Playing Music In Cockpit??

Been watching some YT videos where it shows the player reaching down and turning a knob and turning their own music on while flying. I used to love doing this in the old days. Gives you something to listen to on long flights.

Question:

How is this done and can it be done in all planes? Pretty cool when you can make it part of your controls. So far I've only seen it done in the F-86.

I listen to music in flight. Using the same method, I also turn on background air chatter. I'll try to keep this brief.

There are three methods. One is dumb down simple, and the other is almost as simple but provides flexibility as to when it goes on and off. And #3 is easy to do, but will only play 1 song on command. You must issue another command for a 2nd song, etc. Of course, its by voice command so it's easy.

1. Let's start with the simplist way. VERY easy. You get the VLC player (or really, any will probably do, but I use vlc).

2. Drag any music you want in it, press play, turn down the volume, and then fly dcs.

Like I said very simple. Start flying with music tonight!

3. I took it one step further with the help of voice attack. Essentially this allows me to turn music on or off while in flight with a voice command (I use "play music" and "stop music").

Here's what you do.

a. I don't want to have to add this to every voice attack profile, so I created a profile called "baseroutines". Here I put commands that are applicable everywhere. Such as VR Zoom in (I fly VR). I also put commands to play and stop music. YOu then "attach" the 'baseroutines" profile to the parent profile (e.g, f-14). That way you don't have to set it up for every modual. Simple.

b. Voice attack has the ability to fire off an application. So I have it fire off VLC. The command, for me, is:

IN voice attack, under "run an application", you enter the path for the vlc program. MINE is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe

Then in the "With these parameters" box, I enter:

--random --mmdevice-volume=0.55 D:\transfer\music\musicplaylist\music.xspf

Note: You don't have to use parameters. But to use vlc twice for two different things (music and cvhatter) you do. the path you see there is MINE.

The file music.xspf is what I named a play list out of vlc.

--random plays the songs randomly

--mmdevice-volume=0.55 is suppose to set teh volume but sadly it stopped working and I never figure out why. BUt I leave it in just for hope.

Top stop muisc, there's a stop sound command in voice attack.

NOTE: Voice attack has, built in, a feature where it will play a random sound file from a directory that you choose. BUt it will only play one and not the whole directory, at least the last time I checked. HOWEVER, playing a random file is VERY easy to impliment.

Hope I have not confused. But you are right, flying with music is GREAT.

And also, there are website that have recordings of military air chatter - I downloaded a bunch, plopped them in a directory, and set up a "play chatter" command. Keep teh volume low and it really helps DCS sonically sound exciting.

Been watching some YT videos where it shows the player reaching down and turning a knob and turning their own music on while flying..

A cassette player worked for Doug Masters in Iron Eagle... :music_whistling:

A cassette player worked for Doug Masters in Iron Eagle... :music_whistling:

I considered just using my cellphone with a split jack from my computer and the phone.

Build a music file and go.

I already have a metal strip attached to my control panel for attaching my phones Steele Magnet holder to.

I've previously built a mission that had a song playing on a radio station. Also, I hear the Viggen has a built-in cassette player in DCS?

Also, I hear the Viggen has a built-in cassette player in DCS?

Yes, the Viggen and the Tomcat have built in casette players.

The Tomcat even has its own music album:

Where I saw it done was in the F-86 using the UHF controls at the bottom right console.

There's a large knob in the middle that has a selection of upwards around 18 +- different selections.

Just thought it added a bit of realism to reach down, turn a knob and have music playing.

Can you set up a different song for each number on the knob and is this available in other planes?

Switches music on at 5:34 in video. Sounds like he's having dinner with my grandmother rather than dogfighing somebody trying to kill him...lol.

A cassette player worked for Doug Masters in Iron Eagle... :music_whistling:

Sony Walkman :-)

Go get the Edge 340, it has a built-in MP3 player and you can upload your own playlists

I wrote the 2nd post in this thread. I realieze now it was kinda long and complicated. I discussed 3 methods for playing music. None involves hardware.

I wanted to do a shorter post and mention the 3rd method again. Because it's so easy. And that is VoiceAttack makes it so simply to play a randomly selected song. Have a directory with your mp3's. Create a new Voice attack command like "Play random song". Select : Other > sounds > play a random sound > then select a directory on your computer.

Its so trivially easy that way.

It's a good idea to create a STOP music command, which is:

Other > Sounds > stop sounds

BTW... while the "hardware" option works, I play vr so I want the music to be coming out of my vr ear pieces.

I love music when I fly.

I also love air radio chatter when I fly, which is easy to do as well. Use one of the other methods mentioned in my post for that if you want both music and chatter.

All this information is great but nobody has really answered the question about how he was able to program the music to come on when he used the UHF control knob on the right hand console in the cockpit.

