[Sideshow]

heres some code for making a simple audio player.... i'm sure you can slice up what you need.

// you will need to use javax.sound.sampled.SourceDataLine
// and javax.sound.sampled.TargetDataLine to read and write to audio buffers
// for sample code see 	http://www.jsresources.org/examples/audio_misc.html
//						http://javaalmanac.com/egs/javax.sound.sampled/StreamAudio.html
// 						  http://207.150.176.83/archive/index.php?t-54523.html

//package je3.sound;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;
import javax.swing.border.*;
import javax.sound.sampled.*;


/**
 * This class is a Swing component that can load and play a sound clip,
 * displaying progress and controls.  The main( ) method is a test program.
 * This component can play sampled audio or MIDI files, but handles them 
 * differently. For sampled audio, time is reported in microseconds, tracked in
 * milliseconds and displayed in seconds and tenths of seconds. For midi
 * files time is reported, tracked, and displayed in MIDI "ticks".
 * This program does no transcoding, so it can only play sound files that use
 * the PCM encoding.
 */
public class AudioPlayer extends JComponent 
{
	Clip clip;			   // Contents of a sampled audio file
	boolean playing = false; // whether the sound is currently playing

	// Length and position of the sound are measured in milliseconds for 
	// sampled sounds and MIDI "ticks" for MIDI sounds
	int audioLength;		 // Length of the sound.  
	int audioPosition = 0;   // Current position within the sound

	// The following fields are for the GUI
	JButton play;			 // The Play/Stop button
	JSlider progress;		 // Shows and sets current position in sound
	JLabel time;			  // Displays audioPosition as a number
	Timer timer;			  // Updates slider every 100 milliseconds

	// The main method just creates a AudioPlayer in a Frame and displays it
	public static void main(String[  ] args) 
		throws IOException,
			   UnsupportedAudioFileException,
			   LineUnavailableException
	{
		AudioPlayer player;

		File file = new File("test.wav");//args[0]);   // This is the file we'll be playing
		// Determine whether it is midi or sampled audio

		// Create a AudioPlayer object to play the sound.
		player = new AudioPlayer(file);

		// Put it in a window and play it
		JFrame f = new JFrame("AudioPlayer");
		f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
		f.getContentPane( ).add(player, "Center");
		f.pack( );
		f.setVisible(true);
	}

	// Create a AudioPlayer component for the specified file.
	public AudioPlayer(File f)
		throws IOException,
			   UnsupportedAudioFileException,
			   LineUnavailableException
	{

		// Getting a Clip object for a file of sampled audio data is kind
		// of cumbersome.  The following lines do what we need.
		AudioInputStream ain = AudioSystem.getAudioInputStream(f);
		try {
			DataLine.Info info =
				new DataLine.Info(Clip.class,ain.getFormat( ));
			clip = (Clip) AudioSystem.getLine(info);
			clip.open(ain);
		}
		finally { // We're done with the input stream.
			ain.close( );
		}
		// Get the clip length in microseconds and convert to milliseconds
		audioLength = (int)(clip.getMicrosecondLength( )/1000);


		// Now create the basic GUI
		play = new JButton("Play");				// Play/stop button
		progress = new JSlider(0, audioLength, 0); // Shows position in sound
		time = new JLabel("0");					// Shows position as a #

		// When clicked, start or stop playing the sound
		play.addActionListener(new ActionListener( ) {
				public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) 
				{
					if (playing) stop( ); 
					else 		play( );
				}
			});

		// Whenever the slider value changes, first update the time label.
		// Next, if we're not already at the new position, skip to it.
		progress.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener( ) {
				public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) 
				{
					int value = progress.getValue( );
					time.setText(value/1000 + "." + (value%1000)/100);   // Update the time label
					if (value != audioPosition) skip(value);			 // If we're not already there, skip there.
				}
			});
		
		// This timer calls the tick( ) method 10 times a second to keep 
		// our slider in sync with the music.
		timer = new javax.swing.Timer(100, new ActionListener( ) 
			{
				public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { tick( ); }
			});
		
