Sounds at the touch of a button

September 13, 2007 12:19 AM

Are there any free programs that allow me to hotkey audio clips to keys on my keyboard?

So I'm trying out this whole internet radio thing, but one of the key features that I've wanted is to be able to key sound clips so I can easily access them. Sort of like what a flash "sound board" would have but with the keys mapped to keyboard commands.

To illustrate it even further, let's say I had a train whistle sound that I wanted to play during a certain segment. I want to be able to just hit "F1" and have the sound play. It would be good if it didn't leave a window open as well.

posted by CXImran to Technology (4 answers total)

I don't know of any specific commercial applications that do this, but I imagine that with a bit of scripting knowledge, you can probably whip something up using AutoHotKey, assuming you're using a Windows box. It allows completely arbitrary mapping of keys or key combinations (even something like alt+shift+f11 or windows key+tilde) to other button combinations or running programs.

Just from glancing through the Tutorial, you might set this up like so:

f1::Run mediaplayer.exe whistle.wav

I don't have a Windows machine here, so I don't know the specifics, but something like this would be completely extensible. You can even set it up so that the hotkeys would only work if a certain application was running.
posted by meowzilla at 12:48 AM on September 13, 2007

Here are some:

http://jbuzzer.sourceforge.net/
http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/news/585/
http://www.wizardmaster.com/bludgeonsoft/btb/
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Audio/Other-AUDIO-Tools/Keyboard-Sample-Trigger.shtml

Do any of these work for you?
posted by ManInSuit at 8:14 AM on September 13, 2007

(Oh - missed "free" - I think all but the third one are free...)
posted by ManInSuit at 8:15 AM on September 13, 2007

You want soundplant
posted by [@I][:+:][@I] at 8:04 AM on September 14, 2007