Simple VB.NET MIDI & Wave Play Class

Introduction

This is a simple class to play MIDI and Wave files with your VB.NET application.

Using the code

Add a new class file into your project and copy the code into it. Make a reference to DirectX7 COM-Object.

Imports System
Imports DxVBLib

Public Class SoundPlayer

    ' Basic Wave and MIDI Player Class for VB.net 1.1
    ' Requires COM-Object : DirectX7 

    Private Declare Function mciSendString Lib "Winmm.dll" Alias "mciSendStringA" _
    (ByVal lpstrCommand As String, ByVal lpstrReturnString As String, _
    ByVal uReturnLength As Long, ByVal hwndCallback As Long) As Long
    
    Private File As String

    Private m_dx As New DirectX7
    Private m_ds As DirectSound

    Public Sub New(ByVal strFileName As String)

        Me.File = strFileName

    End Sub

    ' To show what file is selected (if needed)
    Public ReadOnly Property FileName() As String

        Get
            Return File
        End Get

    End Property

    Public Function PlaySound() As Boolean

        If InitAudio() = True Then
            If PlayFile() = True Then
                Return True
            Else
                Return False
            End If
        Else
            ' Audiohardware not found
            ' exit here
            Return False
        End If

    End Function

    Public Function StopSound() As Boolean

        StopFile()

    End Function

    Private Function PlayFile() As Boolean

        Dim lRet As Long

        Try
            StopFile()

            lRet = mciSendString("open " & Me.File & " alias track", "", 0, 0)
            lRet = mciSendString("play track", "", 0, 0)
            PlayFile = (lRet = 0)

        Catch ex As Exception
            Return False
        End Try

        Return True

    End Function

    Public Function CloseAudio()

        mciSendString("close all", 0, 0, 0)

    End Function

    Private Function StopFile() As Boolean

        Dim lRet As Long

        Try
            lRet = mciSendString("stop track", "", 0, 0)
            lRet = mciSendString("close track", "", 0, 0)
            Return True
        Catch ex As Exception
            Return False
        End Try

    End Function

    Private Function InitAudio() As Boolean

        m_ds = m_dx.DirectSoundCreate("")
        If Err.Number <> 0 Then
            Return False
        Else
            Return True
        End If

    End Function

End Class

In your application, play a sound like this:

Dim Sound As New SoundPlayer(".\sound\testmidi.mid")
Sound.PlaySound()

or

Sound.StopSound()

to stop playing.

Sound.FileName shows the filename given to the class on declare.

I didn't test it but I'm sure that it works with DX8 or DX9 too. And always remember: this code is for the beginners to show how to play MIDI and Wave files. The class plays each file once. No loop...

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