Any Requests? is a voice controlled MP3 player interface for the Apple Macintosh computer. It's not - at this time - a player in its own right; you have to supply one. So what's the point? Home automation. Just as I was thinking about releasing this program, MacTech showed up with HA as the cover story. And they even mentioned voice-controlled audio. Not like this, though. Imagine being able to sit back in your chair and say, "Jeeves; play an album by The Flaming Steves," and have it work. That's the point.
What do I need?
•A PowerPC-based Macintosh computer
•Macintosh System 7.5 or greater
•English Speech Recognition software 1.5 or later
•Roughly 1.5MB of free RAM to cope with a sizeable MP3 collection
•A speech-quality microphone such as Apple's PlainTalk Microphone
•An MP3 player that plays dropped files automatically, or
•QuickTime™ 4.0 or an earlier version with an MP3 codec
Any PowerMac? Pretty much. I run this program (with Norman Franke's SoundApp as the player) on a headless Power Macintosh 6100/66 with System 7.6.1 and ESR 1.5 and VM turned on. The only shortcoming I've seen in this configuration is that it's not good at recognizing spoken commands while music is playing. (And I think that's largely due to speaker proximity; I haven't got a good stereo to hook it up to for output.) I'm told that a stock 6100/60 won't play MP3 files reliably and the difference is largely a result of the cache that was optional on the first wave of PowerMacs.
How do I set it up?
Speech Recognition
First thing to do is make sure you've got Apple's Speech Recognition software installed. I'm pretty sure it's been on all the recent Mac OS CDs, but if necessary you should be able to find it at Apple's software update site. As of this writing, PlainTalk 1.5 can be found at <http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11288> and English Speech Recognition 1.5.4 is at <http://asu.info.apple.com/swupdates.nsf/artnum/n11400>. Version 1.5.4 requires Mac OS 8.6 or higher. If you've got an older system, version 1.5 is for you. Once it's installed, your Speech control panel should have panes labelled Listening, Feedback and Speakable Items. Use Listening and Feedback to configure things and turn on Speakable Items at least long enough to confirm that that speech input is working. If you have no intention of controlling your machine by voice on a regular basis, I'd turn it off again.
The Player
Pick one. I like SoundApp; it fits my sensibilities as a lightweight, no-gratuitous-bandwidth-sucking, high-quality program. As of this writing, you can get it at <http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~franke/SoundApp/>. Alternatively, if you've got a version of QuickTime™ that will play MP3 files, you can tell Any Requests? to use that instead. Please note, though that if other activity prevents Any Requests? from getting enough uninterrupted CPU time - and this includes things like accessing a CD-ROM - QT playback will stutter. I'm trying to find ways around that.
The Music
In the default mode, setting up your MP3 collection in a way that's usable to Any Requests? may take some work. Here's what you need:
•A root folder which contains a folder named for each artist or group.
•Each artist folder should contain a folder named for each album.
•Each album folder should contain MP3 files with valid ID3v1, v1.1, v2.2 or v2.3 headers.
You've probably got something close to this anyway. Here's a sample layout in case I didn't explain it well enough. The folder named Music is the root of my MP3 tree…
If you prefer not to arrange your files this way, you can select the "Trust Headers" option in the Edit menu. In this mode, Any Requests? will rely on the ID3 header to provided artist and album names instead of caring about the on-disk location. If the file headers are inconsistent, the extra entries can cause you to miss songs and in extreme cases degrade performance. The use of the arrangement described above also makes it easier to "fix" unpronouncable names.
Now On To Any Requests? Itself...
All set? Okay, now launch Any Requests? and look at the menus.
About Any Requests? - Brings up a typical about box.
File
Select MP3 Player… - Brings up a file dialog to let you choose the application to use to play MP3 files. You can also drop an application onto the Any Requets? icon to perform the same task.
Stop MP3 Player - Sends a Quit command to your player if it's running.
Select Music Collection… - Brings up a dialog to let you choose the folder containing your music collection. Dropping a folder onto the Any Requests? icon does the same thing.
Rescan Library - Rebuilds the request vocabulary.
