Ubuntu Manpage: out123 - send raw PCM audio or a waveform pattern to an output device

NAME

       out123 - send raw PCM audio or a waveform pattern to an output device

SYNOPSIS

       cat audio.raw | out123 [ - ] [ options  ]

       out123 [ options ] filename [ filename ... ]

       out123 --wave-freq freq1[,freq2,...] [ options ]

       out123 --source geiger [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

       out123  reads  raw  PCM  data  (in  host byte order) from standard input and plays it on the audio device
       specified by given options.  Alternatively, it can generate  periodic  or  random  signals  for  playback
       itself.

OPTIONS

out123 options may be either the traditional POSIX one letter options, or the GNU style long options.
POSIX style options start with a single '-', while GNU long options start with '--'. Option arguments
(if needed) follow separated by whitespace (not '='). Note that some options can be absent from your
installation when disabled in the build process.

--name name
Set the name of this instance, possibly used in various places. This sets the client name for JACK
output.

-o module, --output module
Select audio output module. You can provide a comma-separated list to use the first one that
works. Also see -a.

--list-modules
List the available modules.

--list-devices
List the available output devices for given output module. If there is no functionality to list
devices in the chosen module, an error will be printed and out123 will exit with a non-zero code.

-a dev, --audiodevice dev
Specify the audio device to use. The default as well as the possible values depend on the active
output. For the JACK output, a comma-separated list of ports to connect to (for each channel) can
be specified.

-s, --stdout
The audio samples are written to standard output, instead of playing them through the audio
device. The output format is the same as the input ... so in this mode, out123 acts similar the
standard tool cat, possibly with some conversions involved. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o
raw -a -'.

-S, --STDOUT
This variant additionally writes the data to stdout, while still playing it on the output device.
So it is more like some flavour of tee than a cat.

-O file, --outfile
Write raw output into a file (instead of simply redirecting standard output to a file with the
shell). This shortcut is equivalent to '-o raw -a file'.

-w file, --wav
Write output as WAV file file , or standard output if - is or the empty string used as file name.
You can also use --au and --cdr for AU and CDR format, respectively. Note that WAV/AU writing to
non-seekable files or redirected stdout needs some thought. The header is written with the first
actual data. The result of decoding nothing to WAV/AU is a file consisting just of the header when
it is seekable and really nothing when not (not even a header). Correctly writing data with
prophetic headers to stdout is no easy business. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o wav -a file'.

--au file
Write to file in SUN audio format. If - or the empty string is used as the filename, the AU file
is written to stdout. See paragraph about WAV writing for header fun with non-seekable streams.
This shortcut is equivalent to '-o au -a file'.

--cdr file
Write to file as a CDR (CD-ROM audio, more correctly CDDA for Compact Disc Digital Audio). If -
is or the empty string used as the filename, the CDR file is written to stdout. This shortcut is
equivalent to '-o cdr -a file'.

-r rate, --rate rate
Set sample rate in Hz (default: 44100). If this does not match the actual input sampling rate, you
get changed pitch. Might be intentional;-)

-R rate, --inputrate rate
Set input sample rate to a different value. This triggers resampling if the output rate is indeed
different. See --resample.

--speed factor
Speed up/down playback by that factor using resampling. See --resample.

--resample method
This chooses the method for resampling between differing sampling rates or to apply a change in
tempo. You can choose between two variants of the syn123 resampler: fine (the default) and dirty.
The fine one features 108 dB dynamic range and at worst-case 84% bandwidth. The dirty one uses a
bit less CPU time (not that much, though) by reducing the dynamic range to 72 dB with worst-case
bandwidth of 85%. The exact properties vary with the sampling rate ratio, as there is
interpolation of filter coefficients involved.

-c count, --channels count
Set channel count to given value.

-C count, --inputch count
Set input channel count to a differnt value than for output. This probably means you want some
remixing. Also see --mix.

-e enc, --encoding enc
Choose output sample encoding. Possible values look like f32 (32-bit floating point), s32 (32-bit
signed integer), u32 (32-bit unsigned integer) and the variants with different numbers of bits
(s24, u24, s16, u16, s8, u8) and also special variants like ulaw and alaw 8-bit. See the output
of out123's longhelp for actually available encodings. Default is s16.

--endian choice
Select output endianess (byte order). Choice is big, little, or native, which is the default. The
processing can only work in native mode, so you need to specify input or output byte order if that
does not match your machine. This also sets the input endianess if that is not set separately. See
also --inputend and --byteswap.

-E enc, --inputenc enc
Specify input encoding different from output encoding for conversion.

--inputend choice
Select input endianess (byte order). By default it is the same as output byte order. See
--endian.

--byteswap
A switch to trigger swapping of byte order just before output, after any other transformations.
This works on top of any endianess you specify with

-m, --mono
Set for single-channel audio (default is two channels, stereo).

--stereo
Select stereo output (2 channels, default).

--list-encodings
List known encoding short and long names to standard output.

--mix matrix
Specify a mixing matrix between input and output channels as linear factors, comma separated list
for the input channel factors for output channel 1, then output channel 2, and so forth. The
default is a unit matrix if channel counts match, so for 3 channels the equivalent of both
channels with halved amplitude, so '--mix 0.5,0.5'. For splitting mono to stereo, it is '--mix
1,1' top keep the symmetry.

