No audio from uMP3g4 director during show

[Jon_Hanson]

My son put together a show in the Sequencer and we wrote it to an SD card. When the Light-O-Rama gets power the light sequence starts but there is no audio coming out of the audio jack (with headphones attached). We've tried reformatting the card and then re-writing the show to it but there's still no audio. The Status light comes on on the director and then turns off once the sequence starts.

When I try to play the MP3 file that's written to the SD card back on a computer it says that the MP3 file is corrupt. I figure that Light-O-Rama may be doing it's own thing to the MP3 file but I'm not positive about that.

I'm not sure what else to try so I'm looking for further suggestions on why there's no audio.

[Don]

If the MP3 file on the SD card is showing corrupt, then it's corrupt. Try re-writing the SD card and try it again. LOR doesn't alter the MP3 file in a way that would prevent it from playing on your computer after the fact.

[Jon_Hanson]

We wrote the show out again and it's still not working. The MP3 file is corrupt on the card according to my MP3 player. We can hear it play just fine in the sequencer. Something is going on between the sequencer and writing everything out to the card.

[Orville]

Are the MP3 files CBR?  If not, they won't play via any Director if they are VBR.

CBR = Constant Bit Rate

VBR = Variable Bit Rate

Both have to do with how the audio is decoded when played back in specific devices, a computer doesn't care which, however the Director DOES, and will only use the CBR format.

All MP3's MUST be in CBR or the Director will ignore them, but if you are getting the MP3 file used is corrupt, that will usually mean the MP3 on your computer may also be corrupted.

Have you tried playing the MP3 file(s) on your computer?

If not CBR, you'll need an audio editor like Audacity (it's free) to convert them.

 

[Jon_Hanson]

Re-imported the MP3 file, this time making sure the bit rate is constant and now it's working.

[Orville]

1 hour ago, Jon_Hanson said:

Re-imported the MP3 file, this time making sure the bit rate is constant and now it's working.

Had a strong suspicion that may have been the issue. 

Don't know how many times I did that when I first started using a Director back in 2010.  But, believe me, until I got myself trained to check every MP3 file I purchased or converted from an audio CD, I managed to screw up my shows, and thinking my Director was broken so many times. 🤣🤣🤣

Glad that fixed your audio issue with the Director.🙂

[Jon_Hanson]

You'd think the Sequencer would be smart enough to let you know that you're working on a variable bitrate MP3 and to use a constant bitrate one instead. It didn't seem to care at all because it had no problem playing it back.

[Orville]

12 hours ago, Jon_Hanson said:

You'd think the Sequencer would be smart enough to let you know that you're working on a variable bitrate MP3 and to use a constant bitrate one instead. It didn't seem to care at all because it had no problem playing it back.

The SE can use various music formats, so it always, in most cases plays the file selected, it can use WAV, MP3 and I see Midi listed, but I've never tried it.

But this is why the sequencer doesn't care, because each of these file types are different, so it doesn't care which type you use to sequence, as it uses the Windows Media Player to play the music file.

However, a Director does not use the WMP for playback, so a Director will not use anything but a CBR MP3 file, anything else, and it doesn't know what to do with it. 

That's because the Director is hardware based, not really software based, so it's programming is hard set to use a specific music file type, whereas the computer software SE uses the Windows Media Player to play the file used. The Director uses its own internal audio player, again, NOT the Windows Media Player.

That's why the SE doesn't care, or know what file type you selected for the music.  If it'll play in the Windows Media Player, it may, or may not play, via the SE, depending on the formats the programmers set it up to use.

That's the best way I know how to explain it, and why the SE doesn't determine specifics on music files it uses.

Edited December 24, 2023 by Orville