SoundBoard
SoundBoard is a small program to help set up sound effects and background music for parties or computer-hosted internet radio shows.
Features of SoundBoard 2.4:
- Ten sound clips per page for easy grouping of related sounds.
- Plays any sound formats for which Windows has codecs.
- Play/Pause and Stop buttons for each sound.
- Allows the volume for each sound position to be individually controlled.
- Allows the sound buttons to be renamed as desired - simply right-click on the desired button.
- Allows sounds to be placed in 'repeat' mode by right-clicking the sound button and choosing "Repeat Mode".
- Hotkeys for each sound: 1-0 for buttons 1-10, Page Up/Page Down to change pages, and Backspace to stop all sounds.
- Free upgrades to any minor version updates to Soundboard (2.x).
SoundBoard 2.4 requires that both Windows Media Player 11 and the .NET Framework 4 or newer be installed on your computer. Please visit Windows Update to install the newest versions of these products.
Download the trial version of SoundBoard 2.4 to give it a try. The trial version is identical to the full version, except that "save" and "open" are disabled.
SoundBoard is only $15 USD. Buy it now! We accept Paypal and Google Checkout.
To request features or suggest improvements, please send an e-mail to soundboard@xnapid.com or leave a comment here.
December 14th, 2009 - 16:49
I was just curious how the progress is going with v2.3? I really like what I got with v2.2 and the one thing missing is what you already have implemented for v2.3 …aka keyboard shortcuts. I’d also be a bit curious if you’ve thought of adding the option to add more than 10 sounds per page. I’ve been using the program for my podcast and would love to see v2.3 soon.
Thanks
December 17th, 2009 - 11:51
Hi Marc,
Thanks for your interest. I apologize for putting off the release so long; I will make sure it gets a higher priority than some of my other projects so you’ll get it soon. I’ll post an update on Xnapid.com’s main page when it’s ready
2.3 will definitely support keyboard shortcuts, and I’ll look in to supporting more sounds per page. Thanks for the input, I’m always willing to find ways to make SoundBoard easier to use.
Dan (Heron)
February 7th, 2010 - 10:00
Hi, Looks like a good product. What is compatibility like with Windows 7? Thanks.
February 7th, 2010 - 15:33
SoundBoard is fully compatible with Windows 7.
If you’re not sure whether it will work, please download the trial version and test it!
February 8th, 2010 - 08:25
Thanks, Heron. I went ahead and got the trial version. Everything in the trial that is supposed to work does — and it’s very much what I need. However, not sure if this is because it’s a trial version but the display is a little funky. The right column “boxes” are not alighed with the left column. Here’s a screenshot: [Edit: URL removed] … I am using a new 11.5″ laptop with Windows 7. Tried compatibility mode and different display resolutions but didn’t get it to change. Would appreciate some help with this. Many thanks, Heron.
February 8th, 2010 - 10:44
Do you have any custom themes enabled, maybe with different text sizes or custom fonts? If so, does it work properly if you disable the theme? (As much detail as you can give me will be helpful so I can duplicate the issue here.)
February 8th, 2010 - 12:00
Hi Heron … good suggestion. I went to Display and on the main Display screen it says “Make it easier to read what’s on your screen” … current setting is Medium which is 125%. I set it at Smaller which is 100% and SoundBoard looks normal. Good diagnosis! Since it’s more helpful for us to have the larger text/items, is there any possible fix so that we can use that Medium setting with SoundBoard? Again, many thanks for your help.
February 8th, 2010 - 12:03
Thanks for checking for me, Julie. I will figure out a fix for the next release.
February 8th, 2010 - 12:05
I appreciate your help and am going to purchase the licenses now for our 2 computers. Thanks you again.
February 20th, 2010 - 13:26
Is it possible to play the sounds through skype and vent etc?
February 20th, 2010 - 16:03
Andy,
It is possible, however it requires other software beyond the capabilities provided by SoundBoard. You could try a Google search for “how to play sounds in ventrilo” to get an idea of how it might be done.
One helpful modification to SoundBoard I can make would be to allow you to select the audio output device SoundBoard uses when playing sounds. I will add this to the next release.
March 3rd, 2010 - 09:13
Will soundboard be able to trigger the playing of cues with an external device? Maybe simple contact closures (GPI) and the RS232/Game ports? Yeah, that’s kind of old school but would love to have this software be the center of sound effects playback for a TV Game show my college students are planning to produce. We’ve already got the Contenstant Controller circuit working… just need to incorporate the sound design. Thanks!
March 3rd, 2010 - 11:34
You mean you want that kind of external device to trigger a given sound in SoundBoard? Unfortunately, SoundBoard doesn’t currently support that. It’s certainly doable, but I don’t have any devices like that to use for testing.
April 5th, 2010 - 12:01
I have been so out of the loop and busy that I never even realized an update came out until now. From what I am reading, hotkeys have been introduced into v2.3, but they haven’t been working for me so far.
April 5th, 2010 - 12:03
Hi Marc,
Can you give me some more details? Specifically, what version of Windows, .NET, and Windows Media Player do you have installed? What behavior do you observe when you press the hotkeys? Can you tell what control has focus when you’re pressing the hotkeys?
I’m trying to get as much information as possible so I can duplicate the issue
Thanks,
Dan “Heron” Myers
April 5th, 2010 - 12:16
I just messed around with restarting the program and all is well now. I think it may have been some confusion when I switched from v2.2 to v2.3. I loaded a saved soundboard from v2.2 so I think that was probably the reason for the hiccup.
