Play tone while key is held down?

[WarrenW]

I want to play a tone while the key is held down and immediately stop when key is up. I have messed with the Beep API and it plays it through the PC internal speaker. I need a tone to play through the soundcard speakers.

The only way I know through the soundcard is a wav file but I need to adjust the length of how long is it played. It could be 1/2 a second, could be 1 full second for the tone to play.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[RhinoBull]

A very similar question was asked here.

[WarrenW]

Thanks. I tried it and didn't work like I needed. I'm wanting to produce tones for morse code. But I can't play a wav file cause you are creating how long each tone is. All I can do is use Beep api but thats not through the soundcard speaker.

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks!

[zeezee]

Perhaps these would help ?
http://www.a1vbcode.com/app-2995.asp
http://morsemadness.sourceforge.net/ - goto download link
http://www.vbcodesource.com/exampleEx.html - there is tone generator at the bottom of the list. here is the download link - http://www.vbcodesource.org/download...eneratorEx.zip

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/audio/vbasic.html



EDIT: this is Java, but could give you a head start.
http://morsecode.scphillips.com/

[03myersd]

Why not try playing a dot when you press down the left mouse button and a dash when you press the right mouse button?

[Jaquio]

Here try this, it works for me. But you have to have a device isntalled the plays back .wav files. If not just convert your Beep.wav file to an MP3 and it'll work just fine.

Put this into a module or declare them private and put them in your form.

Public Declare Function mciSendString Lib "winmm.dll" Alias _
    "mciSendStringA" (ByVal lpstrCommand As String, ByVal _
    lpstrReturnString As Any, ByVal uReturnLength As Long, ByVal _
    hwndCallback As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function mciGetErrorString Lib "winmm.dll" Alias _
    "mciGetErrorStringA" (ByVal dwError As Long, ByVal _
    lpstrBuffer As String, ByVal uLength As Long) As Long 'Get the error message of the mcidevice if any
Public Declare Function GetShortPathName Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetShortPathNameA" _
    (ByVal lpszLongPath As String, ByVal lpszShortPath As String, ByVal cchBuffer As Long) _
    As Long

Public Function Short_Name(Long_Path As String) As String
    'Returns short pathname of the passed lo
    '     ng pathname
    Dim Short_Path As String
    Dim PathLength As Long
    Short_Path = Space(250)
    PathLength = GetShortPathName(Long_Path, Short_Path, Len(Short_Path))

    If PathLength Then
        Short_Name = Left$(Short_Path, PathLength)
    End If
End Function

You use the Short_Name() function if the path to file is a long one.

Now put this into your form and replace the Form1 with your forms name.

Option Explicit
    Dim boolPlaying As Boolean

Private Sub Form_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
Dim ret As Long
Dim buf As String
Dim pos As Integer

    If boolPlaying = False Then
        If KeyCode = vbKeyUp Then
            mciSendString "stop Sound", 0&, 0, 0
            mciSendString "close Sound", 0&, 0, 0
            ret = mciSendString("open PathToBeepFile type waveaudio alias Sound", 0&, 0, 0)

            If ret <> 0 Then
                buf = Space$(1024)
                mciGetErrorString ret, buf, Len(buf)
                pos = InStr(buf, Chr$(0))
                buf = Left$(buf, pos - 1)
                MsgBox buf
                Exit Sub
            End If

            mciSendString "play Sound", 0&, 0, 0
            boolPlaying = True
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Form_KeyUp(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
    If boolPlaying = True Then
        If KeyCode = vbKeyUp Then
            mciSendString "stop Sound", 0&, 0, 0
            mciSendString "close Sound", 0&, 0, 0
            boolPlaying = False
        End If
    End If
End Sub

Hope it works, also if you do convert your wave file into and MP3 file remove the "type waveaudio" from "ret = mciSendString("open PathToBeepFile type waveaudio alias Sound", 0&, 0, 0)".


-Jaquio