sfplay(1)sfplay(1)NAMEsfplay - play soundfile
SYNOPSISsfplay [ options ... ] soundfiles ...
where options are:
-printinfo
-reporterror
-inputraw [ input keywords ... ] end
-nice
-device <device>
-transpose <rate>
-gain <gain>
DESCRIPTIONsfplay plays the given soundfile(s). It will play files in many formats
not supported by the audio hardware, by automatically converting the data
as it is played.
If invoked with no arguments, sfplay will display help.
By default, sfplay ignores any file specified that is not a valid
soundfile, reporting no error. The -reporterror (-r) option tells sfplay
to report an error in this case.
It is often useful to see information about soundfiles as they are
played. The -printinfo option prints this information in "sfinfo -s"-
format.
By default, sfplay will set the hardware sampling rate to the rate of the
file(s) being played. If the specified audio hardware is being used
(that is, another application has an output port open, or monitoring is
enabled) at the time a given file is played, sfplay will rate-convert the
sound to match the current output port setting.
Since rate-conversion will consume processor cycles, the -nice option can
be specified so that sfplay will not change the hardware sampling rate or
rate-convert. This will result in the file sounding incorrect, but the
application using the audio device previously will not be disturbed, and
rate-conversion overhead will be spared. The -rude option can also be
specified, in which case sfplay will force the current audio hardware
sampling rate to the rate of the file(s) being played. In this case, the
application using the audio device previously will be disturbed by the
rate change. Finally, the -match option can be specified, which will
always rate-convert the sound to the current audio hardware sampling
rate, regardless of whether the audio hardware is being used by another
application.
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sfplay(1)sfplay(1)sfplay will also rate-convert the sound to match the current output port
setting when the audio device specified does not support the native
sampling rate of the file(s) being played. The -nice option can be used
to override the default in this case as well.
This program will play audio files in any recognized audio format (i.e.,
any sample width, byte order, sample type, channel count) including all
supported compression types. It will play sounds with any number of
channels (mixing them down as is appropriate), will play at any of the
standard sampling rates appearing on the Audio Control Panel, and will
convert any other rates to match. As a special case it will play codec-
rate (8012.8210513 Hz) files at 8000.00 Hz, and issue a warning to this
effect. The -transpose option tells sfplay to play a soundfile at an
alternate sampling rate, as set by <rate>. The -gain option tells sfplay
to apply anywhere from 30dB of attenuation (-30dB) to 6dB of gain (+6dB)
to the audio output. The gain value should be specified in a floating
point format (-30.0 to 6.0).
RAW DATAsfplay can also play soundfiles which contain raw (headerless) data. In
this case the data format must be specified, using the appropriate
keywords with the -inputraw (-i) option.
For example, many Macintosh and PC soundfiles are actually raw data files
containing 8-bit unsigned mono or interleaved stereo samples. For these
files, the sampling rate is generally 8 kHz or 22.05 kHz. So this
statement,
sfplay-i integer 8 unsigned chan 2 rate 8000 end raw.mac
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
will play such a raw data file at 8 kHz.
The keywords are underlined. Don't forget the 'end' ! It tells sfplay
when the keywords end and the other options and filenames begin.
See sfkeywords(1) for a complete description of the keywords used to
describe soundfile formats.
It is also possible, and perhaps preferable, to first convert the raw
data to a soundfile such as an aiff file with sfconvert(1), and then
simply say "sfplay file.aif" .
HARDWAREsfplay works only on systems with Iris Audio Processor.
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sfplay(1)sfplay(1)BUGSsfplay will not play 4-channel files. It currently assumes the hardware
can only play mono and stereo files. This will be amended in a future
release. You can use playaifc to play 4-channel AIFF/AIFF-C files.
AUTHOR
Silicon Graphics Inc.; Apple Computer, Inc. for AIFF code.
SEE ALSOintro(3a) for more about the audio library. sfinfo(1), sfconvert(1),
sfkeywords(1), dmconvert(1).
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