OSWavePlayer

This is a simple wave player that uses the command line to issue instructions to the OS to play .wav files.

I wanted to write the simplest cross-platform wave player, that can do the basics and would not have any sort of dependencies. It simply issues subprocess calls to the operating system to play the sound, and as long as the operating system has not been significantly altered (you have not removed the operating system's wave playing applications) it should work. The player can issue commands to stop the subprocesses to stop playing the sounds.

Note:

(This module uses a simple process, and is expected to be dependable, but can be very slow in Windows. If you have time senstive sounds as in a fast-paced video game, for example, I would strongly recommend using the "preferredwaveplayer" module. This can be installed by using the commmand: pip install preferredwaveplayer then the import statement from preferredwaveplayer import *. Then all the same functions will be available below. This is a much faster wave player than the oswaveplayer in Windows.)

-Windows10 uses the Media.Soundplayer module built into Windows 10

-Linux uses ALSA which is part of the Linux kernel since version 2.6 and later

-MacOS uses the afplay module which is present OS X 10.5 and later`

To use the module simply add:

from oswaveplayer import *

(or from preferredwaveplayer import * if you are opting for the faster waveplayer.) and this will import all its functions.

The module essentially contains 6 functions: playwave, stopwave, getIsPlaying, loopwave, stoploop, and getIsLoopPlaying.

yourSound = playwave("goodvibes.wav")   #starts sound, returns a reference to it
stopwave(yourSound)                     #stops your sound
getIsPlaying(yourSound)                 #used to see if your process is playing

playwave("goodvibes.wav")               #can use to playsong if no stop is needed

yourBackgroundSong = loopwave("bgsong.wav")      #starts sound loop
stoploop(yourBackgroundSong)                     #stops sound loop
getIsLoopPlaying(yourBackgroundSong)             #used to see if loop is playing

Here are some examples on how to use them. Note that with 'playwave' can be used as a standalone function, but if you want to stop the file from playing, you will have to use the return value of playwave. Read a little further and the examples should be obvious.

Examples:

To play a wave file:

playwave("coolsong.wav") #-> this plays the wav file

mysong=playwave("coolsong.wav") #-> this plays the wav file and also returns the song subprocess

To stop your song:

stopwave(mysong) # -> this stops the subprocess, mysong, which you created in the line above

To find out if your wave file is playing:

isitplaying = getIsPlaying(mysong) -> sets a variable to True or False, depending on if process is running

print(getIsPlaying(mysong)) -> prints True or False depending on if process is running

if getIsPlaying(mysong)==True:
    print("Yes, your song is playing")
else:
    print("Your song is not playing")

To play a wave file synchronously (block execution of program until sound has finished playing):

playwave("coolsong.wav",1) #-> this plays the wav file synchronously
or
playwave("coolsong.wav",block=True)

To play a wave file in a continous loop:

myloop=loopwave("mybackgroundsong.wav")

This starts a background loop playing, but also returns a reference to the background process so it can be stopped.

To stop the continuous loop from playing:

stoploop(myloop)

To see if the loop is playing:

isLooping = getIsLoopPlaying(myloop)   #-> True if sound is looping, otherwise False
print(getIsLoopPlaying(myloop))        #-> prints True if loop is playing 

Notes about using this module as a replacement in the playsound module:

Additionally, I included an alias to the function named 'playsound', and if used, the default block will be true, or synchronous play. This way, the module can be used in place of the playsound module (https://github.com/TaylorSMarks/playsound/blob/master/playsound.py) with the same syntax. If the playsound module does not work for you, or if it is no longer maintained, you can load this module and use the import statement below for .wav files only. Just for semantics I inlcluded a 'stopsound' alias to the function stopwave.

Use:

from oswaveplayer import playsound

for backwards compatibility with the playsound module - .wav files only.