Repeat audio in App Designer

Hello,

I'm trying to make an app in app desginer and I want to play an audio file in the background the whole time while my app is up and running. I currently have this:

[filename,filepath] = uigetfile('*.mp3','Select a File to Open');

fullname = [filepath, filename];

[a,f] = audioread(filename)

p = audioplayer(a,f)

playblocking(p);

But this allows me to only play the audio file once. I don't want to use a while loop as it will just stay stuck there and I want the app to do other stuff while the audio is playing in the background until for example I click on end button for music or close the app. Is there a way I can do that?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Mostafa - you could perhaps use a timer to periodically check the status of the audio player. If it isplaying then you would do nothing, but if it is not playing, then you could start the player again. Something like the following might be adapted to suit your needs for App Designer

function [player, audioPlayerStateTimer] = repeatedAudioPlayerExample

    audiodata = load('handel.mat');

    player = audioplayer(audiodata.y,audiodata.Fs);

    % create the periodic timer to check state of player every 500 millisesconds
    audioPlayerStateTimer = timer;
    audioPlayerStateTimer.TimerFcn = @restartAudioPlayerIfStopped;
    audioPlayerStateTimer.Period = 0.5;
    audioPlayerStateTimer.ExecutionMode = 'fixedSpacing';
    start(audioPlayerStateTimer)

    function restartAudioPlayerIfStopped(hObject, eventdata)
        
        if ~isplaying(player)
            fprintf('Restarting audio player.\n');
            play(player);
        end
    end

end

I had thought about perhaps using the StopFcn callback in the audio player object to restart itself when the player stops but that might mean you would have to destroy/clear the player in order to really stop playing.

function [player] = repeatedAudioPlayerExample2

    audiodata = load('handel.mat');

    player = audioplayer(audiodata.y,audiodata.Fs);
    player.StopFcn = @restartAudioPlayerIfStopped;

    play(player);
    
    function restartAudioPlayerIfStopped(hObject, eventdata)
        
        if ~isplaying(player)
            fprintf('Restarting audio player.\n');
            play(player);
        end
    end

end

Since calling stop(player) will cause the StopFcn callback to fire and so restart the audio, you would need to call delete(player) in order to permanently stop it.