		// put those controls in a row
		Box row = Box.createHorizontalBox( );
		row.add(play);
		row.add(progress);
		row.add(time);
		
		// And add them to this component.
		setLayout(new BoxLayout(this, BoxLayout.Y_AXIS));
		this.add(row);

		// Now add additional controls based on the type of the sound
		addSampledControls( );
	}

	// Start playing the sound at the current position 
	public void play( ) 
	{
		clip.start( );
		timer.start( );
		play.setText("Stop");
		playing = true;
	}

	// Stop playing the sound, but retain the current position 
	public void stop( ) 
	{
		timer.stop( );
		clip.stop( );
		play.setText("Play");
		playing = false;
	}

	// Stop playing the sound and reset the position to 0
	public void reset( ) 
	{
		stop( );
		clip.setMicrosecondPosition(0);
		audioPosition = 0; 
		progress.setValue(0);
	}

	// Skip to the specified position 
	public void skip(int position) // Called when user drags the slider
	{ 
		if (position < 0 || position > audioLength) return;
		audioPosition = position;
		clip.setMicrosecondPosition(position * 1000);
		progress.setValue(position); // in case skip( ) is called from outside
	}

	// Return the length of the sound in ms or ticks 
	public int getLength( ) { return audioLength; }

	// An internal method that updates the progress bar.
	// The Timer object calls it 10 times a second.
	// If the sound has finished, it resets to the beginning
	void tick( ) 
	{
 		if (clip.isActive( )) 
		{
			audioPosition = (int)(clip.getMicrosecondPosition( )/1000);
			progress.setValue(audioPosition);
		}
		else reset( );  
	}

	// For sampled sounds, add sliders to control volume and balance
	void addSampledControls( ) 
	{
		try {
			FloatControl gainControl =
				(FloatControl)clip.getControl(FloatControl.Type.MASTER_GAIN);
			if (gainControl != null) this.add(createSlider(gainControl));
		}
		catch(IllegalArgumentException e) {
			// If MASTER_GAIN volume control is unsupported, just skip it
		}

		try {
			// FloatControl.Type.BALANCE is probably the correct control to
			// use here, but it doesn't work for me, so I use PAN instead.
			FloatControl panControl =
				(FloatControl)clip.getControl(FloatControl.Type.PAN);
			if (panControl != null) this.add(createSlider(panControl));
		}
		catch(IllegalArgumentException e) {  }
	}


	// Return a JSlider component to manipulate the supplied FloatControl
	// for sampled audio.
	JSlider createSlider(final FloatControl c) 
	{
		if (c == null) return null;
		final JSlider s = new JSlider(0, 1000);
		final float min = c.getMinimum( );
		final float max = c.getMaximum( );
		final float width = max-min;
		float fval = c.getValue( );
		s.setValue((int) ((fval-min)/width * 1000));

		java.util.Hashtable labels = new java.util.Hashtable(3);
		labels.put(new Integer(0), new JLabel(c.getMinLabel( )));
		labels.put(new Integer(500), new JLabel(c.getMidLabel( )));
		labels.put(new Integer(1000), new JLabel(c.getMaxLabel( )));
		s.setLabelTable(labels);
		s.setPaintLabels(true);

		s.setBorder(new TitledBorder(c.getType( ).toString( ) + " " +
									 c.getUnits( )));

		s.addChangeListener(new ChangeListener( ) {
				public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) 
				{
					int i = s.getValue( );
					float f = min + (i*width/1000.0f);
					c.setValue(f);
				}
			});
		return s;
	}

}

[rake]

Yeah, always make sure you run it as a thread, otherwise you won't be able to do anything with the program while the sound is running.

[Sideshow]

Yeah i'd go with code Smartin provided, as you probably wont have much need for some of the things in the one i put up.

As we're on this topic, anyone got any info on implementing a text-to-speech synthesizer in java? I've got to make one for a uni class and if anyone knows of any good resources that'd be cool.