Hi Rick,
Thanks very much for all your meditations regarding my interest in an audio
app. The thing is, as I mentioned, over the years, I have had the need to
control the audio on my systems, but it hasn't been that huge, really.
Practically speaking, I have the stereo output of a standard-definition
digital cable box attached to the line-in of my PC, and the PC sound card
output can transmit this sound. Now, if I want to listen to music, I need
to mute the
line-in, and play my music collection using Winamp. I use a remote control
to control the muting/unmuting, as well as the functions of Winamp. This
means that I need a way of controlling the line-in mute status using asingle
command,
and the NirCmd utility does this quite well; it is the power behind three of
the apps I posted, bundled together into RodMasterVolumeControlSuite.
Now, all this is well and good, and I'm fairly happy. Yet, it's been a kind
of long-standing gripe of mine that Microsoft keeps overlooking the need to
be able to control devices using simple, user-definable hot keys. Further,
if
you've ever looked at mixer apps bundled with sound cards, they are very
graphical, and therefore pretty useless for the blind. I bought a mixer
replacement called Power Mixer for about $25, and this does allow the
assignment of hotkeys
to every audio device on your system. Once again, however, it uses some
non-standard controls, even though I can deal with this. But, you know,
Rick, now that I'm getting more confident with scripting, I seem to be
moving in the
direction of creating my own interface, rather than tinker with someone
else's. I guess this is just where I'm coming from: blind people, who
should have lots of control over their system's sound, have to be able to
see in order to use
their audio software. Isn't this ironic, and wrong.
So, Rick, my motivation is to have apps which can serve me in my home
environment, where control over audio for me and my wife (who is also blind)
is a lifestyle preference, and, I suppose, a need nowadays. I will always
be young at
heart enough to want to do what Bruce is doing, take another college course,
but, to be honest, been there, done that, got the T-shirt, and recycled it.
Grin.
Anyway, for now, Chip put the bug in my ear to add hotkeys to the Windows 7
Volume Mixer app, and, along with a Winamp app I've been writing for quite a
while, I'm sufficiently occupied. Thanks again for mulling this over with
me.
Take care,
Rod :)
-----Original Message-----
From: RicksPlace
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 6:54 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Where to start, and what I need, for an accessible Windows
mixer
Hi Rod: There are several applications out there for working with Audio that
are suppose to be more or less accessible and could possibly be scripted.
There are blind audio professionals who do that kind of thing, recording and
mixing, for a living.
The most common names I have seen, am familiar with off the top of my head,
are Sonar, CakeTalking and CakeWalking and other products from Dancing Dots
(the name of the company I think).
Then there is Audacity and one I used a little, GoldWave.
Creating your own application would involve working with audio input/output
in realtime as being recorded or played back by some piece of hardware or
some software interface and processing the digital information dynamically
in real-time as it is playing or as you are talking or providing other audio
inputs from any of several sources during mixing - a pretty daunting set of
technicals I would guess and not something I would tackle unless absolutely
necessary.
I would go with one of the existing applications, find the Audio e-Lists
where the blind audio production folks hang out and then either use their
techniques for making that type of software accessible or, as Chip has
mentioned, try and create a WE script to work with a third party package as
you have been thinking of doing.
The problem with scripting would seem to be that even if you can get to the
controls of various level and wave meters that they will likely have
graphics used for display which may not be accessible even with a script.
Anyway I thought I'd mention the programs I recall reading about from some
time ago when I did a little recording for backing tracks, I ended up using
GoldWave.
Check out the Google results for a e-list for blind audio production or
blind audio engineers, blind audio mixing e-list and all that jazz to get an
overview of what is available out there.
I know there are several, if not many, blind folks working or playing with
audio production, mixing and even have studios built in their basements or
garages.
Are you thinking of doing audio for a living and perhaps going to University
or is this more of a hobby?
The Sonar and other Dancing Dots stuff is suppose to be good but I think a
little pricy for a low-budget hobby.
Rick USA
Ask on the various e-lists about audio production and mixing software and
see if you can get on one of the audio production lists where blind folks
hang out and discuss hardware and software - I remember there being one or 2
that were fairly active and populated with quite a few blind audio
professionals.
Good luck with the audio stuff since it seems a field blind folks can work
in but, again, I dont know enough about it to recommend any list or programs
other than the ones I had heard about several years ago when goofing with
recording my guitar tracks and backing tracks.
Rick USA.
