Minim and SoundCipher problem

evoenc

Minim and SoundCipher problem

in Contributed Library Questions • 1 year ago

I have a question about the combination of Minim and SoundCipher on some Windows and Linux implementations. I myself have never experienced the problem first hand (I code on my Mac, and on Windows on Boot Camp, and I test on separate Windows on HP), but I have reports from a couple testers of my app that indicate that there is a problem to be resolved.

Background:

The processing app uses SoundCipher's midi library to generate sounds in games. The same app also uses minim to play mp3 or wav sound files that the user supplies. I am also using gain control (and volume control) to set the loudness of the midi sounds and the sound files. Separately, I use minim to generate sinewave sounds directly.

Symptoms:

In many cases these functions do not collide. But, in some cases there are reports that the midi sounds (the predominant component of the app's audio) do not play at all. Minim's sinewave sounds do not seem affected.

Attempts to correct:

One user, mentioned above, has already done a full install of JRE to include SoundBank, as per SoundCipher's suggested action, but that did not resolve the issue.
The same user removed the mp3spi.jar from the exported application's build, which resolved the non-playing-midi-sounds issue, but introduced another issue -- that it can no longer play mp3 files.

Suspicions:

It is apparent that the mp3spi.jar is interfering with SoundCipher's ability to play sounds. I have no idea what the issue would be, and why it is inconsistent (between OSs/JREs) in its interference. I suspect that this jar is created by Minim, but that Soundcipher may be the culprit, and sensitive to some variation in the JRE implementation.

I am gathering the user's OS and JRE version information to help with troubleshooting, but I would appreciate any help to isolate the cause of the problem. Please send me ideas!

See the related thread: https://forum.processing.org/topic/newbie-with-an-eeg-neuro-feedback-based-app#25080000001687089

Replies(2)

algorithm..

Re: Minim and SoundCipher problem

1 year ago

Thanks for a very thorough report and analysis of the problem. It is possible the SoundCipher's behaviour is inconsistent across platforms and java versions as it has not been thoroughly tested (and the combinations of possible conflicts are quite extensive).

Given that the SoundCipher MIDI playback works without the mp3spi.jar it is clearly not for lack of a soundbank, which is often a Window's issue.

There may be some conflict of method names (name space issues) between SoundCipher and Mimim so perhaps check possible candidates such as PlayNote for such.

A work around may be to use SoundCipher of mp3 playback and Mimim only for DSP, but if I recall correctly mp3 playback may also be inconsistent across platforms and between standalone and applet instantiations of SoundCipher due to access to OS resources - likely why Minim has the mp3spi.jar file in the first place. Using WAV or AIF files types may solve this but introduce package size issues.

ddifede

Re: Minim and SoundCipher problem

1 year ago

Just wanted to comment that the newer version of Minim does contain methods named playNote, but I don't see why there would be namespace collisions because surely our package names are different. Also, mp3spi.jar is included in order to support playback of mp3 files with Minim. You can safely remove that package if you do not play mp3 files.

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