Audition
A downloadable tool
I put together a little music file browser to enable me to audition music and sound effects on the device, to make sure the volume levels and looping was correct. Some time later I added support for animations (Animated .GIF or .PDT image tables) and static images (.PNG or .PDI).
Since then this little app has taken on a life of its own and is being used as a portable music player. I may have accidentally reinvented the iPod!
usage (easy)
- install
audition.pdx - run the Audition app to create default settings
- put the Playdate into Data Disk mode
- locate
Data/*.auditionfolder - place your compatible files as follows:
- .MP3 or .PDA in
Music - .PDT in
Animations - .PDI in
Images
- .MP3 or .PDA in
- unmount/eject the PLAYDATE disk
- run the Audition app again to see your new files
controls
- Up/Down = prev/next
- Left/Right = seek backward/forward
- A = play
- B = stop
- Menu = pause
- Crank = scroll list
menu options
- seek speed (1,2,3,4,5) [music only]
- auto next (Y/n)
- loop play (Y/n)
notes
- key repeat on up/down/left/right
- currently playing song is marked with # and (MM:SS) time remaining, not in bold
- playback position shown as a progress bar along the bottom of the screen
- auto next independent of selected row
- files sorted case-insensitive alphabetical
- device auto lock disabled only when music is playing
- settings saved to persist between launches
- support for animations
- plays at fixed frame rate
- left/right to strep frames manually
- up/down for prev/next file
- support for static images
- up/down for prev/next file
adding files by building the app from source (advanced)
Compatible file types (.MP3 and .WAV audio, animated .GIF, .PNG images) can be put inside the app using the same folder names as above, and then when it is built from source code they will be included.
todo
- better crank scrolling!
- folder support?
Purchase
In order to download this tool you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $6 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- 20220510: now ignores all files starting with period characterMay 10, 2022
- 20220506: Quality of Life improvementsMay 06, 2022
Comments
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Maybe I overlooked it, but does this work without headphones too? Playing music via the speaker? Looking for some retro radio vibes.
PS: The demo does not work on playdate, or rather can't be sideloaded since the error "Could not find a top-level .pdx file." comes up. Otherwise I might have just tested the speaker compatibility :)
Yes, it works with speaker or headphones.
It sounds like you’re trying to sideload the wrong file? Are you uploading the zip or the extracted pdx?
Thanks! I am trying to upload the zip of the demo. When I unpack it there is nothing that's able to be uploaded to the playdate. No extracted pdx.
I just figured it out, unpacked it, and needed to move the contents of the source folder up to the top level and then create a .pdx.zip file of that whole thing again. The source folder is one layer too many.
Hi - would I be able to use this tool to convert wav audio to pda ? Thanks !
No, for that you need to use “pdc” that comes with the Playdate SDK.
https://sdk.play.date/inside-playdate/#_compiling_a_project
Thanks !
This is so neat, thanks for making it!
Some feedback, which you may already be aware of: seems to crash my playdate when a song ends, presumably when trying to auto-play the next track.
Also, I’ll just throw in and say folder support would be awesome! 😁
Thanks! The crash is an SDK bug with certain audio files, hopefully the fix will come soon. A workaround might be to re-save or re-encode the file but it’s not ideal.
Can you please show some more screenshots of this in action, especially how the image viewer works. Also, what formats can it open? JPEG? GIF? TIFF? PNG? Thanks!
Hi. It shows only compatible Playdate image formats: compiled PDI and PDT, and Animated GIF.
The image is simply displayed on screen. There is no user interface visible when viewing images or animations. I’ll add a video of it running soon.
Thank you for replying. Can it display static GIF images in the Images folder, or only animated GIF images in the Animations folder?
It’s limitations and capabilities are inherited from the Playdate SDK. So, only animated GIF in the Animations folder.
You description says "
Images/What's the "still images" then?
Still images are your pre-compiled choices, which are turned into PDI by the compiler. Which image format depends on whether you’re compiling them into the app or putting them into the Data folder.
I’ll try to make the text clearer.