# Is there a limited duration for sound stimuli in the builder?

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458>\
**Category:** Builder\
**Created:** [October 22, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458 "2020-10-22T13:11:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Joan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Joan](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Joan)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 1:11pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458/1 "2020-10-22T13:11:32Z")

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Hi Psychopy community,

I am wandering if sound’s duration is limited in the builder ?  
Indeed, the experiment I constructed, I have several sound files (.wav) with different length (20sec for the longest, 4s for shortest). All the sound path are in an excel sheet and I use the variables names in a loop component to access the different stimuli. Everything works find. But, strangely, all my sounds are cut after 8 seconds without any error message… 🤔

So, do you know if the sound length is limited in the builder? Or do someone have an idea why my sounds could be cut after 8 seconds ?

Thanks in advance !

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**Author:** ![Clemencennl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Clemencennl](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Clemencennl)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 1:16pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458/2 "2020-10-22T13:16:30Z")

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Hi,

In the properties of your sound, are you sure you haven’t defined a duration or a “stop”? Because if you don’t have an error message it’s weird that the sound stops by itself.

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**Author:** ![Joan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Joan](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Joan)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2020, 1:22pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458/3 "2020-10-22T13:22:35Z")

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Hi Clemencennl,

Yes, the Stop parameter in the properties window is blank. So in theory, the sound should play during its entire duration but it’s not the case. And you’re right, it is weird.

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**Author:** ![TParsons](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/tparsons/32/8301_2.png) [@TParsons](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/TParsons)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2020, 10:05am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458/4 "2020-10-29T10:05:13Z")

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The lack of an error message may be something unrelated - are you using 2020.2.5? We added a fix in that version for the lack of error messages, so if you update it may be that error messages become visible and then we can get a bit deeper into what’s going on here

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**Author:** ![Joan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@Joan](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Joan)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2020, 10:25am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/is-there-a-limited-duration-for-sound-stimuli-in-the-builder/17458/5 "2020-11-03T10:25:32Z")

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It’s look like I found the solution ! It’s seems that the sound were cut because of the python library Psychopy used to play the sounds. So I changed, in the audio parameters, the default settings for (respectively) latency and python library to :

- Latency Critical
- Pyo

I don’t really know why it works but it works so it’s enought for me 😅

Anyway, thanks for the help !

PS : To answer your question TParsons, yes I am using the 2020.2.5 version.