I want to listen to two songs at once

2016-10-31 23:33:22

I like to hear chamber music in the background when I am listening to an audiobook. Although I can do this by importing the mp3s into a sound editing app like audition or audacity, I would like to do it on my iPhone or DAP. Is there an app that could do this?

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #1 – 2016-11-01 00:18:43

Audio on phones and dedicated players is mostly single-source only. I'm not sure if you will find an app for that.
An audio mixing application could help (they are more for tablets than phones), but I haven't explored that market much.

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #2 – 2016-11-01 09:33:49

I realize this is not what you are asking for, but, since I doubt there's anything like that, specially not in a DAP, you'll probably need to use a two way connector in order to plug the headphone outputs of two devices to a single pair of headphones and have one with the audio book and another with the music.

Other than pre-mixing in an audio editor, you could also try to produce some sort of multichannel audio file by muxing toghether the streams.

I know next to nothing about the state of the "apps" market for Android, much less for Apple stuff. Maybe somebody has already produced the such, but sounds a bit far fetched, maybe?

If you haven't already, you could try running two different players concurrently, one for each thing each thing. I suspect there must be some system service arbitrating access to the sound device preventing both to sound at the same time, but, in your situation it's worth a shot, I'd say. Maybe there's even some configuration so both are allowed to sound at the same time.

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #3 – 2016-11-01 12:38:39

Sending the output of two sources to a single element should not be used without an intermediate device like a mixer. While it should work for a while, components can be damaged because of the current coming from where it should not.

Sending the output of one source to two or more elements can be done, if caution is taken on the total resistance (Ohm) of the devices connected, so that it is kept within the working range and it is not overloaded.

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #4 – 2016-11-01 16:01:17

Maybe something like this: https://www.algoriddim.com/djay-iphone

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #5 – 2016-11-02 12:47:20

There are several "DJ" apps that allow this. I just tested with "Traktor DJ for iPhone", and it's easy.

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #6 – 2016-11-02 23:30:18

Thank you for your suggestions. I tried edging mix, DJplayer pro, and cross DJ. However, these apps are designed for short mp3s. And I am having trouble adding a bunch of songs to a queue so that 40 classical tracks play while my 500 meg audio book plays in the other slot. Their UIs are pretty complex. I don't need all the fancy effects. Does anyone know which is the simplest app?

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #7 – 2016-11-03 09:13:46

Basically you need two independent players, both with its own playlist and volume slider, possibly eq (No idea how would that work on the phone).

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #8 – 2016-11-04 21:23:55

You could get an extra mp3 player and hardware mixer both for not much money. Simple solution with a lot of versatility.

AGPtEK-Player

Behringer-502-XENYX502

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #9 – 2016-11-05 15:38:46

Don't know about iOS, but on Android starting playback in one player will pause playback in any other player (this is called "Audio Focus"). Some advanced players allow you to disable this feature.
Another solution is players that play two tracks in a single app. Apart from the DJ apps already mentioned, there are apps that let you play different tracks on the left and right channel (e.g. DUAL Music Player, Double Player, Splitr).

Re: I want to listen to two songs at once

Reply #10 – 2016-11-07 20:24:49

thank you. these apps seem to do what i want. I think i'll just get a stereo to mono converter as well so i can hearboththings concurrently through both sides of the headphones.