April 5th, 2010 - 12:18
Alright, I’m glad you got it working
I’ll look in to v2.2 saved files and see whether they break v2.3.
April 5th, 2010 - 12:28
Now I can say that Soundboard pretty much delivers exactly what I need. The only thing I would like to see in future updates is the ability to have more than 10 sounds per page as I would like to set up a keyboard solely for this program where I can assign sounds to almost every key without having to pay attention to which page I am on.
Other than that, I am very pleased with the program in general and the update. It is nice to see how involved you are with those who like your product and support it.
Thanks.
April 7th, 2010 - 09:02
One problem I have found is that one sound I have will not play no matter what button I assign it to. I tried changing the type (using audacity to raise/lower bitrate, and as WAV) so the only thing I can guess is that since the sound is only 2.10 seconds maybe it’s too short for the program? Any help or clues?
April 7th, 2010 - 09:02
Also my number keys do not make sounds play
April 7th, 2010 - 09:17
Problem one solved. I ran the file through a program I used when I made ringtones, and now it plays through WMP and hence it works in Soundboard so apprently it was an issue with the bitrate. Still no luck getting the number keys to work though.
April 7th, 2010 - 10:44
Hi Chris,
I’m sorry you’re having issues with SoundBoard’s hotkeys. Could you please get me the information I asked Marc for in this comment, as well as verify that you’re using the latest version of SoundBoard when you see the issue?
Could you also check whether the hotkey issue only happens when you’re using a pre-2.3 save file?
Thanks!
Dan
April 7th, 2010 - 12:44
OK, no I just purchased and have never used this program before so I am creating a new soundboard file. I did get the numbers to work, but only the numbers above the letter keys. The number keypad (even though the number lock is on) does not work for this. Windows XP Pro SP3, WMP 11, .NET 3.5 SP1 as well as .NET 3.0 SP2, .NET 2 SP2, and .NET 1.1
April 7th, 2010 - 12:53
Thanks for the information. I’ll have a fix for that in the next update (but there’s no ETA on it yet, sorry).
May 30th, 2010 - 02:13
Heads up. I’m using SoundBoard 2.4, and I’m running windows 7 with .net 4 and SoundBoard is not working. I’m able to open an audio file and begin playing it, but as soon as I click anywhere within the application while it is playing a file the application locks up. The file continues to play but the application says “Not Responding”. I end up having to force the program to quit.
May 30th, 2010 - 02:16
Update on the last post. The program works fine with WAV files, but not MP3 files. I thought I read that the program was supposed to work with any files. No big deal, I can convert my file to wave very easily.
May 30th, 2010 - 02:28
PS. What a great little program. I’ve seen it around but I’ve never used it because I normally use Audacity for my sound board needs. However, while recording on my new 13 inch notebook I realized that there’s not enough desktop space for Adobe Soundbooth, Audacity, and the show notes for my podcast. (I usually record on a dual monitor rig so it’s easy to run several apps, at once, for recording.) This little program allows me to do almost everything I want to do in small little window.
The only downside is that I can’t jump to different locations in the audio file (fast forward, rewind.) Do you have plans to add this feature?
One other thing. It would be really nice to be able to select the output line (Speakers/RealTek/etc) manually. I guess it just plays through Microsoft Sound Mapper? That’s fine, but it forces me to record from the sound mapper which makes any of the audio from my computer audible on my podcast. Fortunately I don’t have a lot of extraneous sounds playing while I’m recording.
May 30th, 2010 - 13:20
If you play those same MP3s in Windows Media Player, do you encounter any issues? (That’s all SoundBoard is doing under the hood, playing it with WMP.)
Could you send one of the troublesome mp3s to soundboard@xnapid.com so I can test it out? Thanks. I’m sorry you’ve had to convert mp3s to wav files, that’s something I really wanted to avoid. Can you also include in that e-mail a more complete description of your computer’s specs and anything else that might be helpful? (E.g. 32-bit or 64-bit, whether you have any other sound software running at the same time, and so on.) Particularly, if you can provide reproducible steps, including what other programs are running at the time, that would help me a ton in figuring out what’s broken.
At this point I don’t plan on adding fast forward or rewind to SoundBoard, as it’s mainly meant for shorter sound snippets rather than longer mp3s. However I’ll put it on the list of possibilities
I’ve been looking in to choosing the output line, but it looks like for now SoundBoard is going to be stuck with using whatever Windows has set as the currently active output line. This is an architectural limitation of using the Windows Media Player control in SoundBoard, but since it’s probably the most useful missing feature, I’ll continue looking for ways around this.
Thanks for the input!
May 30th, 2010 - 22:43
Dan,
I tried to recreate the problem and I can’t. All mp3 files are playing fine. The only thing I can think of is that I restarted my PC this morning. I wish I could help you out be pinpointed what caused it, but It’s playing mp3s just fine now.
Is it possible to change Windows Media Player’s output line? I rarely use WMP.
Thanks for your response. I really appreciate it.
May 31st, 2010 - 11:42
I’m glad it’s working now
Windows Media Player uses whatever the default speaker is set to in your Windows Audio Control Panel. That doesn’t help if you’re trying to play sounds with SoundBoard in (e.g.) Skype while using your normal speakers for something else, though…
I’m still looking for ways to get that feature out to everyone, though, have no fear
May 31st, 2010 - 15:08
I’m using Virtual Audio Cables (a great program for anyone recording podcasts via skype) to push any audio I play on my computer to a line for my co-host on skype, and a line out to my headphones (so I can hear the audio sample) and a line to my recording software.