls and stuff are already in there...keyboard shortcuts, playlist, drag/drop support.
-superboyac (April 22, 2009, 11:36 AM)

Nah, not difficult. Grab the latest build (see my sig); it should do gapless looping now.

steeladept · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2009, 03:36 AM »

Nah, not difficult. Grab the latest build (see my sig); it should do gapless looping now.
-skwire (April 23, 2009, 03:16 AM)

Cool addition...

superboyac · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2009, 11:34 AM »

Would it be difficult to just do it in the trout player? because all the controls and stuff are already in there...keyboard shortcuts, playlist, drag/drop support.
-superboyac (April 22, 2009, 11:36 AM)

Nah, not difficult. Grab the latest build (see my sig); it should do gapless looping now.
-skwire (April 23, 2009, 03:16 AM)

Awesome! I still have to try it out when I get home...

doctorfrog · « **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2010, 02:01 PM »

Bump. Hey Skwire, I wonder if you'd consider adding the following features:

- User toggle: minimize to tray
- User toggle: start in tray
- User toggle: start playing most recent track on startup

Use case: I sometimes play birdsong for my birds during the day, it'd be nice to just launch the app, and have it play in the background without taking residence on the taskbar.

skwire · « **Reply #11 on:** May 11, 2010, 04:32 AM »

Website | Download v1.0.3 - 2010-05-11 + Added option to minimize to tray. (Thanks, doctorfrog) + Added option to start in tray. (Thanks, doctorfrog) + Added option to automatically play track on start. (Thanks, doctorfrog) * Made main form resizable.

doctorfrog · « **Reply #12 on:** May 11, 2010, 11:24 PM »

Sweet, thanks!

--frog

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #13 on:** December 10, 2011, 07:54 PM »

Hi there gang. I spent some more time here lately, after learning about the site six months ago.

Last I used Looper, I think even if you double clicked on a song, it went back to the previously "loaded" one. (Is that right?) This little program is pretty neat, I play a single song at work some 5-10 times in a row, so Looper has minimal overhead. But I'd like it if it noticed each new song double-clicked.

What do y'all think?

skwire · « **Reply #14 on:** December 12, 2011, 12:09 AM »

Sure, I can do this in one of two ways; single instance or multiple instances. What's your pref?

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #15 on:** December 12, 2011, 08:05 AM »

Sure, I can do this in one of two ways; single instance or multiple instances. What's your pref?
-skwire (December 12, 2011, 12:09 AM)

Hallo! Thanks for replying. I think this would be nice as an option under Edit/Options. It could be fun to "stack" instances so you add a drum, then a base, then a riff, etc. However my main use is just looping single songs at work, so I'd prefer One Instance. Then I just double click various songs, and Looper switches to that song until I settle on that hour's song. Double click another song, switch again.

Quick note - On my machine (Win 7, fairly high resolution) the Options menu looks kinda squished and starts wrapping the option wording. Maybe you would think about making the options menu some 25 pixels wider or such.

This forum sounds like fun because I like these kinda of "bare metal" mini-apps. : )

P.S. If you got really inspired, when you Show Looper, a simple progress bar might be nice so you could roughly click about on it to check "oh, was it this song?" etc. Same theme, just leaving Looper open, if you "always hate this part" you just click past it etc.

Cheers,

--Tao

skwire · « **Reply #16 on:** December 12, 2011, 09:19 PM »

Website | Download v1.0.4 - 2011-12-12 + You can now pass a file to Looper and it will try to play it. + Added seekbar. (Thanks, TaoPhoenix) + Volume setting is now saved. + Looper is now Unicode capable. Due to this change, Looper is now only supported on WinXP or later. ! Fixed 120 DPI issue with Options dialog. (Thanks, TaoPhoenix)

DONE: simple loop machine for wav, mp3, etc. files

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #17 on:** December 13, 2011, 05:24 AM »

Thanks for working on this!

Unfortunately we might need a bug fix! There's a couple of really bad ones!

Browsing now looks for "File Type B" (What's a B???) Occasionally it looks for other equally silly things. This of course means you can't browse for any music file at all!! (The first time - then when I reload the browse box I get what looks like files but it doesn't load. Of course I had to rename a file .B, but that then just locks it up! Heh.)

Something seems fuzzy with the volume - it seems to artificially drop the volume level - for example you can raise the volume up and the act of moving the volume bar *drops* the volume, until you click the progress bar, at which point the volume comes back!

Also, the progress bar is a bit fuzzy - it wants to move in equal fifths or something, so the longer the song, the more it jumps over. With effort you can drag it, but it would be better if the bar just moved to where your mouse is, not mechanically jumping 20% ahead.

At least it does seem to find doubleclick-passed songs now, so that feature is mostly there by now.

