BTW, working on a hardware mod to this module that will allow me to access the SD card directly so that I can read other files from the card (but not while an MP3 is playing of course.) I am seriously condiering designing my own module which handles all the FAT stuff, the MP3 stuff, etc... while allowing direct access to files. Similar to the way the VMUSIC2 module works, but letting me use microSD cards instead.
It seems that every MP3 module I find out there just doesn't do what we really need it to do. Which, for me anyway, is to play specific MP3s without any real overhead to the microcontroller, allow FAT access without any overhead to the micro, and allow me to access other files on the card. Again, the VMUSIC2 does do all this, but it only works for USB sticks. I want something that uses SD or microSD.
I have been playing around with directly controlling an SD card and MP3 chip with the arduino, but it requires so many of the pins, so much of the resources, all the RAM, and such huge code size, that you can't really do anything else BUT make an MP3 player out of it.
If someone knows of a module that exists that does all of that already and doesn't cost a bazillion dollars, I would love to hear about it!