Sounds in mIRC by Mentality

Playing Music

mIRC has a built in command called /splay. This allows you to play a sound in mIRC. You can place a sound in your mIRC directory, and then play it by typing /splay filename.type where 'filename' is the name of the file and 'type' is the file type. For example:

/splay Myrecording.mp3

Note: If you want /splay used in this way, make sure you have the .mp3 file in your mIRC directory. Otherwise, you need to specify the directory that the file is located in, like this:

/splay C:\Music\Myrecording.mp3

If the file is in a directory that has spaces, then, unlike a lot of other commands, you do NOT need to specify directory with "quotes" - /splay supports directories with spaces, such as C:\My Music\Sound Files\Myrecord.mp3.

The /splay command supports the following file types: .mp3, .wav, .mid, .wma and .ogg.

Once a file is playing there are a number of options. One of the most useful you may find is the 'stop' paramater - quite simply, when a music file is playing, type /splay stop and the file will stop.

For further help, you can type /help /splay in mIRC.

Sound Identifiers

There are a number of identifiers related to mIRC scripting which can be used in mIRC. $sound is one of the most obvious.

$sound(type) will return the directory that is set in the Sound Requests dialog (Explained below) - this is, by default, C:\Program Files\mIRC\sound - or wherever your mIRC directory is, with \sound added to the end of it. You can change this in ALT+O > Sounds > Requests. An example of how to use it: //echo -a $sound(.mp3) - this will echo to your active window the directory.

$sound(filename).prop will return information on a specified file. The '.prop' is a 'property' for the identifier and 'filename' needs to be the file name. If the filename is not in your mIRC directory then, once again, you need to specify the directory. Once again, you do not need to specify quotes around directories with spaces. An example may be:

//echo -a $sound(Myrecording.mp3).album

This will return the album name of the mp3 provided one is specified. Another example, to make it clear what to do with directories, may be:

//echo -a $sound(C:\My Music\Myrecording.mp3).album

The properties that are supported are: album, title, artist, year, comment, genre, track, length, version, bitrate, vbr, sample, mode, copyright, private, crc.

The best way to learn what each one returns is to experiment, although their names give them away ;)

Note: The properties with $sound() can ONLY be used with .mp3 files at this time.

Sounds Requests

One of the biggest features of mIRC is the Sound Requests feature - it means that if you have 3 people in a channel, and they all have 'Myrecording.mp3' you can send a /sound request to the channel and it will start playing on all 3 computers, so everyone can hear it.

IMPORTANT: A common myth is that you can send a /sound request and you will be able to share the sound you're currently playing with other people. This is not how it works - they must have the sound on their system.

For this to work also, you need to be accepting sound requests. To do this, you need to enable it in mIRC optionS: ALT+O > Sounds > Requests - Check the box 'Accept sound requests'. Alternatively, type /sound on. By default, sounds will be requested from the \sound\ directory (usually you can use //run $wavedir in mIRC to access it). It will also search in the specified sub-directories for that file, depending on what you've set in the Sounds Requests dialog (ALT+O > Sounds > Requests). For example, choose 'Wave (*.waV)' from the drop down list. A directory will be set for that sound type. Now, when someone requests a *.wav file, not only will mIRC look in the \sounds\ directory, it will also look in the directory specified there.

To send a sound request to another person you need to use the /sound command. The /sound command only supports file types .wav, .mp3 or .mid. Again, you do not need to specify a directory unless the file is not in the mIRC sounds directory or in the sub-directories specified on the other mIRC client. An example of sending a sound request to me (Mentality) would be:

/sound Mentality Myrecording.mp3 I'm requesting a sound from you!

This requests the file 'Myrecording.mp3' and sends the message (in form of a /me) 'I'm requesting a sound from you!'. This will request to me privately. If you want to request to an entire channel, use:

/sound #channel Myrecording.mp3 Requesting a file!

This sends a request to #channel for Myrecording.mp3 with the action message 'Requesting a file!'. Do note, using this on a channel may be unwelcome, it may earn you a ban. Sound requests are not often used for entire channels, it's fairly bad etiquette to do it. And also remember, every member of the channel must be set to accept sound requests for it to work.

You may also use something like:

/sound Mentality C:\My Music\Myrecording.mp3
or
/sound #mirc.net C:\ChannelMusic\Something.wav

..and so on.

The message is optional. You do not need to specify messages such as 'Requesting a file!', so you can just miss that out if you don't want it.

mp3 Players

Mp3 players are types of addons that play sounds for you, usually with a nice GUI (General User Interface). mIRC is not an mp3 player, /splay is very basic. You can download mp3 players at www.mirc.net in the 'addons' section - use the search feature at the top and search for 'mp3'.

Conclusion

mIRC provides lots of ways to listen to sounds and to share your music with other people. There are other options not described here, in fact, the document would become huge if everything was described in every detail, not to mention unnecessaryily technical! You may wish to use the following help files as a guide and reference to some other sound features (such as the /vol command):

/help sound requests
/help playing sounds

Have fun! :)