Whoops I understand your question now. Nope, don't know how to do that. I am quite sure it is *not* universally implemented in DCS, because, I would assume, these are simulations of actual military aircraft. But it's a cool idea.

"Robin Takolander" you out there?

How you do that in your F-86. You've got us all stumped....

All this information is great but nobody has really answered the question about how he was able to program the music to come on when he used the UHF control knob on the right hand console in the cockpit.

No offence, but: I thought I had. You can set up a mission to include music playing as a radio transmission from somewhere. Thus you get music when you switch the radio to a certain frequency.

For a video, of course, you could also just use a little bit of clever editing. I think that's how it happened in the ol' Huey trailer as well.

I think that music in the video was added in post production.

But, if you want to, you can have music be broadcasted in a custom mission that you make. Unfortunately it would be tied to the mission itself. Check this out. The process is very similar.

In the past I have made missions that feature the Top 40 station that is actually in Georgia. Quite entertaining.

If you just want to listen to music, I suggest the voiceattack method that others have suggested.

By the way, the JF-17 has a built-in music player, similar to the F-14. The difference being that you can skip songs :P

No offence, but: I thought I had. You can set up a mission to include music playing as a radio transmission from somewhere. Thus you get music when you switch the radio to a certain frequency.

Wouldn't the music have to be edited into the file system manually to come on as one of the radio frequencies?

Or do they let you do this in the mission editor.

Was going thru the manual last night and don't remember reading anything on it.

[EDIT]

Just scrolled further thru the manual and it seems this area of the mission editor is quite extensive.

I haven't done this, so this is more a "how I would try to do this" then an instruction of how to do this.

Firstly decide on the music you want to listen too, a single track, an album, a series of albums, whatever.

Now you have to convert your files into .ogg files, that is the audio file type DCS uses.

(for extra bonus points you can join tracks into single long tracks and convert them into one long .ogg file, this is how I have hours of rock and metal music in my F-14 tape player :)

keep the file sizes small as possible, sacrifice quality for file size, this is radio after all, radio usually sounds pretty crap.

In the mission editor

Place an unit on the map and make it broadcast a radio frequency, I'm not sure what exactly does this, but it'll be there somewhere.

Make a trigger that will make the unit broadcasting the .ogg file at mission start.

Now you only need to tune to that frequency to hear the good sounds. If your file is long enough it will be there for the duration of your flight.

Make a couple other .ogg files and have them selected by a random number generator so you don't get bored with the radio station you made.

Good luck, let us know if it works :)

I haven't done this, so this is more a "how I would try to do this" then an instruction of how to do this.

 

Firstly decide on the music you want to listen too, a single track, an album, a series of albums, whatever.

 

Now you have to convert your files into .ogg files, that is the audio file type DCS uses.

(for extra bonus points you can join tracks into single long tracks and convert them into one long .ogg file, this is how I have hours of rock and metal music in my F-14 tape player :)

 

keep the file sizes small as possible, sacrifice quality for file size, this is radio after all, radio usually sounds pretty crap.

 

In the mission editor

Place an unit on the map and make it broadcast a radio frequency, I'm not sure what exactly does this, but it'll be there somewhere.

 

Make a trigger that will make the unit broadcasting the .ogg file at mission start.

 

Now you only need to tune to that frequency to hear the good sounds. If your file is long enough it will be there for the duration of your flight.

 

Make a couple other .ogg files and have them selected by a random number generator so you don't get bored with the radio station you made.

 

Good luck, let us know if it works :)

I was reading the unit broadcasting section in the manual.

I only have 5 or 6 main tracks I'm looking to use.

Some for just cruising to and from objective and some a little more upbeat for actual engagements.

Want to be able to switch from track to track using the UHF knob. (If possible)

Problem is all my tracks are .mp3. How do you change them to an .ogg file?

Problem is all my tracks are .mp3. How do you change them to an .ogg file?

Like this.

I was reading the unit broadcasting section in the manual.

I only have 5 or 6 main tracks I'm looking to use.

Some for just cruising to and from objective and some a little more upbeat for actual engagements.

Want to be able to switch from track to track using the UHF knob. (If possible)

Problem is all my tracks are .mp3. How do you change them to an .ogg file?

I'm not sure you can make the uhf switch into a changing tracks button.

Here's one way to convert mp3 to ogg

https://www.zamzar.com/convert/mp3-to-ogg/

“Alexa, play Thin Lizzy”. Sorted :)

Thank you for such wonderful sharing about today's music and klingeltöne kostenlos

A decent attempt at necroing there 

On 5/4/2022 at 3:15 PM, LooseSeal said:

A decent attempt at necroing there 

Haha! I had to check. 

For the actual OP. Might this be something?