Software for a musical needle-drop test?

February 4, 2016 10:30 AM

I'd like an application for my desktop, OS X computer that would basically simulate the dreaded "needle drop" test of music lit classes of yore: a random sample from a given list of recordings is played, and you have to identify the work (and perhaps the measure or movement). In practical terms, I should be able to load up a bank of mp3s, push a button, and be given a random clip of a pre-set time length.

Since I'm pretty sure that this application doesn't already exist in any practical form... how would I go about getting it into existence? I don't have the time to do the programming myself.

posted by Wolfdog to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

What will probably work for you is repurposing a 'power hour' app:

http://www.appdonkey.com/appDetail.php?app=PowerHour
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24107/power-hour

(notice: I've not installed // used either of the above, install at your own risk!)
posted by isauteikisa at 10:34 AM on February 4, 2016

I don't use a mac but try this for least stuff to install:

Make a directory of your mp3s
Then open a terminal, cd to your directory of mp3s and do:

afplay `ls | sort -R | head -n 1 `
posted by bdc34 at 10:39 AM on February 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I think Anki flashcards with the music pack will do this, except maybe the random playback start inside the sample.
posted by yoHighness at 12:26 PM on February 4, 2016

One way to do this would be to use AppleScript to drive iTunes. Here's something I found that ostensibly does most of what you want: NeedleDrop. Note that I don't know anything about that site so I can't vouch for the script.
posted by JasonSch at 4:30 PM on February 15, 2016