HOWTO: Play a Waveform (.WAV) Sound File in Visual Basic

• Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0
• Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic, 32-bit only, for Windows, version 4.0
• Standard and Professional Editions of Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, versions 2.0 and 3.0
• Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows, version 1.0

THE FOLLOWING SECTION APPLIES TO VISUAL BASIC VERSIONS 4.0 AND 5.0

SUMMARY

You can play a waveform (.wav) sound file from Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows by calling the sndPlaySound API function from the Mmsystem.dll file. In order to be able to call the sndPlaySound API function, you must be using either Microsoft Windows, version 3.1 or the Microsoft Multimedia Extensions for Windows, version 3.0. The following information discusses the sndPlaySound parameters, and includes an example of how to use this function from Visual Basic for Windows.

MORE INFORMATION

To use the sndPlaySound API from within a Visual Basic for Windows application, you must declare the sndPlaySound function in the global module or in the Declarations section of the Code window. To declare the function, enter this Declare statement:

   Declare Function sndPlaySound Lib "WINMM.DLL" Alias "sndPlaySoundA" _
      (ByVal lpszSoundName As String, ByVal uFlags As Long) As Long

• lpszSoundName specifies the name of the sound to play. The function first searches the [sounds] section of the Win.ini file for an entry with the specified name, and then plays the associated waveform sound file. If no entry by this name exists, it is assumed the specified name is the name of a waveform sound file. If this parameter is null, any currently playing sound is stopped. Use 0& to provide a null value.
• uFlags specifies options for playing the sound using one or more of the following flags:

      - SND_SYNC specifies that the sound is played synchronously and the
        function does not return until the sound ends.
  

      - SND_ASYNC specifies that the sound is played asynchronously and the
        function returns immediately after beginning the sound.
  

      - SND_NODEFAULT specifies that if the sound cannot be found, the
        function returns silently without playing the default sound.
  

      - SND_LOOP specifies that the sound will continue to play continuously
        until sndPlaySound is called again with the lpszSoundName$ parameter
        set to null. You must also specify the SND_ASYNC flag to loop sounds.
  

      - SND_NOSTOP specifies that if a sound is currently playing, the
        function will immediately return False without playing the requested
        sound.
  

Code Sample

The following code example illustrates how to use the sndPlaySound API function to play a waveform (.wav) sound file. Add the code to the global module or general Declarations section of your form:

   Private  Declare Function sndPlaySound Lib "WINMM.DLL" Alias _
      "sndPlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszSoundName As String, ByVal uFlags As _
      Long) As Long

   Const SND_SYNC = &H0
   Const SND_ASYNC = &H1
   Const SND_NODEFAULT = &H2
   Const SND_LOOP = &H8
   Const SND_NOSTOP = &H10

   SoundName$ = "c:\windows\tada.wav"
   wFlags% = SND_ASYNC Or SND_NODEFAULT
   x% = sndPlaySound(SoundName$,wFlags%)

THE FOLLOWING SECTION APPLIES TO VISUAL BASIC 3.0 ONLY

To use the sndPlaySound API from within a Visual Basic for Windows application, you must declare the sndPlaySound function in the global module or in the Declarations section of your Code window. To declare the function, enter the following Declare statement as one, single line:

   Declare Function sndPlaySound Lib "MMSYSTEM.DLL" (ByVal lpszSoundName As
      Any, ByVal wFlags%) As Integer

• lpszSoundName specifies the name of the sound to play. The function first searches the [sounds] section of the Win.ini file for an entry with the specified name, and then plays the associated waveform sound file. If no entry by this name exists, it is assumed the specified name is the name of a waveform sound file. If this parameter is null, any currently playing sound is stopped. Use 0& to provide a null value.
• uFlags specifies options for playing the sound using one or more of the following flags:

      - SND_SYNC specifies that the sound is played synchronously and the
        function does not return until the sound ends.
  

      - SND_ASYNC specifies that the sound is played asynchronously and the
        function returns immediately after beginning the sound.
  

      - SND_NODEFAULT specifies that if the sound cannot be found, the
        function returns silently without playing the default sound.
  

      - SND_LOOP specifies that the sound will continue to play continuously
        until sndPlaySound is called again with the lpszSoundName$ parameter
        set to null. You must also specify the SND_ASYNC flag to loop sounds.
  

      - SND_NOSTOP specifies that if a sound is currently playing, the
        function will immediately return False without playing the requested
        sound.
  

Code Sample

The following code example illustrates how to use the sndPlaySound API function to play a waveform (.wav) sound file. Add the following code to the global module or general Declarations section of your form:

   'VB3Line: Enter the following lines as one line
   Declare Function sndPlaySound Lib "MMSYSTEM.DLL" (ByVal lpszSoundName$,
      ByVal wFlags%) As Integer

   Global Const SND_SYNC      = &H0000
   Global Const SND_ASYNC     = &H0001
   Global Const SND_NODEFAULT = &H0002
   Global Const SND_LOOP      = &H0008
   Global Const SND_NOSTOP    = &H0010

   SoundName$ = "c:\windows\tada.wav"
   wFlags% = SND_ASYNC Or SND_NODEFAULT
   x% = sndPlaySound(SoundName$,wFlags%)

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Multimedia Development Kit: Programmer's Reference" version 1.0. For more information on adjusting the sound driver settings, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: