I need a small audio playback device for a fixed set of sounds.
December 4, 2012 11:38 PM   Subscribe

I'm looking for a small speaker capable of playing audio files (mp3, wav, etc), that has a set of buttons that you can program each to play a particular file.

I honestly have no idea what this would be called or what combination of google terms would get me a close result.

The best explanation is, there are children's toys that are basically a plastic box with buttons that play a particular sound. Or, think of those children's learning books that have a panel to the side with buttons that play sounds (like farm animal noises).

I'm looking for the customizable, programmable version of this. I would like to grab a set of 4-5 sound files and be able to play them audibly for people on-demand.

Even better would be if the device was run on batteries and was small enough to be in a pocket. I'm hoping such a device isn't terribly expensive....
posted by bosco_costanza to Computers & Internet (3 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
The ThinkGeek sound effects tshirt does this. It has a little box which takes an SD card with 20 mp3s on it. Each of its 20 buttons plays one of the sounds you have uploaded. The speaker is pretty big though. I think there are smaller versions of the same thing available. Try searching for "sound effects box"?
posted by richb at 12:21 AM on December 5, 2012


Depending on what phone you have, you should be able to do this with an app.

Examples (for iPhone): Noisepad, CueZy, BeatPad.

There will no doubt be many similar apps for Android.

I haven't used any of them, so I can't recommend any specific one. I found these by using keywords like "pad," "sampler," "drumpad" etc. (note that even apps designed specifically to be drum sample players will do what you want if they let you use your own samples).
posted by cincinnatus c at 2:18 AM on December 5, 2012


Here is a bare bones device that has 4 buttons that will playback audio wav files that you store in it using a windows computer. It will need some kind of case.

300 Second USB Recording Module by Electronics123.com, Inc
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0095KAA3I
posted by deanj at 7:20 AM on December 5, 2012 [1 favorite]


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