NAudio Get Audio Samples - c#

I am using NAudio to get the sample from the song that is currently playing and draw the waveform as the song plays. I am using AudioFileReader and ToSampleProvider to get all samples as float and then I plot them into an InkCanvas while the song is playing. My problem is that the samples don't seem to match the sound. I also have verify this by using this same song in the WPF example that is located in the source code of NAudio. In the example the waveform matches the sound, but in my application it doesn't. So I was wondering if someone could help me find out what I am doing (or reading) wrong or if maybe my drawing logic is wrong.
Here is my current code:
public partial class MainWindow : Window, INotifyPropertyChanged
{
private ISampleProvider provider;
private DispatcherTimer timer;
private AudioFileReader reader;
private WaveOut waveOut;
private StylusPointCollection topPoints, bottomPoints;
private DrawingAttributes attr;
private double canvasHeight, canvasWidth;
private int samplesGroupSize;
private double drawPos = 0;
private StrokeCollection _WaveformLines;
public StrokeCollection WaveformLines
{
get { return _WaveformLines; }
set
{
_WaveformLines = value;
OnPropertyChanged("WaveformLines");
}
}
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.DataContext = this;
}
private void Window_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
reader = new AudioFileReader("C:\\Users\\Agustin\\Desktop\\DragonRider.mp3");
waveOut = new WaveOut();
waveOut.Init(reader);
provider = reader.ToSampleProvider(); //Here I get the samples
reader.Position = 0; //Go to the position 0 after reading the samples
canvasHeight = Waveform.ActualHeight;
canvasWidth = Waveform.ActualWidth;
WaveformLines = new StrokeCollection();
topPoints = new StylusPointCollection();
topPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(0, (canvasHeight / 2)));
topPoints.Changed += topPoints_Changed;
bottomPoints = new StylusPointCollection();
bottomPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(0, (canvasHeight / 2)));
bottomPoints.Changed += topPoints_Changed;
WaveformLines.Add(new Stroke(topPoints));
WaveformLines.Add(new Stroke(bottomPoints));
attr = new DrawingAttributes();
attr.Color = Colors.Green;
attr.Width = 1.5;
attr.Height = 1;
timer = new DispatcherTimer();
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1);
timer.Tick += timer_Tick;
timer.Start();
samplesGroupSize = (int)(timer.Interval.TotalSeconds * reader.WaveFormat.SampleRate); //The value for this is 44.
}
private void PlayButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
waveOut.Play();
}
private void PauseButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
waveOut.Pause();
}
private void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (waveOut.PlaybackState == PlaybackState.Playing)
{
TimeLabel.Content = string.Format("Time: {0}", reader.CurrentTime.ToString(#"mm\:ss\:ff")); //NEED TO KEEP WORKING
float[] samps = new float[samplesGroupSize];
provider.Read(samps, 0, samps.Length);
float max = Max(samps);
float min = Min(samps);
topPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(drawPos, (canvasHeight / 2) - ((canvasHeight / 2) * max)));
bottomPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(drawPos, (canvasHeight / 2) - ((canvasHeight / 2) * min)));
drawPos += 2;
if (drawPos > canvasWidth)
{
WaveformLines.Clear();
topPoints = new StylusPointCollection();
topPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(0, (canvasHeight / 2)));
bottomPoints = new StylusPointCollection();
bottomPoints.Add(new StylusPoint(0, (canvasHeight / 2)));
WaveformLines.Add(new Stroke(topPoints));
WaveformLines.Add(new Stroke(bottomPoints));
drawPos = 0;
}
}
}
private float Min(float[] samps)
{
float max = samps[0];
foreach (float s in samps)
{
if (s > max)
max = s;
}
return max;
}
private float Max(float[] samps)
{
float min = samps[0];
foreach (float s in samps)
{
if (s < min)
min = s;
}
return min;
}
//I excluded the INotifyPropertyChanged implementation, but in the
//actual code is located here
}
I know this drawing algorithm is not very good but I have tried others and they also seem to not follow the audio.
Thanks.
NOTE: I know that there are similar question, but the other questions suggest to use things like AudioFileReader or ToSampleProvider which I am already using. My error is probably more into how I am reading the samples, maybe I am missing some bytes or have to skip some byte, or maybe some missing property that I am not setting.

