Create a virtual DJ on your Raspberry Pi

29 September 2022

I had a funny idea about using text to speech together with MP3s to create a virtual radio station. All the fun and trivia of the radio, but with complete control of the playlist and the DJ's jokes. Now that idea has been realised in my latest Raspberry Pi project, Raspberry Radio. You give the Python program an MP3 collection and a set of jingles, and it creates a personalised radio station just for you. Before each song, the program uses text to speech to tell you something about the track, such as what type of music it is or when it was released. It works by pulling information from the tags in the MP3 files. Every few songs, the program reads out the news and weather, using the Newsreader program that was published previously.

Like ArtEvolver before it, one of the things I love about this project is that it's easy for anyone to customise. As a minimum, it can be fed your favourite music. You can, though, also tailor what the DJ says and change the news source to your favourite publication. The project has been designed to work with a Display-O-Tron HAT if you have one (and can be modified to use a PiGlow for disco lights instead), but it works without any special equipment. You can even run it on a Windows PC.

I hope that the project also sparks some ideas in readers about how they can use the various technologies demonstrated, such as text to speech, MP3 tag reading, playing music in Python, and reading RSS and JSON files. There's lots to learn by studying the code.

Raspberry Radio appears in a four-page tutorial in issue 122 of The MagPi, the official Raspberry Pi magazine. The article contains the complete code and instructions, and a breakdown of how it works. You can download the PDF for free, but may choose to support the magazine with a donation or by buying a print copy. The newsreader part of the project was covered in the issue 121.

Why not download my album of electronic music, Artificial, to use with Raspberry Radio or add to your collection?

In other magazine news, issue 5 of Amtix, the Amstrad CPC magazine is also out now. I wrote a one-page retrospective on Get Dexter, and the mag is packed with news and reviews from the Amstrad scene. There's a hardback Amtix annual available for pre-order now, which I've also contributed to. I don't think I can tell you what's in it yet, but I've seen it and it is looking great!

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Dip into the blog archive

June 2005 | September 2005 | January 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | November 2006 | December 2006 | February 2007 | March 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | August 2007 | September 2007 | October 2007 | November 2007 | December 2007 | January 2008 | February 2008 | March 2008 | April 2008 | May 2008 | June 2008 | July 2008 | August 2008 | September 2008 | October 2008 | November 2008 | December 2008 | January 2009 | February 2009 | March 2009 | April 2009 | May 2009 | June 2009 | July 2009 | August 2009 | September 2009 | October 2009 | November 2009 | December 2009 | January 2010 | February 2010 | March 2010 | April 2010 | May 2010 | June 2010 | August 2010 | September 2010 | October 2010 | November 2010 | December 2010 | March 2011 | April 2011 | May 2011 | June 2011 | July 2011 | August 2011 | September 2011 | October 2011 | November 2011 | December 2011 | January 2012 | February 2012 | March 2012 | June 2012 | July 2012 | August 2012 | September 2012 | October 2012 | December 2012 | January 2013 | February 2013 | March 2013 | April 2013 | June 2013 | July 2013 | August 2013 | September 2013 | October 2013 | November 2013 | December 2013 | January 2014 | February 2014 | March 2014 | April 2014 | May 2014 | June 2014 | July 2014 | August 2014 | September 2014 | October 2014 | November 2014 | December 2014 | January 2015 | February 2015 | March 2015 | April 2015 | May 2015 | June 2015 | September 2015 | October 2015 | December 2015 | January 2016 | February 2016 | March 2016 | May 2016 | July 2016 | August 2016 | September 2016 | October 2016 | November 2016 | December 2016 | January 2017 | July 2017 | August 2017 | October 2017 | November 2017 | January 2018 | February 2018 | August 2018 | October 2018 | November 2018 | December 2018 | January 2019 | March 2019 | June 2019 | August 2019 | September 2019 | October 2019 | January 2020 | February 2020 | March 2020 | April 2020 | May 2020 | June 2020 | September 2020 | October 2020 | December 2020 | January 2021 | February 2021 | May 2021 | June 2021 | October 2021 | November 2021 | December 2021 | January 2022 | February 2022 | March 2022 | May 2022 | July 2022 | August 2022 | September 2022 | December 2022 | March 2023 | April 2023 | May 2023 | June 2023 | October 2023 | November 2023 | January 2024 | February 2024 | May 2024 | June 2024 | July 2024 | September 2024 | Top of this page |