Develop Reference

Android MediaPlayer.start does not start

I have yet to find an answer to this.
I have a local file (R.raw.Bob); and I am trying to use MediaPlayer to play the file.
Sometimes it plays, sometimes it does not. I have another file which plays seemingly fine every time.
My activity flow is like this: In onCreate I do the following:
MediaPlayer mBackground = MediaPlayer.create(MainAct.this, R.raw.background);
mBackground.start(); // Works as expected.
Now in a different part of the activity I have the following:
MediaPlayer mBob= MediaPlayer.create(MainActivity.this, R.raw.Bob);
mBob.start();
And nothing occurs. I have used Log.i() and the execution goes through the relevant code but the file does not start.
Why does MediaPlayer sometimes work and sometimes does not, and is there a more reliable way of playing sound files?

Try this to start:
MediaPlayer mBob = MediaPlayer.create(MainActivity.this, R.raw.Bob);
mBob.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
#Override
public void onPrepared(final MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
and this to stop:
mBob.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.stop();
}
});

Unable to play two MediaPlayer at same time in Nexus 5

I am trying to play some audio in background using two MediaPlayers inside a Service. Everything works fine if I want to play only one mp3, but If I try to play two at the same time, using two instances of MediaPlayer, only the last one works. It is weird because it works in emulator and some devices, but I am unable to make it work in a Nexus 5. This is the code I am using to create the two MediaPlayer instances:
private void playWithPiano() {
mp1 = initializePlayer(filenameVoz); // filenameVoz is the mp3 file name in raw folder
mp2 = initializePlayer("base_piano");
mp1.start();
mp2.start();
}
private MediaPlayer initializePlayer(String filename) {
int identifier = getResources().getIdentifier(filename,
"raw", getPackageName());
MediaPlayer mp = MediaPlayer.create(this, identifier);
mp.setOnErrorListener(new OnErrorListener() {
#Override
public boolean onError(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) {
Log.d(TAG_LOG, "OnErrorListener");
stop();
return false;
}
});
mp.setOnCompletionListener(new OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
stop();
}
});
return mp;
}
If I comment the mp2.start line, then I can listen the mp1 audio. It is like when a MediaPlayer is started, any other instances are stopped I would appreciate any help with this.

I found other posts describing the same problem in Nexus 5 devices, but don't have a solution yet.
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=63099
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=62304
I tried using seekTo(0) like it was suggested in one of those forums, but it didn't work, so I tried another thing that seems like an specific workaround for my case.
I am using this inside a Service, and my second MediaPlayer is only to play some background music, so I started it half second after the first one and it worked.
new java.util.Timer().schedule(
new java.util.TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
if (mp2 != null) mp2.start();
}
},
500
);
I still don't know why I am having this problem only in the Nexus 5, but I hope this may help somebody.

How to create and play a sound or audio queue in Android

I have many short audio fragments which should be played sequentially with minimum latency.
How can I queue these sounds efficiently?

There are two ways I can see this working: using a MediaPlayer or a SoundPool
MediaPlayer
You can use MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener combined with a list of files to simply listen for completion and play the next one. By and large this works quite well and I have used it to play sequences of very short clips (< 1s) without problems.
SoundPool
Another way is to use the SoundPool class combined with a handler to simply queue up play events in advance. This assumes you know the length of each clip but depending on the format you should be able to find this out.
Which solution you choose depends on a number of factors: how many files, how short they are, what format they are in, where you are getting them from, how fixed or variable the list is, etc.
Personally I would go with MediaPlayer as this is easier to implement and would probably fit your needs.

One way is to concatenate them into a single audio file, then create a MediaPlayer for it and set an OnSeekCompleteListener. Seek to each segment in tern in whichever order you like and then play them in onSeekComplete(). It's timing not exact and MediaPlayer is touchy to use so it may not be the best choice for you but it's good enough for my purposes.
Here's my code:
private MediaPlayer MP = new MediaPlayer();
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
//...
FileDescriptor fd = getResources().openRawResourceFd(R.raw.pronounciations).getFileDescriptor();
try {
setVolumeControlStream(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC); // Lets the user control the volume.
MP.setDataSource(fd);
MP.setLooping(false);
MP.prepare();
MP.start(); // HACK! Some playing seems required before seeking will work.
Thread.sleep(60); // Really need something like MediaPlayer.bufferFully().
MP.pause();
MP.setOnErrorListener(new OnErrorListener() {
public boolean onError(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) {
return false;
}
});
MP.setOnSeekCompleteListener(new OnSeekCompleteListener() {
public void onSeekComplete(MediaPlayer mp) {
// The clip is queued up and read to play.
// I needed to do this in a background thread for UI purposes.
// You may not need to.
new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
MP.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(soundRanges[curWordID][1]);
} catch(InterruptedException e) {}
MP.pause();
}
}.start();
}
});
} catch(Throwable t) {}
}
private void playCurrentWord() {
if(soundRanges != null && !MP.isPlaying() && !silentMode) {
try {
MP.seekTo(soundRanges[curWordID][0]);
}
catch(Throwable t) {}
}
}
You would likely need to concatenate your clips using an external sound editing tool. I used Audacity to find and edit the clip beginnings and lengths that I saved in a file.
soundRanges[curWordID][0] is the offset in the sound file of the beginning of a clip and soundRanges[curWordID][1] is its length.