You should seriously consider using the portions of the code from the WFP example that handles read/play and the min / max calculation work.
It will take you a little bit of effort but I promise it will be worth it.
You then will be working with a dataset that you know is in the correct form and you can focus on the drawing part. Look closely at AudioPlayback.cs and its relationship to SampleAggregator.cs.
You'll also find that getting automatic callbacks while the samples are being read (and played) is a much better way to refresh your waveform drawing than trying to use a DispatchTimer. It will also get you out of re-reading the wave buffer as well -- you really want to avoid that if you can.
EDIT:
I tested your conversion code and the resulting float values appear to be correct (in the range of -1 through 1). So I think the problem is with the way you are plotting the waveform in WPF.

Related

How do I autohide a form

I have a very simple question i guess...for which i am not able to find an answer for. I am trying to add an autohide feature for a borderless WinForm which is located at (0,0) with a width of 150. I have the following code:
private int dx;
private void autohide()
{
for (dx = 0; dx > -150; dx--)
{
this.Width = dx;
Thread.Sleep(2);
}
}
Even after, using Thread.Sleep(x), the Form just snaps off to final Width without giving/having any effect of delay. I am trying to put a bit of effect on to it .
Please help...
The issue you are facing is because the window is not re-drawing itself at any point because your code doesn't exit the autohide() routine until dx is 150, so it will just have a delay before re-drawing in the final position.
You probably also want to change the position rather than the width.
The better option would be to start up a Timer which then changes the position each time it fires, which would cause the change to be animated:
private Timer t;
private int step = 1;
private void autohide()
{
t = new Timer();
t.Interval = 2;
t.Tick += T_Tick;
t.Start();
}
private void T_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (this.Location.X > 0 - this.Width)
{
this.Location = new Point(this.Location.X - step, this.Location.Y);
}
else
{
t.Stop();
}
}

How to track distance accurately between two locations in windows phone using GPS?

I am working on location tracking app. App is showing the current location in the beginning and later it is displaying incorrect values and the code is as follows. It draws a line(animated line) on the Map tracking our location and it is showing wrong path. Though device is at constant place, it is displaying wrong values. Did I miss anything?
//code
public partial class Walk : PhoneApplicationPage
{
private GeoCoordinateWatcher _watcher = new GeoCoordinateWatcher(GeoPositionAccuracy.High);
private MapPolyline _line;
private DispatcherTimer _timer = new DispatcherTimer();
private long _startTime;
public Walk()
{
InitializeComponent();
_line = new MapPolyline();
_line.StrokeColor = Colors.Red;
_line.StrokeThickness = 5;
Map.MapElements.Add(_line);
_watcher.Start();
_timer.Start();
_startTime = System.Environment.TickCount;
_watcher.PositionChanged += Watcher_PositionChanged;
_timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1);
_timer.Tick += Timer_Tick;
}
private void Timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TimeSpan runTime = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(System.Environment.TickCount - _startTime);
timeLabel.Text = runTime.ToString(#"hh\:mm\:ss");
}
private double _kilometres;
private long _previousPositionChangeTick;
private void Watcher_PositionChanged(object sender, GeoPositionChangedEventArgs<GeoCoordinate> e)
{
var coord = new GeoCoordinate(e.Position.Location.Latitude, e.Position.Location.Longitude);
if (_line.Path.Count > 0)
{
var previousPoint = _line.Path.Last();
var distance = coord.GetDistanceTo(previousPoint);
var millisPerKilometer = (1000.0 / distance) * (System.Environment.TickCount - _previousPositionChangeTick);
_kilometres += distance / 1000.0;
paceLabel.Text = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(millisPerKilometer).ToString(#"mm\:ss");
distanceLabel.Text = string.Format("{0:f2} km", _kilometres);
caloriesLabel.Text = string.Format("{0:f0}", _kilometres * 65);
PositionHandler handler = new PositionHandler();
var heading = handler.CalculateBearing(new Position(previousPoint), new Position(coord));
Map.SetView(coord, Map.ZoomLevel, heading, MapAnimationKind.Parabolic);
}
else
{
Map.Center = coord;
}
_line.Path.Add(coord);
_previousPositionChangeTick = System.Environment.TickCount;
}
} }
}
Are the "incorrect values" within a few dozen meters of the original location? If so, what you might be seeing is just the inaccuracy of GPS.
GPS isn't 100% accurate. Even if your device isn't moving, the location where the device's GPS thinks it is can change. In fact, your calculated location might not be based on true GPS at all, but on Wi-Fi or on nearby cell towers (A-GPS), both of which are much less accurate.
See this StackOverflow thread for more information. For debugging purposes, I suggest displaying the HorizontalAccuracy somewhere on your UI to see if the GPS drift is in line with expectations.

