# How to get audio file played not following timeline but linked to parameter?

**URL:** <https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849>\
**Category:** FMOD Studio\
**Created:** [June 4, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849 "2020-06-04T21:48:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cristianoavini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@cristianoavini](https://qa.fmod.com/u/cristianoavini)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2020, 9:48pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849/1 "2020-06-04T21:48:05Z")

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Hi, I’m sure it’s a very trivial function but I cannot get round to it. I have an audio file and I want the playback to be driven time wise by a parameter instead of the normal timeline clock. Technically it’s a time stretch/compress function in real time. Of course the function needs to be able to play the sound both forward and backward. Any pointers? Thanks!

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**Author:** ![richard\_simms](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/richard_simms/32/261_2.png) [@richard\_simms](https://qa.fmod.com/u/richard_simms)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 2:17am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849/2 "2020-06-22T02:17:40Z")

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Currently, this isn’t a feature in FMOD Studio. You might be able to code yourself a “scrubbing” function using the FMOD Core API but this would be a large project.

Perhaps a quicker and simpler project would be to have a parameter that contains a “reverse” track. When needed, the reverse parameter plays a faux reverse sound and then you can use `EventInstance::setTimelinePosition()` to put the event instance back to whatever position is needed.

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**Author:** ![cristianoavini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@cristianoavini](https://qa.fmod.com/u/cristianoavini)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849/3 "2020-06-22T15:44:12Z")

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Richard,

Thank you so much, this helps a lot!

I’m a relatively new user and initially thought I was possibly missing something obvious.

I will be looking into the possibility of developing the function as you suggested, unless you tell me that you guys are working on it and it may be something FMOD may feature in the near future.

Thank you again for your support!

Best,

Cristiano

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**Author:** ![richard\_simms](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/qa.fmod.com/richard_simms/32/261_2.png) [@richard\_simms](https://qa.fmod.com/u/richard_simms)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://qa.fmod.com/t/how-to-get-audio-file-played-not-following-timeline-but-linked-to-parameter/15849/4 "2020-06-25T05:15:46Z")

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This isn’t a feature on our roadmap but I can make a feature suggestion in our tracking system.