Digital Workshop

I have searched the forum and old forum for how to find the length of an MP3 and there have been many suggestions.
The 'GetLength()' function doesn't work directly on sound files--it's a video script function, however I did read you can load an MP3 into a video object and simply use the GetLength() function, but it didn't work. I could load the MP3, but the returned value was not correct.
I looked at the 'Seek()' function.... thought I could do a Seek("end") then Seek("backward",1), but this doesn't work.

There are programs for reading the MP3 tag and if you look at any MP3 in windows, it will tell you the duration.

I just wondered if anyone has a way of doing it in Opus


Sandy

Change the video type to on-top.

Mack

Brilliant!!!!

Thanks Mack!!

In your example it displays incorectly and i can even get it to display at all LOL...............could you send it as an IMP instead of an exe..

Thank

Al

It's an exe because it contains a function I use in commericial applications to convert between bases but this has no impact on the principle as you simply point the video object to the MP3 (or any other sound file format) and use the GetLenght() object that Sandy got from various other posts.

Have used this many times and never had an issue I can only wonder if something is wrong with the encoding of the audio file - but I've only experienced this with low quaility video.

Can you send me the file that is causing the problem to my email address or if it's a larger file, uploaded it somewhere and send me the link?

Mack

It intrigues me every time this question comes up -- as it has done.

I must be missing something here. I using MP3 and WAV files for voice overs and background music. For voice overs, in my applications, the duration of a file can be critical.

I just play it and time it. Works every time

But, I'm sure this is not what you mean

Seriously though, there are so many variations in sound files and codecs that it can be easy to run into problems. I'm guessing that Macavi might have hit the nail on the head with the suggestion of a corrupt file.

A few weeks back I needed to work with some WAV files. These should be simple, because they're normally uncomplicated. Nothing worked. After banging my head on the wall, I saw the my app required uncompressed WAV files. More head banging that something so simple had held me up.

Mack's EXE works fine--no problem and when I created my own imp to do it--it worked fine.... I can send Al my imp later, but I'm screwed for time just now.


I have been looking at a strange related problem, but I will start another post rather than hijack Al's query.

Thanks Sandy for offering the imp ( i am patient LOL )i miss ur emails also...did we have a fight or a break up ( just teasing you )

The next problem if you use the Video method to play an MP3 file ( which is excellent ) but it has 1 fault.......What if you have 2 mp3 files running and you want to control the volume for each seperatly . I can't find a way to control the volume for 2 files with using the video method of playing media files ( mp3/video )....any idea's

I thought you could get round the problem by creating a publication for each 'video' but as soon as you alter the volume in one, the other changes as well.

so what you can do is just load the sound files as video, start and stop immediately--that's enough to get the length



once you have the mp3 length, load it as a sound object and then you can vary the volume of individual sound objects.

[quote="al Barnes"][quote="sandyn"]I thought you could get round the problem by creating a publication for each 'video' but as soon as you alter the volume in one, the other changes as well.

so what you can do is just load the sound files as video, start and stop immediately--that's enough to get the length




OK ,but how to display the Getlength into a usable format...


As per my attached pic , its shows the getlength as 201.391 , the file it was supposed to display for was like over 3 megs . Back to the drawing table LOL

Yes, start and stop will give the mp3 Length.


The MP3 Length is given in seconds, so you need to convert to minutes and seconds.
so....
a crude way is.... divide the MP3Length by 60 and use
Mins=Math.floor(MP3Length/60)
and
Secs=MP3Length%60 (modulus operator---which gives the remainder of dividing the MP3 length by 60)

there must be a more elegant way than that!!!
You could create a function to do it.---A good exercise for you

So now you would have the length as two variables--Mins and Secs

OK done that ( kinda ), the problem is when i click to start clock on the MP3 and the MP3Length The clock and MP3length show 2 different values LOL......Ex: i have a song that's 2:52 minutes long according to the clock , well its 3:69 as reported by the <MP3Length> variable

I have had to divide the <MP3Length> by 87 to get a close number represnting the actual time reported by the clock . Isn't this weird as seeing the varibale should be reporting the trac length in seconds to begin with .

Thanks for all you help

Al

Is this the time shown on your clock after the MP3 has been played??


So either the clock is wrong or the reported length of the MP3. You can time the MP3 or-----normally if you mouse-over the file in Windows file explorer, it will show the duration. I'm sure the MP3 length is reported correctly and your clock is wrong.

The reported time is wrong , the clock is correct as i played the files in Windows Media center to show time display...

Al