Playing sinus through XAudio2

I'm making an audio player using XAudio2. We are streaming data in packets of 640 bytes, at a sample rate of 8000Hz and sample depth of 16 bytes. We are using SlimDX to access XAudio2.
But when playing sound, we are noticing that the sound quality is bad. This, for example, is a 3KHz sine curve, captured with Audacity.
I have condensed the audio player to the bare basics, but the audio quality is still bad. Is this a bug in XAudio2, SlimDX, or my code, or is this simply an artifact that occurs when one go from 8KHz to 44.1KHz? The last one seems unreasonable, as we also generate PCM wav files which are played perfectly by Windows Media Player.
The following is the basic implementation, which generates the broken Sine.
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
private XAudio2 device = new XAudio2();
private WaveFormatExtensible format = new WaveFormatExtensible();
private SourceVoice sourceVoice = null;
private MasteringVoice masteringVoice = null;
private Guid KSDATAFORMAT_SUBTYPE_PCM = new Guid("00000001-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71");
private AutoResetEvent BufferReady = new AutoResetEvent(false);
private PlayBufferPool PlayBuffers = new PlayBufferPool();
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
Closing += OnClosing;
format.Channels = 1;
format.BitsPerSample = 16;
format.FormatTag = WaveFormatTag.Extensible;
format.BlockAlignment = (short)(format.Channels * (format.BitsPerSample / 8));
format.SamplesPerSecond = 8000;
format.AverageBytesPerSecond = format.SamplesPerSecond * format.BlockAlignment;
format.SubFormat = KSDATAFORMAT_SUBTYPE_PCM;
}
private void OnClosing(object sender, CancelEventArgs cancelEventArgs)
{
sourceVoice.Stop();
sourceVoice.Dispose();
masteringVoice.Dispose();
PlayBuffers.Dispose();
}
private void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
masteringVoice = new MasteringVoice(device);
PlayBuffer buffer = PlayBuffers.NextBuffer();
GenerateSine(buffer.Buffer);
buffer.AudioBuffer.AudioBytes = 640;
sourceVoice = new SourceVoice(device, format, VoiceFlags.None, 8);
sourceVoice.BufferStart += new EventHandler<ContextEventArgs>(sourceVoice_BufferStart);
sourceVoice.BufferEnd += new EventHandler<ContextEventArgs>(sourceVoice_BufferEnd);
sourceVoice.SubmitSourceBuffer(buffer.AudioBuffer);
sourceVoice.Start();
}
private void sourceVoice_BufferEnd(object sender, ContextEventArgs e)
{
BufferReady.Set();
}
private void sourceVoice_BufferStart(object sender, ContextEventArgs e)
{
BufferReady.WaitOne(1000);
PlayBuffer nextBuffer = PlayBuffers.NextBuffer();
nextBuffer.DataStream.Position = 0;
nextBuffer.AudioBuffer.AudioBytes = 640;
GenerateSine(nextBuffer.Buffer);
Result r = sourceVoice.SubmitSourceBuffer(nextBuffer.AudioBuffer);
}
private void GenerateSine(byte[] buffer)
{
double sampleRate = 8000.0;
double amplitude = 0.25 * short.MaxValue;
double frequency = 3000.0;
for (int n = 0; n < buffer.Length / 2; n++)
{
short[] s = { (short)(amplitude * Math.Sin((2 * Math.PI * n * frequency) / sampleRate)) };
Buffer.BlockCopy(s, 0, buffer, n * 2, 2);
}
}
}
public class PlayBuffer : IDisposable
{
#region Private variables
private IntPtr BufferPtr;
private GCHandle BufferHandle;
#endregion
#region Constructors
public PlayBuffer()
{
Index = 0;
Buffer = new byte[640 * 4]; // 640 = 30ms
BufferHandle = GCHandle.Alloc(this.Buffer, GCHandleType.Pinned);
BufferPtr = new IntPtr(BufferHandle.AddrOfPinnedObject().ToInt32());
DataStream = new DataStream(BufferPtr, 640 * 4, true, false);
