Mac software for playing multiple sounds?

[scott]

It occurred to me that instead of having DCC sounds in our trains, which isn't really all that important to me, I could play "atmospheric" sounds (station announcements, distant horns, etc.) from my iBook into an old set of iMac speakers we have. The sounds aren't all that hard to find, especially on freesound.org (although I'd like to find a source of various passenger-train chimes and passenger-alert sounds).

 

But so far I haven't found a program that will put the "play" etc buttons for multiples sounds on one screen, so that you can just click on whichever one you want. "Soundplant", which assigns sounds to individual keys, won't run on my system (G3 iBook running 10.3.9).

 

Does anybody know of something that might work?

[CaptOblivious]

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but if you don't mind a little Python programming, Boodler is a library for creating "soundscapes" algorithmically from samples. It's really fun stuff, and I'm considering using it to do something similar for my layout, if I can figure out a way to have my DCC system trigger Boodler events, for when a train arrives at a station, etc.

 

I had also started a similar topic a while back, where various members provided links to sounds to use for such a project:

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,301.0.html

You will find these links very helpful in sourcing accurate sound effects!

 

Hope this helps!

[kashirigi]

If you would prefer a GUI, there's also a mac program called Resonance. It can only play up to 5 sounds simultaneously, but it might fit your needs. It's got play/stop buttons for each sound, plus volume sliders, etc.

[scott]

Thanks, guys. I've tried a few things so far, but the best solution I've found is to drag-and-drop sound files onto the icon for a freeware script called SoundPlay. So no real interface, but it's the only way that's worked so far.

 

(It occurred to me that I could just use iTunes, if you could tell it to only play one "song" at a time, but back when this computer was only for writing and research projects, I took iTunes off. Now I can't find a version to download that will run with 10.3.9; Apple seems to have forced everyone to list only version 8.)

 

Python programming is several miles over my head  :) , but I'll see if Resonance will tolerate my lowly system.

[CaptOblivious]

What about GarageBand?

[scott]

I dunno much about that one; I just need playback and not editing. Plus the only installer I have for that is on a DVD, and my iBook has a CD drive.

[Guest ___]

Are all the sounds going top play over the same speaker at the same time over the entire layout?

 

I actually use an iPod shuffle, thoguh it doesn't do multiple sounds at once, the size allows me to set up without the use of the desktop, notebook, or netbook PCs.

[scott]

Yeah, this is pretty low-tech--I just want to trigger a sound once in a while when I feel like it.