Music Browser - The music browser is a window similar to the OPENStep file interface. I don't like it as a general file interface, but for a fixed hierarchy of artists, albums, and songs it seemed to make a lot of sense. Mostly this window lets you confirm what music AR? has found on your system, as well as letting you see and change which directory you've specified as the root of your collection. Double-clicking on an album or track title will queue the selection for playing.
Close Window - Closes the music browser window.
Page Setup - Brings up a page setup dialog for printing your music tree.
Print Track List - Prints out a simple list of all the music Any Requests? knows about.
Quit - Exits Any Requests?
Edit
Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear - Standard Edit commands. Unused in Any Requests? so far.
No Monitor - Enables some spoken administrative commands. See below for details.
Listen In Background - Allows Any Requests? to receive voice input when it's not the frontmost app. This will consume a little extra CPU, but lets you use your machine for other things.
Trust Headers - Relies on the ID3 headers instead of the folder hierarchy to indicate the album and artist for each track.
Stop Player On Quit - Specifies whether or not you'd like the player to be shut down when Any Requests? is stopped.
Use QuickTime™ - Instructs Any Requests? to use QuickTime™ as its music-playing engine, eliminating the need for an external player. This option is only available if your installed version of QuickTime™ claims to be able to play MP3s. Please note the warning above about skipping.
Now What?
So you want to play some tunes? Okay, all you have to do is ask. Make sure you remember how you set up the Listening pane in the Speech control panel. You may have to hold down a key or speak a word to initiate recognition. What kinds of things can you say? The easiest is, "play something." That will pick a random song and start it going. You can also say, "play an album," with predictable results. The full command set is as follows:
Play something - plays a random song.
Play something by <artist> - plays a random song by the specified artist.
Play an album - plays a complete album in the order the songs are in in the directory. If the MP3 files start with track numbers, it will be in album order.
Play an album by <artist> - plays a random album by the specified artist.
Stop - stops the current song or album.
Who is this? - tells you who's performing the current song or album.
Restart/Shutdown - these commands are provided in headless mode to allow some control over the machine.
Print play list - will print a rough but usable listing of your music tree to the default printer. This command is only available if you're running headless.
Refresh play list - will rebuild the internal music list for when you add new things. This, too, is only supported when you have the No Monitor setting enabled.
What about...?
Yeah, I know there are some obvious commands missing. It would be nice, for example, if you could actually specify a song or album by title. So far, I haven't got that working reliably but I'm definitely motivated to do so. As for other features…as you may have guessed from the repeated mention, my primary goal here was to turn a 6100 into a piece of stereo equipment. There's little flashiness and probably some things missing that would help this fit more into a normal desktop environment. I welcome feature requests and bug reports.
What's the catch?
The downloadable version will only support a handful of artists. To handle more, you have to register. How much? US$10. Pretty cheap for something that'll scare the pants off of your Windows-only buddies, eh? "See that machine in the corner? Came out in 1995. Watch this. …" So, if you place value in such oneupsmanship, please send $10 to:
Greg Weston
PO Box 54
Avon, CT 06001
Please remember to include your name and an e-mail address so I can send the unlocking code. Bug reports and questions can be sent to <mailto:bpts@home.com>. Registered users will, of course, receive free updates as new features get added and old bugs get fixed. The latest version will always be available through <http://members.home.net/gweston/download.html>
Disclaimers, etc.
All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. There's nothing in this program that should be in any way destructive; I don't write anything except a preferences file. As such, I disclaim liability for any destruction that occurs in proximity to this program. No warranty of suitability for any purpose is provided.
Version History
1.0 (July 16, 2000) - Initial release.
1.1 (July 24, 2000) - Fixed misbehavior when no music was found. Added a status message when no music was found. Added option to rely on ID3 header for artist and album title instead of requiring a fixed hierarchy. Corrected a minor documentation error. Corrected an aesthetic error in printing. Added drop-configuration of player and music root.
1.1.1 (July 25, 2000) - Fixed a documentation error, mostly with code, regarding the ID3 header versions supported.
1.2 (August 9, 2000) - Added support for QT playback. Added the music browser. Substantially improved printing support.