Sorry to be a pest!

skwire · « **Reply #18 on:** December 13, 2011, 11:57 AM »

Browsing now looks for "File Type B"
-TaoPhoenix (December 13, 2011, 05:24 AM)

Fixed. This was due to the Unicode changes I made in the last build.

Something seems fuzzy with the volume - it seems to artificially drop the volume level - for example you can raise the volume up and the act of moving the volume bar *drops* the volume, until you click the progress bar, at which point the volume comes back!
-TaoPhoenix (December 13, 2011, 05:24 AM)

The volume control seems to work fine for me. Drag the volume thumb to the right, the volume goes up. Drag the thumb to the left, the volume goes down. Maybe I'm not understanding what you're describing? What OS are you using? Also, any custom windows theme?

Also, the progress bar is a bit fuzzy - it wants to move in equal fifths or something, so the longer the song, the more it jumps over. With effort you can drag it, but it would be better if the bar just moved to where your mouse is, not mechanically jumping 20% ahead.
-TaoPhoenix (December 13, 2011, 05:24 AM)

Unfortunately, this appears to be a limitation of the standard msctls_trackbar32 (slider) control.

New build here:

Website | Download v1.0.5 - 2011-12-13 ! Browsing for a file was broken due to Unicode changes. (Thanks, TaoPhoenix)

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #19 on:** December 13, 2011, 02:02 PM »

Okay, the browse part is fixed now! Too bad about the slider limitation, oh well. (How hard is it to get another slider?)

As for the volume, put simply, "drag the bar to the right, volume went down" (!!). This was on my home machine with Win XP, though there's a slight chance the sound card on it is starting to go, but it doesn't do that in any other program I use.

V 1.05 on my Win7 machine at work seems okay, so I'll try later, maybe I'll get lucky with a "mystery fix".

skwire · « **Reply #20 on:** December 13, 2011, 02:26 PM »

Okay, the browse part is fixed now! Too bad about the slider limitation, oh well. (How hard is it to get another slider?)
-TaoPhoenix (December 13, 2011, 02:02 PM)

I'll try to find some time to implement my Trout progress-bar-slider hack into Looper.

As for the volume, put simply, "drag the bar to the right, volume went down" (!!). This was on my home machine with Win XP
-TaoPhoenix (December 13, 2011, 02:02 PM)

WTH?

I honestly have no idea. Are you running a custom Windows theme on your XP box? I didn't mess with the volume code (other than to reposition the slider) in these past few updates.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #21 on:** December 13, 2011, 06:40 PM »

Nah, no custom theme. It's chicken and egg but I wanna' say it's a "hidden bug" that only comes to light with the addition of the position slider, and that it has been latent since day 1. Tough to tell, I can put the initial App volume to max, then when I move the slider it gets louder still. With the volume on low, moving the slider jumps the volume very loud. Moving the volume bar either direction makes the volume go very quiet, far more than a micro nudge of a volume bar should, so some obscure effect is triggering.

I gotta say, it's tough. You're Swirely Awesome or something, but the end result is a miss for me unless we can do what I call "solve the crazy problem with a crazy answer." (I see that in my job all the time, the "problem that makes no sense has a solution that makes no sense". However if we stumbled on a solution, I'd leave it your Swirelocity to describe it, maybe. Sometimes life has no explanation, only results!!)

No other audio app has ever done that on me, so I dunno what magic combo of perfect forces is at work here, but I'll try to poke around and find you something you can hack to bits to get a fix.

Edit: how are you "playing the mp3 at all?" Doesn't that require an engine of some kind? (Tell me XP doesn't have native hidden support for mp3's!). So is it like the slider, some fluke of a Snacky efficient shortcut you are using? I have an idea - lemme go dig up Trout, if Trout behaves then it's not (wholly) my box, we'd start corralling the problem.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #22 on:** December 13, 2011, 07:05 PM »

Wild Update, threatening to edge off topic.

The same problem is in Trout! Did you borrow the "Bass" audio engine for Looper?

(P.S. OffTopic Trout is grabbing random desktop art for the Album Art! I have random mp3's on my desktop, don't grab random art! Is there a setting that turns that off?)

Still hunting for counter-examples - the easy one is that XMplayer doesn't have this problem.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #23 on:** December 13, 2011, 07:15 PM »

(Hacked post)
1 by 1 does not have this problem (on my machine!)

Edit: So after looking through about 2.5 years of DC, there aren't 100 mp3players around, it's not everyone's stomp ground, so allI gotta say is both programs by you Swireman have the situation and no other program I've seen before.

TaoPhoenix · « **Reply #24 on:** December 15, 2011, 06:10 PM »

How hard is it to chain a second audio engine into this program for testing?

It's really close to what I need, just this bug is a show stopper, and I've never seen it before.