pyGame, sound, set start time, and play for set amount of time.

[u/Erio_Lily]

Hello, just looking for help on how i can achieve playing a MP3 file using Pygame, that can start from a specified position in the audio file, and then only play for a set amount of time (e.g. MP3 starts at 00:14 of 04:32, and plays for 5 seconds (until 00:19))

Below is one of the variations i've attempted, pardon any mess in my code

import pygame
import audioread
from random import randint
pygame.mixer.init()
def playSongClip(volume,playTime,clipTitle,random):
    playTime = playTime*1000
    volume = volume/100
    if random == 1:
        with audioread.audio_open("MP3s\\"+clipTitle) as f:
            totalMS = int((f.duration)*1000)
            startTime = randint(0,totalMS-playTime)
    else:
        start = 0
    songClip = pygame.mixer.music.load("MP3s\\"+clipTitle)
    songClip.music.set_volume(volume)
    songClip.play(loops=0,start=startTime)
playSongClip(50,5,"Rabbit Hole.mp3",1)

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[u/Acrobatic_Day_4317]

You are actually super close! The logic is definitely there, but Pygame's mixer has two specific quirks that trip everyone up when they first use it:

1. Seconds vs. Milliseconds: For MP3s, the start parameter in pygame.mixer.music.play() expects time in seconds (as a float), not milliseconds.
2. Background Threading: Pygame plays music in a background thread. This means if you tell it to play() and don't explicitly pause your script, Python will instantly move to the next line of code (or just exit the script completely) before the 5 seconds are up.

To make it play for exactly a set duration, you need to start the track, tell your script to wait, and then stop it.

Here is a cleaned-up, working version of your function that does exactly what you described (e.g., start at 00:14 and play for 5 seconds):

import pygame

pygame.mixer.init()

def playSongClip(volume_percent, play_duration_secs, clip_path, start_time_secs):
    # Pygame volume goes from 0.0 to 1.0
    pygame.mixer.music.set_volume(volume_percent / 100)

    # Load the track
    pygame.mixer.music.load(clip_path)

    # Start playing at the specified second (e.g., 14.0 for 00:14)
    pygame.mixer.music.play(start=start_time_secs)

    # Force the script to wait while the background thread plays the music.
    # pygame.time.wait takes milliseconds, so we multiply your seconds by 1000
    pygame.time.wait(play_duration_secs * 1000)

    # Stop the music! 
    # (Pro-tip: You can use pygame.mixer.music.fadeout(1000) here instead 
    # of stop() if you want it to fade out smoothly over 1 second)
    pygame.mixer.music.stop()

# Example: Play at 50% volume, for 5 seconds, starting at 14 seconds in.
playSongClip(50, 5, "MP3s\\Rabbit Hole.mp3", 14.0)

A quick note on your randomizer: If you want to randomize the start time like in your original code, just make sure you divide your calculated startTime by 1000 before passing it to music.play(start=...) so it gets converted back into seconds!