Java Beeping

[Emmy Rauch]

What I attempting to do is to play a short jingle off of the internal system speaker/beeper. I researched this on java.sun.com and found the following sollution:

public static void beep(int notePitch,long duration,int velocity,int numInstr,int numChannel)
{
Synthesizer mySynthesizer=null;
try {
mySynthesizer = MidiSystem.getSynthesizer();
if ( mySynthesizer == null) {
System.out.println("getSynthesizer() failed!");
return;
}
mySynthesizer.open();
}catch(Exception ex){ ex.printStackTrace(); return; }
Instrument[] instruments=mySynthesizer.getAvailableInstruments();
if(numInstr<0)
  numInstr=0;
else if(numInstr>=instruments.length)
  numInstr=instruments.length-1;
System.out.println(numInstr+ ":" + instruments.length);
Instrument myInstrument=instruments[numInstr];
mySynthesizer.loadInstrument(myInstrument);
MidiChannel[] channels = mySynthesizer.getChannels();
if(numChannel<0) numChannel=0;
else if(numChannel>=channels.length)
  numChannel=channels.length-1;
MidiChannel channel = channels[numChannel];
int prog = myInstrument.getPatch().getProgram();
channel.programChange(prog);
channel.noteOn(notePitch,velocity);
try {
Thread.currentThread().sleep(duration);
} catch(InterruptedException ie) {}
channel.allNotesOff();
if (mySynthesizer.isOpen())
  mySynthesizer.close();
mySynthesizer = null;
}
  

The problem is that, when I print instruments.length it is -1. I am working on a computer without any speakers but it does have onboard sound. Also System.out.println("\07"); will beep but Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep(); does not. If anyone knows what is wrong with this code or another way to beep other pitches please help.
Thanks in advance for your time,
Em

[Darin Niard]

Toolkit's beep() uses the system's beep sound, not the bell character.

[Emmy Rauch]

That explains why it doesnt beep, but my main question is how to beep other pitches, even if I must use the JNI to do this can someone give me an example? Thanks

[Emmy Rauch]

Should I repost this in advanced or give up on life? Eh... I'll do both to have my bases covered.

[Nick George]

Thou hast cross-posted... for shame!

[Junilu Lacar]

I remember back in the days of the Apple ][ (yeah, I'm showing my age but hey, at least I can still remember that far back ) when we could produce tones by toggling the onboard speakers at different frequencies. Of course with that approach you had to take into account the clock speed. I won't even pretend to remember how it was done back then, much less how it can be done on your modern PC. I tried googling around for more info but couldn't find anything.

[Emmy Rauch]

Yeah, I cross posted and still didnt get any info ;-( ... perhaps its not possible? That would be a sad day when you cant produce other tones out of a system speaker in java

[JulianInactive KennedyInactive]

The big idea with Java is that it's platform-independent, isn't it? (rhetorical) Is it even possible to interface to the system speaker (or bleepy thing, whatever!) in a platform-independent way? Surely it would depend on the hardware you have installed. Given that, there would at least have to be some sort of consistent API on a given platform so that a native implementation could be built and accessed through JNI.

I don't really know enough about it, so maybe I should just shut up.

Jules