Playing a song in java

Question

I want to play a audio clip from my computer while a game is playing. But i can only use very very short sounds. Is there any similar way to playing songs like i play sound effects?

Im using swing graphics for the game if that matters.

The error i get when i try to use a song "javax.sound.sampled.UnsupportedAudioFileException: could not get audio input stream from input file"

public static void main(String args[]) {

Sound s = new Sound();
s.playSound("C:/Users/isac/Desktop/banjos.wav");
}
}


public void playSound(String file) {
    try {
        AudioInputStream audio = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(new File(
                file));
        Clip clip = AudioSystem.getClip();
        clip.open(audio);
        clip.start();
    }

    catch (UnsupportedAudioFileException uae) {
        System.out.println(uae);
    } catch (IOException ioe) {
        System.out.println(ioe);
    } catch (LineUnavailableException lua) {
        System.out.println(lua);
    }
}

}

Answer 1

The error message you are getting indicates the problem is probably with the format of the file, not its length.

You can check the format of an audio file by looking at it's properties--usually requires a right click on Windows. The properties that matter may be on an "Advanced" tab. Java can read many formats, but where I've most often seen it hang up is with the following:

1. a person tries to load a .mp3 or .ogg or other form of compression but hasn't implemented any libraries that can decompress those files (not your situation, since your banjo.wav is a wav).

2. the .wav is not the standard "CD Quality" format (44100 fps, 16-bit encoding, stereo) but rather something like 24-bit or 32-bit encoding or 48000 or 96000 fps.

Current DAWs often make it easy to record in formats that are superior to "CD Quality" but Java doesn't support them yet.

For the most part, you can convert audio files that are not readable with Java to one that is with Audacity (free), if you aren't working from another home studio program. Be careful where you obtain Audacity as some sites that provide it (other than the official site) will include adware or malware or viruses.

As a side note, for a longer file, it would be better to load into a SourceDataLine for playback instead of a Clip. With a SourceDataLine, you don't have to wait for the entire file to load before it will start playing back, and it won't take up anywhere near as much RAM. The Java Tutorials has a section for Java Sound and a page there specifically on playback.