--filter coeff
Apply digital filter(s) before pre-amplification (see --preamp) with the coefficient list coeff as
b_0,...,b_N,a_0,...,a_N
where a_0=1 is mandatory and perhaps helps orientation a bit. Multiple filters are separated by
':'.

-P dbvalue --preamp dbvalue
Enable a pre-amplification stage that amplifies the signal with the given value in dB before
output.

--offset value
Apply a PCM offset (floating point value scaled in [-1:1] in the pre-amplification stage.
Normally, you would do that to correct a known DC offset in a recording.

--clip mode
Select clipping mode: 'soft' or 'hard' for forced clipping also for floating point output,
'implicit' (default) for implied hard clipping during conversion where necessary.

--dither
Enable dithering for conversions to integer. If you insist. This is just some un-spectacular TPDF
dither. For some people, that is not fancy enough. Most people cannot be bothered that way or the
other.

--test-format
Check if given format is supported by given driver and device (in command line before encountering
this), silently returning 0 as exit value if it is the case.

--test-encodings
Print out the short names of encodings supported with the current setup.

--query-format
If the selected driver and device communicate some default accepted format, print out a command
line fragment for out123 setting that format, always in that order: --rate <r> --channels <c>
--encoding <e>

-o h, --headphones
Direct audio output to the headphone connector (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN).

-o s, --speaker
Direct audio output to the speaker (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN).

-o l, --lineout
Direct audio output to the line-out connector (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN).

-b size, --buffer size
Use an audio output buffer of size Kbytes. This is useful to bypass short periods of heavy system
activity, which would normally cause the audio output to be interrupted. You should specify a
buffer size of at least 1024 (i.e. 1 Mb, which equals about 6 seconds of usual audio data) or
more; less than about 300 does not make much sense. The default is 0, which turns buffering off.

--preload fraction
Wait for the buffer to be filled to fraction before starting playback (fraction between 0 and 1).
You can tune this prebuffering to either get sound faster to your ears or safer uninterrupted web
radio. Default is 0.2 (changed from 1 since version 1.23).

--devbuffer seconds
Set device buffer in seconds; <= 0 means default value. This is the small buffer between the
application and the audio backend, possibly directly related to hardware buffers.

--timelimit samples
Set playback time limit in PCM samples if set to a value greater than zero. out123 will stop
reading from stdin or playing from the generated wave table after reaching that number of samples.

--seconds seconds
Set time limit in seconds instead.

--source name
Choose the signal source: 'file' (default) for playback of the given file(s) on the command line
or standard input if there are none, or one of the generators 'wave' (see --wave-freq), geiger
(see --geiger-activity), or just 'white' for some white noise.

--wave-freq frequencies
Set wave generator frequency or list of those with comma separation for enabling a generated test
signal instead of standard input. Empty values repeat the previous one.

--wave-pat patterns
Set the waveform patterns of the generated waves as comma-separated list. Choices include sine,
square, triangle, sawtooth, gauss, pulse, and shot. Empty values repeat the previous one.

--wave-phase phases
Set waveform phase shift(s) as comma-separated list, negative values inverting the pattern in time
and empty value repeating the previous. There is also --wave-direction overriding the negative
bit.

--wave-direction
Set wave direction explicitly (the sign counts).

--wave-sweep frequency
Sweep a generated wave to the given frequency, from first one specified for --wave-freq, using the
first wave pattern and direction, too.

--sweep-time seconds
Set frequency sweep duration in seconds if > 0. This defaults to the configured time limit if set,
otherwise one second, as endless sweeps are not sensible.

--sweep-count count
Set timelimit to exactly produce that many (smooth) sweeps

--sweep-type type
Set sweep type: lin(ear) for linear, qua(d) (default) for quadratic, or exp(onential) for an
exponential change of frequency with time.

--sweep-hard
Disable post-sweep smoothing for periodicity.

--genbuffer bytes
Set the buffer size (limit) for signal generators, if > 0 (default), this enforces a periodic
buffer also for non-periodic signals, benefit: less runtime CPU overhead, as everything is
precomputed as enforced periodic signal.

--wave-limit samples
This is an alias for --genbuffer.

--pink-rows number
Activate pink noise source and choose rows for the algorithm (<1 chooses default). The generator
follows code provided by Phil Burk (http://softsynth.com) and uses the Gardner method.

--geiger-activity number
This configures the simulation of a Geiger-Mueller counter as source, with the given numer as
average events per second. Play with it. It's fun!

-t, --test
Test mode. The audio stream is read, but no output occurs.

-v, --verbose
Increase the verbosity level.

-q, --quiet
Quiet. Suppress diagnostic messages.

--aggressive
Tries to get higher priority

-T, --realtime
Tries to gain realtime priority. This option usually requires root privileges to have any effect.

-?, --help
Shows short usage instructions.

--longhelp
Shows long usage instructions.

--version
Print the version string.

AUTHORS

       Maintainer:
              Thomas Orgis <maintainer@mpg123.org>, <thomas@orgis.org>

       Creator (ancestry of code inside mpg123):
              Michael Hipp

       Uses code or ideas from various people, see the AUTHORS file accompanying the source code.

LICENSE

       out123 is licensed under the GNU Lesser/Library General Public License, LGPL, version 2.1 .

WEBSITE

       http://www.mpg123.org
       http://sourceforge.net/projects/mpg123

                                                   26 Apr 2020                                         out123(1)