(SDL) Mixing 2 audio files with no noise or distortion

Question

Say we got 2 different music chunks in SDL. Currently we are not sure on how to mix them into one single audio with noise and distortion is filtered. Currently try to mix in this format which is wrong.

  if( Mix_PlayChannel( 1, test1, 0 ) == -1 )
                        {
                            return 1;
                        }

                        if( Mix_PlayChannel( 2, test2, 0 ) == -1 )
                        {
                            return 1;
                        } 

Answer 1

My guess is that this is a programming question. I'm not sure you'll find an answer here, because most(?) of us are sound designers or composers. This is a technical question you might want to ask in the forum of SDL, whatever that may be.

But overall, mixing signals that are of maximum loudness (0dBFS) will result in distortion. So my guess is that you need to somehow lower the input of the mixer resulting in more headroom and no clipping or distortion.

Good luck! Arnoud

Answer 2

  if( Mix_PlayChannel( 1, test1, 0 ) == -1 ) // Tests for error return value -1
  {
      return 1; // Returns 1 to something?
  }

  if( Mix_PlayChannel( 2, test2, 0 ) == -1 ) // Tests for error return value -1
  {
      return 1; // Returns 1 to something?
  } 

Without seeing what your function is the above code seems like it would not be playing sound at all, because it only tests for error return values of Mix_PlayChannel and in the case of an error (i.e. Mix_PlayChannel returns -1), the function returns 1/True (and exits already in the first if-block).

See: http://sdl.beuc.net/sdl.wiki/Mix_PlayChannel

You don't need to even grab (or assign) the return value to play the sound. The return value, if the Mix_PlayChannel function doesn't fail, is the channel number (in your case 1 or 2).

What you could write is just:

Mix_PlayChannel(1, test1, 0);
Mix_PlayChannel(2, test2, 0);

Or if you want to test for errors:

int channel;

channel = Mix_PlayChannel(1, test1, 0);
if(channel == -1) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Unable to play WAV file: %s\n", Mix_GetError());
}

channel = Mix_PlayChannel(2, test2, 0);
if(channel == -1) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Unable to play WAV file: %s\n", Mix_GetError());
}

There are some more examples here (note the special functions for playing music, instead of just sound files / SFX):
http://people.cs.clemson.edu/~malloy/courses/3dgames-2007/tutor/web/audio/audio.html