Quote from: James McMurrayThanks for the link Warthur!

Caudex, how do you inject randomly chosen and timed sounds and user-generated (but not preprogrammed) sound events into a playlist with media player?

Timed sounds I don't think you can do with Media Player, but the rest is just playlists. I'm not saying the Sound-Mixer doesn't do neat stuff, it's just that the extras aren't neat enough to pay for.

Ah. I must have misunderstood the meaning of "It doesn't do anything that you can't just do with Media Player playlists."

AKAIK Media Player also doesn't have the ability to play random sounds with a key press, overlay multiple sounds, etc.

Hey Warthur, awesome link, RPGdeck seems sweet, I'll give it a try.
Also thank you McMurray for the links with sounds.

I went ahead and shelled out the $23.xx for the mixer. After I've used it for a bit I'll come back and give a little review.

Quote from: James McMurrayI went ahead and shelled out the $23.xx for the mixer. After I've used it for a bit I'll come back and give a little review.

Would it be possible for you to take a look at RPGDeck as well? If the mixer is vastly, vastly better than RPGDeck I may be interested in it, but it'd have to be miles beyond.

Quote from: James McMurrayAh. I must have misunderstood the meaning of "It doesn't do anything that you can't just do with Media Player playlists."

AKAIK Media Player also doesn't have the ability to play random sounds with a key press, overlay multiple sounds, etc.

Ah, no, you see... I said it doesn't do anything worth paying for that you can't do with Media Player.

I just mistyped that as Meadia Player, which is presumably the same thing only made using honey...

Quote from: CaudexAh, no, you see... I said it doesn't do anything worth paying for that you can't do with Media Player.

I just mistyped that as Meadia Player, which is presumably the same thing only made using honey...

that may be what you meant to say, but "It doesn't do anything that you can't just do with Media Player playlists (with slightly more effort but for no extra charge)." is a very explicit statement. Had you said "It doesn't do much more than Media Player (with slightly more effort but for no extra charge)." then that would have been different.

Quote from: WarthurWould it be possible for you to take a look at RPGDeck as well? If the mixer is vastly, vastly better than RPGDeck I may be interested in it, but it'd have to be miles beyond.

I'll poke around with it a little, but probably spend most of my time looking at the mixer, since I already paid for it. Just from looking at their websites and demos it looks like the deck is better at merging playlists via fade-in and out, but the mixer can create soundscapes of music, sound effects, etc. by combining them together without having to click every time, and also allows for sound lists so that every time you hit H for horse you get one of many different horse sounds, meaning more variety with less work.

How they play out in practice remains to be seen.

Quote from: James McMurraythat may be what you meant to say, but "It doesn't do anything that you can't just do with Media Player playlists (with slightly more effort but for no extra charge)." is a very explicit statement. Had you said "It doesn't do much more than Media Player (with slightly more effort but for no extra charge)." then that would have been different.

Fair enough, but I seriously cannot see a single thing on its features list that I can't replicate on Media Player. Now, there are some things I can't do on Media Player if I only want to have one MP window open, but there you go.

Not that I need to, as I have Reason, Cubase and Ableton Live...


Anyway, in summary, it's a waste of money.

Like I said, how do you play a random sound from a list with windows media player? And as you said, timed sounds can't be done with MP.

So which is it, there are things you can't do, or there aren't things you can't do?

Bash a product all you want to, but at least try to be consistent about it.

I used RPGdeck last night during my Savage Worlds game, using the soundtrack from Pirates of the Caribbean (I'm running 50 Fathoms), and various Lovecraft inspired pieces for background during different scenes.  I also used assorted sound effects ('wind' for the Zephyr spell, gunshots, zombies, storm, etc.) and it worked very well.  The only problem I had was that I couldn't seem to select individual tracks within the playlist I was currently using...but that may have been an issue with my laptop, I'm not certain.

For free, it was very nice.  I just need to add more sound effects.

Quote from: James McMurrayLike I said, how do you play a random sound from a list with windows media player? And as you said, timed sounds can't be done with MP.

So which is it, there are things you can't do, or there aren't things you can't do?

Bash a product all you want to, but at least try to be consistent about it.

What do you mean by "timed sounds", exactly?
And of course you can play a random sound from a list in Media Player. It's one of its most basic functions.

Having said all this, as someone who has on more than one occasion bought RPG books he knew he'd never use, I'm in no position to really criticise how someone spends their disposable income. But I still simply would not recommend anyone spend money on this product.

We just listened to Radio Rivendell last week. This next week (or maybe the week after) I'll be giving RPGSM a shot. It'll depend on when I can get the time to put together some soundscapes.

Your RPGDeck issue was an issue with the program, not your laptop. Their website has this to say:

QuoteAlthough you'll see the list of individual tracks contained in any given soundtrack, you can't select precisely which track to play

I'm looking at it right now and my biggest concern is that if I want 10 different sword sounds my list includes all of them and I'll have to do a lot of scrolling up and down to click on the exact one I want. If I also want 5 martial arts cries, a couple demon roars, grunts of pain, and arrow shots? Forget it, I'd never find the one I wanted in time.

Quote from: CaudexWhat do you mean by "timed sounds", exactly?

The situation I'm thinking of involves a list of 15 (or even 150) or so sounds and a random timer set to play random members of that list at random intervals (or at predetermined intervals). This would also include the ability to play multiples at the same time. For example, in the list is a short (2 second) swordfight exchange. The timer triggers and plays that event. Then, a second later it fires again and plays another. These two sounds overlay one another.

Quotecourse you can play a random sound from a list in Media Player. It's one of its most basic functions.

If I want to be able to play a random sword clang, a random horse whinny, and a couple of random cries how many windows do I need to alt+tab through, and are there keyboard shortcuts or do I have to use the menu? And by "of course you can" do you mean I have to select shuffle, and then stop and start them? Or can you randomly select a single sound from a specific list using a single button press? And can you play multiple files at once with the same window, or am I stuck with a single sword clang unless I open multiple copies of MP and click in each of them?

QuoteBut I still simply would not recommend anyone spend money on this product.

Have you ever used it, or even examined it beyond "I don't like it, neener-neener-neener"? I'm not saying it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I haven't used it in a game yet to be sure. But it seems to me that you like to say "of course you can do ___" or "it doesn't do anything media player can't do" and then you turn out to be wrong. It makes me wonder why'd you'd go to so much trouble to lie about something you presumably have no stake in.

What would you recommend as the alternative? Keep in mind it has to be able to quickly and easily cover all the same bases, preferably without alt+tabbing through multiple windows.

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I have played around with it a little and so far my only concern is that it's not very intuitive. Part of that I'm sure comes from it being a German product, and different word choices being used because of it. Another part is that it has a brief tutorial, but I've yet to find a good in depth How To. It has a pretty good help system though, and I've heard similar concerns from others but they've said that once you get past the learning curve it's fairly quick and easy.

Quote from: James McMurrayHave you ever used it, or even examined it beyond "I don't like it, neener-neener-neener"? I'm not saying it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I haven't used it in a game yet to be sure. But it seems to me that you like to say "of course you can do ___" or "it doesn't do anything media player can't do" and then you turn out to be wrong.

Calm down. I downloaded and tried out the demo, yes. This is my honest opinion, I am not lying to you when I give my reasons. I'm sorry I don't like your new toy. Have fun with it.

The site used to have a limited demo. It seemed okay to use, the fact that you can use existing MP3 of music and sound effects etc... looked good in theory, but not in practice.

But would you pay for something like that? I wouldnt.