AudioBuffer = new AudioBuffer();
AudioBuffer.AudioData = DataStream;
}
public PlayBuffer(int index)
: this()
{
Index = index;
}
#endregion
#region Destructor
~PlayBuffer()
{
Dispose();
}
#endregion
#region Properties
protected int Index { get; private set; }
public byte[] Buffer { get; private set; }
public DataStream DataStream { get; private set; }
public AudioBuffer AudioBuffer { get; private set; }
#endregion
#region Public functions
public void Dispose()
{
if (AudioBuffer != null)
{
AudioBuffer.Dispose();
AudioBuffer = null;
}
if (DataStream != null)
{
DataStream.Dispose();
DataStream = null;
}
}
#endregion
}
public class PlayBufferPool : IDisposable
{
#region Private variables
private int _currentIndex = -1;
private PlayBuffer[] _buffers = new PlayBuffer[2];
#endregion
#region Constructors
public PlayBufferPool()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
Buffers[i] = new PlayBuffer(i);
}
#endregion
#region Desctructor
~PlayBufferPool()
{
Dispose();
}
#endregion
#region Properties
protected int CurrentIndex
{
get { return _currentIndex; }
set { _currentIndex = value; }
}
protected PlayBuffer[] Buffers
{
get { return _buffers; }
set { _buffers = value; }
}
#endregion
#region Public functions
public void Dispose()
{
for (int i = 0; i < Buffers.Length; i++)
{
if (Buffers[i] == null)
continue;
Buffers[i].Dispose();
Buffers[i] = null;
}
}
public PlayBuffer NextBuffer()
{
CurrentIndex = (CurrentIndex + 1) % Buffers.Length;
return Buffers[CurrentIndex];
}
#endregion
}
Some extra details:
This is used to replay recorded voice with various compression such as ALAW, µLAW or TrueSpeech. The data is sent in small packets, decoded and sent to this player. This is the reason for why we're using so low sampling rate, and so small buffers.
There are no problems with our data, however, as generating a WAV file with the data results in perfect replay by WMP or VLC.
edit: We have now "solved" this by rewriting the player in NAudio.
I'd still be interested in any input as to what is happening here. Is it our approach in the PlayBuffers, or is it simply a bug/limitation in DirectX, or the wrappers? I tried using SharpDX instead of SlimDX, but that did not change the result anything.
It looks as if the upsampling is done without a proper anti-aliasing (reconstruction) filter. The cutoff frequency is far too high (above the original Nyquist frequency) and therefore a lot of the aliases are being preserved, resulting in output resembling piecewise-linear interpolation between the samples taken at 8000 Hz.
Although all your different options are doing an upconversion from 8kHz to 44.1kHz, the way in which they do that is important, and the fact that one library does it well is no proof that the upconversion is not the source of error in the other.
It's been a while since I worked with sound and frequencies, but here is what I remember: You have a sample rate of 8000Hz and want a sine frequency of 3000Hz. So for 1 second you have 8000 samples and in that second you want your sine to oscillate 3000 times. That is below the Nyquist-frequency (half your sample rate) but barely (see Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem). So I would not expect a good quality here.
In fact: step through the GenerateSine-method and you'll see that s[0] will contain the values 0, 5792, -8191, 5792, 0, -5792, 8191, -5792, 0, 5792...
None the less this doesn't explain the odd sine you recorded back and I'm not sure how much samples the human ear need to hear a "good" sine wave.

