Using PlayLooping() with a Metronome

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Hi,
i have built a metronome using the SoundPlayer class to instigate the various beats.

The wav files used are individual drum/bass/snaredrum beats...one beat per file.

On the metronome each button (one button each for the different types of beat) is also a single beat that plays a beat onClick of the button

What i would like to do is link the individual beats together so that it plays like a metronome and you can either have a bass drum, snare drum, woodblock or bass guitar sound to practice guitar to.

I have it working with the PlayLooping()(temporarily) C# method at the moment but that just loops through each beat randomly and i cannot control the speed of the beats, which obviously i need to do as i just want it to play in a 4/4 timing (Common Timing)formation as per a metronome.

I have a scrollbar on the bottom of the metronome with which i was hoping to control the speed of the beats with. Any ideas at all?

C#

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Media;
using System.Timers;

namespace WindowsFormsMetromusic
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            
        }
        

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
             
        }

        private void trackBarSpeed_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
              
        }

        private void buttonON_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            
          
        }

        private void buttonOFF_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
           
        }

        private void buttonBassGuitar_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
           
            SoundPlayer myPlayerLoop = new
              SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.Electric_Bass_Low_C_Staccato);
            myPlayerLoop.PlayLooping(); 
          
        }

        private void buttonBassDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SoundPlayer myPlayerLoop = new
             SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.bassdr05);
            myPlayerLoop.PlayLooping();

        }

        private void buttonSnareDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SoundPlayer myPlayerLoop = new
              SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.snare05);
            myPlayerLoop.PlayLooping();
            
        }

        private void buttonWoodBlock_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SoundPlayer myPlayerLoop = new
               SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.Kick_Drum_6);
            myPlayerLoop.PlayLooping();
        }

        private void trackBarSpeed_ValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
          
                
        }
    }

Posted 11-May-11 1:01am

Lizbeth200

Updated 11-May-11 1:06am

Wayne Gaylard

v2

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Wayne Gaylard 11-May-11 7:06am

Removed extraneous code tags

2 solutions

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Wayne Gaylard · Answer 1 · 2011-05-11T04:35:00

You just need to use a Timer to call a method that plays the sound something like this

C#

private void buttonBassDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new SoundPlayer(Properties.Settings.Default.BassGuitar);
            timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
        }

        private void buttonSnareDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new SoundPlayer(Properties.Settings.Default.BassDrum);
            timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
        }

C#

private void PlayBeat(Object soundToPlay)
        {
            //Play wav sound
            SoundPlayer currentSound = (SoundPlayer)soundToPlay;
            currentSound.Play();
        }

this assumes that your ScrollBar value represents Beats Per Minute, and is stored in an int beatsPerMinute declared at form level, and that timer is declared as a System.Threading.Timer at your form level. I also used Application Settings to store the wav file location thus Properties.Settings.Default.BassDrum represents a wav file.

to change the beats per minute you could do this in your scrollBar.Scroll method

C#

private void scrollBar1_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            beatsPerMinute = scrollBar1.Value;
            if(timer != null)
                timer.Change(0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
        }

Hope this helps

Lizbeth200 · Answer 2 · 2011-05-11T08:19:00

Firstly thankyou very much for this, hugely appreciated!

I have adapted my code but am getting an exception error: "AttemptingToDivideByZero Exception" would a try/catch be sufficient here? (i am a newbie)

<code>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Media;
using System.Timers;
using System.Threading;

namespace WindowsFormsMetromusic
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{

int beatsPerMinute;
System.Threading.Timer timer;

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();

}

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

private void trackBarSpeed_Scroll(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
beatsPerMinute = trackBarSpeed.Value;
if (timer != null)
timer.Change(0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute); //AttemptingToDivideByZero Exception message here?
}

private void buttonON_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

private void buttonOFF_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

private void PlayBeat(Object soundToPlay)
{
//Play wav sound
SoundPlayer currentSound = (SoundPlayer)soundToPlay;
currentSound.Play();
}

private void buttonBassGuitar_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new
SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.Electric_Bass_Low_C_Staccato);
soundToPlay.PlayLooping();
timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
}

private void buttonBassDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new
SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.bassdr05);
soundToPlay.PlayLooping();
timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
}

private void buttonSnareDrum_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new
SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.snare05);
soundToPlay.PlayLooping();
timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);
}

private void buttonWoodBlock_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

SoundPlayer soundToPlay = new
SoundPlayer(WindowsFormsMetromusic.Properties.Resources.Kick_Drum_6);
soundToPlay.PlayLooping();
timer = new System.Threading.Timer(new TimerCallback(PlayBeat), soundToPlay, 0, 60000 / beatsPerMinute);

}

private void trackBarSpeed_ValueChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{

}

</code>

Using PlayLooping() with a Metronome

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