[Gambas-user] Managing soundtracks, WAVs

[Rolf-Werner Eilert]

Very interesting ideas, Dimitris,

> you can only get position control in the music object. The only thing you

For the beginning, this might be ok. If it is possible to set the 
position during playback.

> current
> state of the gb.sdl.sound library there's no way to change the playback
> speed
> at all.

As far as I could see from the docs on the SDL homepage, it isn't even 
provided for the original one. Doesn't make sense for the guys anyway...

> <- Timeline
>   |---------------| <- First Track
>          |-------------------------| <- Second Track
>      |-------------------------| <- Third Track
> 

I think it's time I explain what I really intended to do: I want to 
synchronise sound with an external signal (from a film projector). But 
it would be only 1 track with everything on it (readily mixed in some 
program prior to projection).

> 
> 2) Layout Representation. Are you going to look for a graphical way to
> represent your timeline
> and your tracks? Or are you using Listboxes / listviews / Gridviews?

At this time, as far as my own needs are concerned, it would be ok if it 
had a "set to zero position" button and "start". The tricky thing would 
be following the signals from the projector and keeping the soundtrack 
synchronised to them. If there was a playback speed option, it would 
make things somewhat easier. Without it, you will have to correct the 
position from time to time, resulting in little "jumps" or "stutter" of 
the sound.

Many years ago, in the time of i386 machines, I programmed a similar 
thing under DOS with PowerBasic, but as far as I remember, I never found 
an easy way of reading the impulses, and of course I missed an app for 
mixing the soundtrack as it exists today. But playing a soundtrack at 
varying speeds wasn't that difficult, even varying by only a few percent.

Maybe this is the solution: Preparing the soundtrack with all the 
elegant apps of the early 21st century, and then playback it with a 
simple machine that doesn't know problems caused by any OS but has 
direct access to the soundcard :-)

Regards

Rolf