ImpAmp

ImpAmp in action

This is a "program" written within a web page to aid Improverts noise boys and girls with playing sounds at a moment's notice.

The idea is that you can assign a mp3 file to a letter on the keyboard then pressing that letter instantly starts that song. Support for pages has been added so you can have games themes in page one, emergency tracks in page 2, sound effects in page 3 etc. The program has been written within a web page to make it easy to use on different systems/computers. All you need is Firefox and flash installed with javascript enabled.

please email any suggestions, comments, improvements or additional tracks to runningamar at gmail (I am not putting my full email on the web)

Download

Here is the version without audio files HERE ~30KB

You can also download the full gziped tar archive including all the test example audio files HERE ~1220MB WARNING - this archive contains copyrighted music files. The music files contained in this archive are for personal testing proof-of-concept use only, and not for distribution. For use in theatrical performances, or other commercial use, please supply your own music files, and obtain a license for the performance of the music from MCPS-PRS. The authors accept no responsibility.

Currently an on-line version is available HERE WARNING - LARGE DOWNLOAD! Again, this is for proof-of-concept testing only.

Current Features

• Basic functionality works, pressing a letter or clicking will start or stop/reset it

• A stop all function has been added with the space bar

• Track title has been added to buttons Via ID3 data

• Support for 10 separate pages has been added though only 4 are currently being used

• Ability to pause tracks
  • A basic pausing function has been added, though it my still be buggy USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
  • You can click the Pause button down in the bottom right to toggle play/pause instead of play/stop

• Play a random pre-cued emergency track
  • Basic functionality is there
  • Need proper emergency tracks to be added.
  • I think all the bugs are gone, but still needs more testing

Wanted Features/ToDo List

• Create a default setup with games, sound effects, emergency tracks all pre-queued (for offline versions)
  • (mostly there, more tracks required - please email any ones you want added to runningamar at gmail)

• Remove songs from the web version to ease download yet provide an on-line example

• Add your own files easily via a GUI
  • This is a long term thing, don't expect it before fringe
  • Thinking of using a drag and drop interface

• Wanted songs suggestions - please email suggestion of songs people could use runningamar at gmail
  • the new American Musical
  • Da Do Ron Ron
  • Slide-show intro
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • better gunshot
  • correct and wrong sounds
  • something else I forgot?

Bugs Issues and Limitations

Fails to load on local machines - You need to edit the flash security settings

Limited to mp3 files - This is a soundmanager2 limitation

linux fails to load - AFAICT it must use the non-free flash plugin from Adobe

Browser support

In theory it should work in all of the following:

• IE 5.0+, Win32
• Netscape 8.0+, Windows/Mac
• Mozilla 1.7.5+, Windows/Mac
• Firefox 1.0+, Windows/Mac
• Firefox 1.5+, Linux (Flash 9 beta)
• Safari 1.3+, Mac
• Opera 9.10+, Windows

Actually tested with

• Firefox 2.0.0.3- all good
• IE 7 - the ; and = keys are not responsive
• Safari - Worked functionally but the progress bars had no background
• Konqueror 3.5.6 - did not load

Under the Bonnet

The program uses flash to play music controlled by javascript. The 2 are merged using soundmanager2 which provides an API to do so. SoundManager2 is released under the BSD licence

The page is based on the drumkit demo found at http://www.schillmania.com/projects/soundmanager2/demo/mpc/

I have edited the soundmanager API slightly to suit my needs

Thanks to Scott Schiller - http://www.schillmania.com