[Release] Syrinx Sound Manager

aureliendc

Dear ornitho-coders,

I'm pleased to announce the first & initial release of Syrinx, a Sound Manager for Adobe AIR. Syrinx is mainly born from the willing to provide a more advanced sound control system that allows seamless sounds looping (through WAV format or trimming) & pitching!

Key features

MP3 & WAV formats support
Tracks registration / configuration management
Intuitive & friendly API
Seamless sound looping via silence trimming and/or WAV files format
Pitch capability

Useful links

Github repository: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager
Full features list: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager#-full-features
Demo: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager/tree/master/demo
Release v0.1 (swc): https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager/releases/tag/v0.1

Status
The library now requires intensive testing in order to be used in production. On my side I'm already using it in a game I'm currently developing since a long time but perhaps I'm not yet covering all the use cases that's why I would need your help.

And by the way, Syrinx stands for the vocal organ used by birds to emit special sounds. I found that name quite relevant in the context of Starling-based development 😉

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Best,
Aurélien

Daniel

That sounds fantastic, Aurelien — that's an area where AIR really needs some improvement, so your library could be a great help! Thanks a lot for your efforts!

aureliendc And by the way, Syrinx stands for the vocal organ used by birds to emit special sounds. I found that name quite relevant in the context of Starling-based development 😉

Haha, I love it!

2dguy

Interesting and thank you for your efforts! Does this address the sound delay in air apps? Thx.

aureliendc

2dguy Thank you 😀

2dguy Does this address the sound delay in air apps?

This lib is based on the custom sampling feature provided by the native flash Sound API. I indeed noticed a sound cute when the sampling rate is minimal (2048) and the app is facing a frame drop. Using a greater sampling rate (up to 8192) fixed the issue on my side. If you are talking about another issue, please give me a bit more information or try to reproduce it with Syrinx. If it's happening in the native flash API, the only thing we can do is informing Adobe and provide an easy to reproduce piece of code.

2dguy

aureliendc If it's happening in the native flash API, the only thing we can do is informing Adobe and provide an easy to reproduce piece of code.

The delay when firing sound effects on Android is a known issue for a long time. No need to try to duplicate it, etc, etc. I was just wondering if your tool addressed this. Thank you.

stortof

Thanks for sharing 🙂
Looks very nice, I will try it!

aureliendc

Hello everyone,

I'm glad to announce that Syrinx v0.2 is out!

Changelog

Sound Instance: Improved performance for native MP3 sounds
Sound Instance: Added safe channel acquisition option
Sound Manager: Added max channel capacity capability
Sound Manager: Added getter for playing sound instances count
Sound Manager: Added optional automatic trimming durations detection at track registration
Demo: Fixed WAV file loading cancellation
Demo: Updated to show actually playing sound instances over registered sound instances

Useful links

Github repository: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager
Release v0.2 (swc): https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager/releases/tag/v0.2

Status
This version greatly improves performance for native sounds which don't require custom sound data sampling (MP3 without trimming neither pitching). The new safe channel acquisition option (active by default) now prevents exception to be raised when the system failed to acquire a free channel. The max channel capacity capability allows limiting the number of playing sounds for a Sound Manager. It's now also easier to request trimming duration detection at track registration by passing a negative value.

The library still requires testing but I didn't notice any issue so far except that performance is a bit lower when using custom sampling so that's why I recommend to not use trimming and/or pitching capability for all sounds (in your game).

That's it! Thanks in advance for your feedback 😃

Best,
Aurélien

Pointless

Awesome work! 😀

Daniel

Thanks for your continuing work on this, Aurélien!

BTW, if you want to raise visibility of Syrinx, feel free to add it to the Extensions Page in the Starling Wiki! I know it's not technically a Starling extension, but it's still super interesting for Starling developers. 😃

aureliendc

Daniel Good idea Daniel!

Here is the new extension wiki page: https://wiki.starling-framework.org/extensions/syrinx-sound-manager

Daniel

Wow, that's coming together really nicely, Aurelien! Thanks also for creating that Wiki page! 😄👍️

aureliendc

Hi there!

I'm glad to announce that Syrinx v0.3 is now out!

This is just a minor stability release with few issues that I discovered lately + one small feature.

Changelog

Sound Instance: Added remaining time method
Sound Manager: Fixed destroy all sound instances method
Track Configuration: Fixed missing parameter type

Useful links

Github repository: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager
Release v0.3 (swc): https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager/releases/tag/v0.3

Status

Nothing special to say, I think the lib is now mature enough to be used in serious projects. Feedback is always welcome 🙂

Best,
Aurélien

aureliendc

Hello everyone!

I'm glad to announce that Syrinx v0.4 is now out!

This is mostly a stability release which is fixing one issue related to sound looping for standard sounds (MP3 without trimming nor pitching).

Changelog

Sound Instance: Fixed looping capability for standard sounds
Sound Instance: Added currentLoop accessor
Demo: Extended loops limit
Demo: Improved stop & re-play capability

Useful links

Github repository: https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager
Release v0.4 (swc): https://github.com/Adolio/Syrinx-Sound-Manager/releases/tag/v0.4

Status

The library is now getting very close to reach the long awaited v1.0 😃

Note: I'm also really looking forward to see what will come out from the media rework on which Harman is working on.
If you are interested in more file formats support like native WAV or OGG please don't forget to thumb up this issue: https://github.com/airsdk/Adobe-Runtime-Support/issues/400

See you & take care of yourself.

Best,
Aurélien

2jfw

aureliendc It's nice to see you back and still working on this project after over one year of abstinence 🙂
Much appreciated!
I was up to try out and use your sound engine for a private project but unfortunately had to pause this due to personal reasons...

2jfw

aureliendc So, what are your plans and upcoming features for the 1.0 release (in the case this is already "defined"..) ?

aureliendc

2jfw Thanks for your feedback! 😃 I hope you will be able to get back to it soon 🤞

So, what are your plans and upcoming features for the 1.0 release (in the case this is already "defined"..) ?

I have nothing planned in particular, I will mostly fix stability issues if I encounter any of them 😄 ...and the lib will turn to 1.0 as soon as my long running game project will be out (I hope during this year, but you know how free time game dev can go...). To be honest so far I didn't get that much feedback on the lib, I don't even know if people are actually using it 🤷‍♂️

Daniel

Great to see this library updated — thanks a lot for your hard work, Aurélien!
Thanks also for the link to the issue you created about support for new audio formats – audio is still something that's harder to do with AIR than it ought to be, so it's important for Harman to see we care about such features. 😃

aureliendc

Daniel Thanks Daniel !

Yes definitely! I really hope that Harman will soon put its sound expertise into AIR.. I will be very happy to drop some of my work 😛

aureliendc

👉 By the way I have updated the release archive for v0.4 because I noticed (too late) that I had built the SWC in debug mode. The new archive is now containing a release build. Sorry for that!