How can I loop a sample continuously on an iPod?

February 28, 2008 7:28 AM

I have a 1G iPod Nano with 4 gigs of space. I'd like to play a sample in a continuous loop in order to get a constant stream of white noise, without breaks/gaps/clicks and taking up as little space on the iPod as possible. Is this doable and if so, how?
posted by scrm to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Yeah, totally possible. Random sounds like white noise, applause, rain, etc, are really easy to edit seamlessly because of their randomness. So here's how I'd do it -

Make like 8-10 samples of white noise, each between maybe 30 and 60s long. Make a playlist out of them. You'll have to make sure that they're set for gapless playback. Then, when you listen to the playlist, set the Nano to shuffle/repeat only that playlist. That way you won't get used to the length of the samples, and you won't be listening for transitions. This would work even better if you can set the Nano to crossfade on transitions. Depending on how much space you're willing to use, you could even go for 100 or so different samples.

If you're using Audacity or Audition or whatever to make your samples, make sure that after you generate them, you listen to them in loop mode - that will make it painfully obvious whether or not your edits are good. And, zoom in far enough so that you can make sure all your edits are at Zero crossings. That will prevent any audible clicking.
posted by god hates math at 7:49 AM on February 28 [4 favorites]

One option would be to use 3rd party firmware like rockbox which has excellent support for gapless playback and crossfading between tracks. If you set a long crossfade you could get away with alot.

That being said, if the nano already has support for gapless playback, the recommendation above from ghm sounds pretty simple.
posted by aquafiend at 8:02 AM on February 28

If you have trouble getting GHMs suggestion to work, try using AAC or WAV formats instead of MP3s. MP3s are apparently difficult to play seamlessly.
posted by chairface at 10:22 AM on February 28 [1 favorite]