Playing sine wave for unknown time

Whole day I was looking for some tutorial or piece of code, "just" to play simple sin wave for "infinity" time. I know it sounds a little crazy.
But I want to be able to change frequency of tone in time, for instance - increase it.
Imagine that I want to play tone A, and increase it to C in "+5" frequency steps each 3ms (it's really just example), don't want to have free places, stop the tone.
Is it possible? Or can you help me?
Use NAudio library for audio output.
Make notes wave provider:
class NotesWaveProvider : WaveProvider32
{
public NotesWaveProvider(Queue<Note> notes)
{
this.Notes = notes;
}
public readonly Queue<Note> Notes;
int sample = 0;
Note NextNote()
{
for (; ; )
{
if (Notes.Count == 0)
return null;
var note = Notes.Peek();
if (sample < note.Duration.TotalSeconds * WaveFormat.SampleRate)
return note;
Notes.Dequeue();
sample = 0;
}
}
public override int Read(float[] buffer, int offset, int sampleCount)
{
int sampleRate = WaveFormat.SampleRate;
for (int n = 0; n < sampleCount; n++)
{
var note = NextNote();
if (note == null)
buffer[n + offset] = 0;
else
buffer[n + offset] = (float)(note.Amplitude * Math.Sin((2 * Math.PI * sample * note.Frequency) / sampleRate));
sample++;
}
return sampleCount;
}
}
class Note
{
public float Frequency;
public float Amplitude = 1.0f;
public TimeSpan Duration = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(50);
}
start play:
WaveOut waveOut;
this.Notes = new Queue<Note>(new[] { new Note { Frequency = 1000 }, new Note { Frequency = 1100 } });
var waveProvider = new NotesWaveProvider(Notes);
waveProvider.SetWaveFormat(16000, 1); // 16kHz mono
waveOut = new WaveOut();
waveOut.Init(waveProvider);
waveOut.Play();
add new notes:
void Timer_Tick(...)
{
if (Notes.Count < 10)
Notes.Add(new Note{Frecuency = 900});
}
ps this code is idea only. for real using add mt-locking etc
use NAudio and SineWaveProvider32: http://mark-dot-net.blogspot.com/2009/10/playback-of-sine-wave-in-naudio.html
private WaveOut waveOut;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
StartStopSineWave();
}
private void StartStopSineWave()
{
if (waveOut == null)
{
var sineWaveProvider = new SineWaveProvider32();
sineWaveProvider.SetWaveFormat(16000, 1); // 16kHz mono
sineWaveProvider.Frequency = 1000;
sineWaveProvider.Amplitude = 0.25f;
waveOut = new WaveOut();
waveOut.Init(sineWaveProvider);
waveOut.Play();
}
else
{
waveOut.Stop();
waveOut.Dispose();
waveOut = null;
}
}

Playing WAVE file in C# using DirectX and threading?