Mediaplayer error (-19,0) after repeated plays

I have a game in which a sound plays when a level is completed. Everything works fine to start with but after repeating a level 10 or 20 times the logcat suddenly reports:
"MediaPlayer error (-19,0)" and/or "MediaPlayer start called in state 0" and the sounds are no longer made.
I originally had the all sounds in mp3 format but, after reading that ogg may be more reliable, I converted them all to ogg, but the errors appeared just the same.
Any idea how I can fix this problem?

I was getting the same problem, I solved it by adding the following code to release the player:
mp1 = MediaPlayer.create(sound.this, R.raw.pan1);
mp1.start();
mp1.setOnCompletionListener(new OnCompletionListener() {
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.release();
};
});

I think you are not releasing the mediaplayers you are using to play the sound..
You need to release() the media players otherwise the resources are not released , and you soon get out of memory (since you allocate them again next time). so,I think you can play twice or even thrice... but not many times without releasing the resources

MediaPlayer is not a good option when you are playing small sound effects as the user can click on multiple buttons very soon and you will have to create a MP object for all of them which doesnt happen synchronously. That is why you are not hearing sounds for every click. Go for the SoundPool Class which allows you to keep smaller sounds loaded in memory and you can play them any time you want without any lag which you would feel in a mediaplayer. http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/SoundPool.html Here is a nice tutorial : http://www.anddev.org/using_soundpool_instead_of_mediaplayer-t3115.html

I solved both the errors (-19,0) and (-38,0) , by creating a new object of MediaPlayer every time before playing and releasing it after that.
Before :
void play(int resourceID) {
if (getActivity() != null) {
//Using the same object - Problem persists
player = MediaPlayer.create(getActivity(), resourceID);
player.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
player.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
player.release();
}
});
player.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
#Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
}
}
After:
void play(int resourceID) {
if (getActivity() != null) {
//Problem Solved
//Creating new MediaPlayer object every time and releasing it after completion
final MediaPlayer player = MediaPlayer.create(getActivity(), resourceID);
player.setAudioStreamType(AudioManager.STREAM_MUSIC);
player.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
#Override
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
player.release();
}
});
player.setOnPreparedListener(new MediaPlayer.OnPreparedListener() {
#Override
public void onPrepared(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.start();
}
});
}
}

This is a very old question, But this came up first in my search results So other people with the same issue will probably come upon this page eventually.
Unlike what some others have said, you can in fact use MediaPlayer for small sounds without using a lot of memory. I'll put in a little modified snippit from my soundboard app to show you what I'm getting at.
private MediaPlayer mp;
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.your_layout);
mp = new MediaPlayer();
}
private void playSound(int soundID){
mp.reset();
AssetFileDescriptor sound = getResources().openRawResourceFd(soundID);
try {
mp.setDataSource(sound.getFileDescriptor(),sound.getStartOffset(),sound.getLength());
mp.prepare();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
mp.start();
}
with the way I set it up, you create on MediaPlayer object that you reuse everytime you play a sound so that you don't use up too much space.
You call .reset() instead of .release() because .release() is only used if you are disposing of an object, however you want to keep your MediaPlayer Object.
You use an assetfiledescriptor to set a new soundfile for your mediaplayer to play instead of setting a new object to your mediaplayer address because that way you are creating new objects within the method that aren't being handled properly and you will eventually run into the same error as you described.
This is only one of many ways to use MediaPlayer but I personally think it is the most efficient if you are only using it for small sound applications. The only issue with it is that it is relatively restrictive in what you can accomplish, but that shouldn't be much of an issue if you are indeed using it for small sound applications.

i try delete emulator and new create emulator for remove error of (-19,0) media player.

Is there a way to make midi sounds in my Android app?

I'm trying to make an app that can play different midi files at the same time. The files would not be streaming and I would like to include them in the apk.
A maximum of 12 would be played at the same time... Mp3 or a combination of both would also be a suitable substitute but for now midi would be ideal.
Is this at all possible? Thanks in advance to the stack-overflow geniuses! :)
-EltMrx

One easy way to play a single sound is to use MediaPlayer. Put your sound files in the /res/raw folder, then call the below method using R constants, e.g. playSound(R.raw.sound_file_name) where playSound looks something like this:
private void playSound(int soundResId) {
MediaPlayer mp = MediaPlayer.create(context, soundResId);
if (mp == null) {
Log.warn("playSound", "Error creating MediaPlayer object to play sound.");
return;
}
mp.setOnErrorListener(new MediaPlayer.OnErrorListener() {
public boolean onError(MediaPlayer mp, int what, int extra) {
Log.e("playSound", "Found an error playing media. Error code: " + what);
mp.release();
return true;
}
});
mp.setOnCompletionListener(new MediaPlayer.OnCompletionListener() {
public void onCompletion(MediaPlayer mp) {
mp.release();
}
});
mp.start();
}
Now, playing multiple sounds at the same time is a bit more complex, but there is a good solution here.

As #uncheck noted, you can use the standard Android MediaPlayer class for MP3, though playing multiple channels at once is a bit tricky.
Android does not have a built-in synthesizer, so if you want to play pure MIDI files through some type of instrument, your best bet would be to use libpd for Android. After that, you can probably find a PD patch with a synth that would fit your needs for the given sound that you're after.