smartarse technology

[waider]

So I'm trying to compare two pieces of music, and I figure I'll play 'em on either side of my headphones. I figure out how to run up two copies of my MP3 player, then play the tracks. Pan one to the left. Right side goes totally dead. Check the players. Goddamn things are locked together: either the panning's happening down at the mixer level, or the players are just locked via IPC. Bastards.

Comments

[sambushell.livejournal.com]

So, run two different MP3 players. Or use QuickTime Player (you'll need a Pro key) and change the balance in the track properties; you can even paste both tracks into the same movie so they come through in strong sync.

If you don't have a pro key, you can open two mp3 files in QuickTime Player, turn on the "only front movie plays sound" preference, hit command-space to start them both playing, then tab between them to switch back and forth.

[waider.livejournal.com]

And, ah, how well does this player work on Linux?

[sambushell.livejournal.com]

Oh, if you're using that premiere programmer's platform, then you need to act like one: rebuild everything with symbols, find where the code does what you don't want it to, change that and rebuild...

I actually don't have any clue how audio mixing works on Linux. I wonder: do audio-generating processes write directly to audio drivers, or is there an intermediate layer that can do the cross-process mix?

[waider.livejournal.com]

There are more than likely several toys I could use to do the trick. To be honest, what springs to mind is running the tracks through a mp3 to wav convertor and then using something like artsbuilder to stream them together. Or finding a mp3 plugin for artsbuilder, maybe.