2 seperate sound outputs ????

sounder · 12-12-2003, 05:22 PM

I was just wondering do GPS systems come with voice guidance, and if so which ones?
Ok lets say that I get one of these with Voce guidance, and want it to send volume to sound port, and still ahve my mp3 music playing for the regular sound port. Whats involved here? Are we tlaking 2 sound cards and some hard HARDWARE vb programming? or is it any easer? I was thinking about coding a mute routine that when it detects sound on port2 to ramp down port1. I dunno I cant figure out where I am going to gain the second port. I could write some code to detect sound from 2 programs and to play only one at a time, adn set one prgram with priority, but then I can chose wich speaker to send it to....wait...I dont really need a seperate speaker for the voice nav...just need the volume muted automaticallly....hmmmm

Sounder....I must go unravel my poor brain

Jackso · 12-13-2003, 03:15 AM

Well, I'm not too sure about YOUR problem, but maybe this will give you some ideas. While running music, I also run Net Stumbler (as finding free internet is ALWAYS a plus). I can tell when net stumbler finds a source and what the signal strength is via the audio output. It uses MIDI audio which has a seperate volume control in the sound control pannel. thus, I keep the music a a reasonable level and set the MIDI volume slightly lower so that it can easily be ignored when I really don't care, or if I'm paying attention can easily be detected. It sounds to me that what you're really looking for is a similar setup for 2 standard audio outputs. Other than the basic premise, I'm sorry to say I can't be much more help.

Alphared · 12-13-2003, 11:59 AM

uh, you can play mp3, midi, wav and cd at the same time. why would you need a seperate sound card?

sounder · 12-13-2003, 01:35 PM

hmm, maybe your right...I dunno what I was thinking...Ill just have to throw it together and see what I come out with, and if I have problems, then I guess ill start to tweak the software. Thanks fellas.

Sounder

Jackso · 12-13-2003, 11:14 PM

Alphared, his only concern was the volume/muting. He wanted the voice directions to be able to be easily heard even when playing music. i.e. muting the music when a direction was going to be given. That is where his thought of a second sound card came in.

Seraph · 12-13-2003, 11:21 PM

If you are doing 2 sound cards you can do that easy. You should be able to use the waveOutSetVolume API to set the sound for the particular hardware. Use he waveOutGetVolume API to store the initial volume so that you can restore it after you muted it.

I just finished coding mute feature so this is still fresh in my mind.

Alphared · 12-14-2003, 04:29 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Jackso

Alphared, his only concern was the volume/muting. He wanted the voice directions to be able to be easily heard even when playing music. i.e. muting the music when a direction was going to be given. That is where his thought of a second sound card came in.

He can still do that with one sound card. Mediaplayer volume is separate from system volume. He can set Wave volume to a nice level and lower mediaplayer volume when he has GPS and mp3 playing at the same time.
Same for Winamp.
I'm have this setup on my interface. Music volume is seperate from GPS volume (as stated above)

Is 2 soundcard even possible (running at the same time)? I had tested a internal soundcard and a usb soundcard and i was only able to use one (output) at a time.

Jackso · 12-14-2003, 11:30 PM

Yes 2 soundcards running at the same time is possible. I run 2 all the time for DJ setup I have. One to play songs for the public, the second to cue into headphones. However, maybe that is why my winamp/media player are apparently different than yours. My winamp/media player volume controls directly chage the WAVE volume in the Volume Control Mixer. Which means for me to do what he wanted would require something diffeent.
Winamp is the easiest standard software to get to use 2 sound cards. When you configure the Audio plugin, you select which device you want the audio to run to. Run 2 instances of winamp, one to each device and you're golden. You can also get different "DJ progs" that are already designed for multiple sound cards. I often use PCDJ which will allow a few different configs. Sorry this got a bit off topic, but just in case there was a reason that Alphared was really trying to use multiple cards.

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