at the moment im trying to figure out how i can manage to play a wave file in C# by filling up the secondary buffer with data from the wave file through threading and then play the wave file.
Any help or sample coding i can use?
thanks
sample code being used:
public delegate void PullAudio(short[] buffer, int length);
public class SoundPlayer : IDisposable
{
private Device soundDevice;
private SecondaryBuffer soundBuffer;
private int samplesPerUpdate;
private AutoResetEvent[] fillEvent = new AutoResetEvent[2];
private Thread thread;
private PullAudio pullAudio;
private short channels;
private bool halted;
private bool running;
public SoundPlayer(Control owner, PullAudio pullAudio, short channels)
{
this.channels = channels;
this.pullAudio = pullAudio;
this.soundDevice = new Device();
this.soundDevice.SetCooperativeLevel(owner, CooperativeLevel.Priority);
// Set up our wave format to 44,100Hz, with 16 bit resolution
WaveFormat wf = new WaveFormat();
wf.FormatTag = WaveFormatTag.Pcm;
wf.SamplesPerSecond = 44100;
wf.BitsPerSample = 16;
wf.Channels = channels;
wf.BlockAlign = (short)(wf.Channels * wf.BitsPerSample / 8);
wf.AverageBytesPerSecond = wf.SamplesPerSecond * wf.BlockAlign;
this.samplesPerUpdate = 512;
// Create a buffer with 2 seconds of sample data
BufferDescription bufferDesc = new BufferDescription(wf);
bufferDesc.BufferBytes = this.samplesPerUpdate * wf.BlockAlign * 2;
bufferDesc.ControlPositionNotify = true;
bufferDesc.GlobalFocus = true;
this.soundBuffer = new SecondaryBuffer(bufferDesc, this.soundDevice);
Notify notify = new Notify(this.soundBuffer);
fillEvent[0] = new AutoResetEvent(false);
fillEvent[1] = new AutoResetEvent(false);
// Set up two notification events, one at halfway, and one at the end of the buffer
BufferPositionNotify[] posNotify = new BufferPositionNotify[2];
posNotify[0] = new BufferPositionNotify();
posNotify[0].Offset = bufferDesc.BufferBytes / 2 - 1;
posNotify[0].EventNotifyHandle = fillEvent[0].Handle;
posNotify[1] = new BufferPositionNotify();
posNotify[1].Offset = bufferDesc.BufferBytes - 1;
posNotify[1].EventNotifyHandle = fillEvent[1].Handle;
notify.SetNotificationPositions(posNotify);
this.thread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(SoundPlayback));
this.thread.Priority = ThreadPriority.Highest;
this.Pause();
this.running = true;
this.thread.Start();
}
public void Pause()
{
if (this.halted) return;
this.halted = true;
Monitor.Enter(this.thread);
}
public void Resume()
{
if (!this.halted) return;
this.halted = false;
Monitor.Pulse(this.thread);
Monitor.Exit(this.thread);
}
private void SoundPlayback()
{
lock (this.thread)
{
if (!this.running) return;
// Set up the initial sound buffer to be the full length
int bufferLength = this.samplesPerUpdate * 2 * this.channels;
short[] soundData = new short[bufferLength];
// Prime it with the first x seconds of data
this.pullAudio(soundData, soundData.Length);
this.soundBuffer.Write(0, soundData, LockFlag.None);
// Start it playing
this.soundBuffer.Play(0, BufferPlayFlags.Looping);
int lastWritten = 0;
while (this.running)
{
if (this.halted)
{
Monitor.Pulse(this.thread);
Monitor.Wait(this.thread);
}
// Wait on one of the notification events
WaitHandle.WaitAny(this.fillEvent, 3, true);
// Get the current play position (divide by two because we are using 16 bit samples)
int tmp = this.soundBuffer.PlayPosition / 2;
// Generate new sounds from lastWritten to tmp in the sound buffer
if (tmp == lastWritten)
{
continue;
}
else
{
soundData = new short[(tmp - lastWritten + bufferLength) % bufferLength];
}
this.pullAudio(soundData, soundData.Length);
// Write in the generated data
soundBuffer.Write(lastWritten * 2, soundData, LockFlag.None);
// Save the position we were at
lastWritten = tmp;
}
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
this.running = false;
this.Resume();
if (this.soundBuffer != null)
{
this.soundBuffer.Dispose();
}
if (this.soundDevice != null)
{
this.soundDevice.Dispose();
}
}
}
}
The concept is the same that im using but i can't manage to get a set on wave byte [] data to play
I have not done this.
But the first place i would look is XNA.
I know that the c# managed directx project was ditched in favor of XNA and i have found it to be good for graphics - i prefer using it to directx.
what is the reason that you decided not to just use soundplayer, as per this msdn entry below?
private SoundPlayer Player = new SoundPlayer();
private void loadSoundAsync()
{
// Note: You may need to change the location specified based on
// the location of the sound to be played.
this.Player.SoundLocation = http://www.tailspintoys.com/sounds/stop.wav";
this.Player.LoadAsync();
}
private void Player_LoadCompleted (
object sender,
System.ComponentModel.AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (this.Player.IsLoadCompleted)
{
this.Player.PlaySync();
}
}
usually i just load them all up in a thread, or asynch delegate, then play or playsynch them when needed.
You can use the DirectSound support in SlimDX: http://slimdx.org/ :-)
You can use nBASS or better FMOD both are great audio libraries and can work nicely together with .NET.
DirectSound is where you want to go. It's a piece of cake to use, but I'm not sure what formats it can play besides .wav
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee416960(v=vs.85).aspx

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