Introduction

The AudioManager class is responsible for managing audio - including playing, pausing and stopping sounds, setting sound variables, and playing songs.

The Audio Manager is not required to play sounds sound effects and songs, but it can simplify a number of common audio-related tasks.

Introduction

MasterSongVolume is the default value used when calling PlaySong. This value can be null if no default is used, or a value between 0 and 1 can be assigned where 1 is full volume and 0 is silent.

Setting MasterSongVolume sets the currently playing song's volume as well if any of the following are true:

• The Song is a MonoGame/FNA Song which has been played through the AudioManager's PlaySong method

• The Song is a MonoGame/FNA Song which has been played through the XNA MediaPlayer

• The Song is an ISong (such as an NAudio_Song) and has been played thorugh the AudioManager's PlaySong method.

Setting MasterSongVolume does not affect the volume of NAudio_Song instances which have been played through the NAudio_Song's Play method. For more information, see the NAudio_Song page.

Introduction

The Play method can be used to play a SoundEffect, optionally specifying the volume to play at. The Play method performs the following additional logic:

• It only plays the SoundEffect if AreSoundEffectsEnabled is true.

• It checks if the SoundEffect has already been played this frame, preventing the same SoundEffect from playing twice in one frame. This behavior depends on the value of SoundEffectPlayingBehavior.

• It increments NumberOfSoundEffectPlays which can be used to measure how many times sound effects have played.

• It checks if the argument SoundEffect has been disposed (debug only) and throws an informative exception if so.

Code Examples

The following assumes that Explosion is a SoundEffect. This can be created by adding a .wav file to Glue.

AudioManager.Play(Explosion);

Sounds can be played with a custom volume:

// Values are 0 - 1, so .5 is 50%
float volume = .5f;
AudioManager.Play(EngineNoise, volume);

The CurrentlyPlayingSong member returns the song that is currently playing. This value is set as follows:

• When PlaySong is called it is set to the song passed to the method

• When StopSong is called it is set to null

• When the CurrentlyPlayingSong finishes playing it is set to null

• If a song is played through the MediaPlayer the AudioManager checks this every frame and automatically sets the CurrentlyPlayingSong

PlaySong plays the argument song, optionally restarting it if it is already playing. This method is automatically called if a song file is added to the FlatRedBall Editor, but it can also be explicitly called for more control over song playing.

PlaySong and Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.Song

Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Media.Song is the default class in MonoGame and FNA for playing music. PlaySong ultimately uses the MediaPlayer.Play method to play a song, so it is inherits the limitations of MediaPlayer, including being able to play only one song at a time. MonoGame's MediaPlayer also suffers from noticeable seek time on MP3s, including looping.

PlaySong and ISong

The PlaySong method can also receive any class which implements ISong. The most common type of ISong implementation is the NAudio song. NAudio provides additional flexibility and better seeking/looping compared to MonoGame and FNA, so it is recommended for games which require more song playing flexibility.

For more information on loading an NAudio_Song intance, see the MP3 loading page.

Introduction

MasterSoundVolume is the default value used when calling Play(SoundEffect) or Play(SoundEffectInstance). This value is between 0 and 1 where 1 is full volume and 0 is silent.

Introduction

PlaySongs can be used to add multiple songs to the AudioManager to play in order. Once the entire SongPlaylist has finished, it begins playing again from the beginning.

Code Example - Playing Songs from GlobalContent

The following code can be used to play multiple songs which are part of GlobalContent.

Introduction

The StopSong stops the currently-playing song. Since only one song can be playing at a time, this does not take any arguments.

Code Example

The following code stops the song when the user presses the space bar:

if(InputManager.Keyboard.KeyPushed(Keys.Space))
{
    AudioManager.StopSong();
}

Introduction

AreSoundEffectsEnabled can be used to make the Play function produce no audio. This is often set by options screens so that the game code does not need to be cluttered with if-checks surrounding all audio playing.

Code Example

AudioManager.AreSoundEffectsEnabled = false;
// This will not do anything:
AudioManager.Play(SoundEffectObject);

Already-playing SoundEffects will continue to play

Setting AreSoundEffectsEnabled to false will not stop any already-playing SoundEffects.