SDL2_mixer for Android playing WAV file

In previous articles, we were talking about PNG and JPEG support in SDL2 for Android. Let’s add some sounds to our application.

The initial steps are same as in case of SDL2_image.

include ':SDL2_mixer'

The library should be stored in SDL2_mixer directory with build.gradle that written in style for a library.

Now update our C application.

First of all, it is necessary to initialize the library. Then it is possible to load the sound file.

    if (Mix_OpenAudio(22050, MIX_DEFAULT_FORMAT, 2, 4096) == -1 ) {
        SDL_LogError(SDL_LOG_CATEGORY_APPLICATION,
                     "Couldn't open mixer: %s", SDL_GetError());
        return 2;
    }
    Mix_Chunk *sample = Mix_LoadWAV("cuckoo.wav");
    if (sample == NULL) {
        SDL_LogError(SDL_LOG_CATEGORY_APPLICATION, 
                     "Unable to load wave file\n");
        return 3;
    }

The file WAV should be stored in app/src/main/assets. Just small reminder: this is just a virtual directory, and you won’t be able to access it from other application on Android.

Playing the sound is simple:

Mix_PlayChannel(-1, sample, 0);

The last important thing about SDL2_mixer is that you should close SDL2_mixer when exiting the main. Otherwise, when you relaunch SDLActivity, it won’t be able to play any sound.

Mix_CloseAudio();

You can find the source code at GitHub in sdl2-android-example repository. Further articles about SDL2 and android are available under the tag SDL2.