1APLAY(1)                    General Commands Manual                   APLAY(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       arecord, aplay - command-line sound recorder and player for ALSA sound‐
7       card driver
8

SYNOPSIS

10       arecord [flags] [filename]
11       aplay [flags] [filename [filename]] ...
12
13

DESCRIPTION

15       arecord is a command-line soundfile recorder  for  the  ALSA  soundcard
16       driver.  It  supports several file formats and multiple soundcards with
17       multiple devices. If recording with interleaved mode samples  the  file
18       is automatically split before the 2GB filesize.
19
20       aplay  is  much  the same, only it plays instead of recording. For sup‐
21       ported soundfile formats, the sampling rate, bit depth,  and  so  forth
22       can be automatically determined from the soundfile header.
23
24       If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is used. The
25       aplay utility accepts multiple filenames.
26
27

OPTIONS

29       -h, --help
30              Help: show syntax.
31
32       --version
33              Print current version.
34
35       -l, --list-devices
36              List all soundcards and digital audio devices
37
38       -L, --list-pcms
39              List all PCMs defined
40
41       -D, --device=NAME
42              Select PCM by name
43
44       -q --quiet
45              Quiet mode. Suppress messages (not sound :))
46
47       -t, --file-type TYPE
48              File type (voc, wav, raw or au).  If this parameter  is  omitted
49              the WAVE format is used.
50
51       -c, --channels=#
52              The number of channels.  The default is one channel.  Valid val‐
53              ues are 1 through 32.
54
55       -f --format=FORMAT
56              Sample format
57              Recognized sample formats are: S8 U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE U16_BE
58              S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE
59              FLOAT_BE FLOAT64_LE  FLOAT64_BE  IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE  IEC958_SUB‐
60              FRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM SPECIAL S24_3LE S24_3BE
61              U24_3LE U24_3BE S20_3LE S20_3BE U20_3LE U20_3BE S18_3LE  S18_3BE
62              U18_3LE
63              Some of these may not be available on selected hardware
64              The available format shortcuts are:
65              -f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
66              -f cdr (16 bit big endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_BE -c2 -r44100]
67              -f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r48000]
68              If no format is given U8 is used.
69
70       -r, --rate=#<Hz>
71              Sampling  rate in Hertz. The default rate is 8000 Hertz.  If the
72              value specified is less than 300, it is taken  as  the  rate  in
73              kilohertz.  Valid values are 2000 through 192000 Hertz.
74
75       -d, --duration=#
76              Interrupt after # seconds.  A value of zero means infinity.  The
77              default  is  zero,  so  if  this  option  is  omitted  then  the
78              record/playback  process  will  run  until it is killed.  Either
79              '-d' or '-s' option is available exclusively.
80
81       -s, --samples=#
82              Interrupt after transmission of # PCM frames.  A value  of  zero
83              means  infinity.   The  default  is  zero, so if this options is
84              omitted then the record/playback process will run  until  it  is
85              killed.  Either '-d' or '-s' option is available exclusively.
86
87       -M, --mmap
88              Use memory-mapped (mmap) I/O mode for the audio stream.  If this
89              option is not set, the read/write I/O mode will be used.
90
91       -N, --nonblock
92              Open the audio device in non-blocking mode.  If  the  device  is
93              busy  the  program will exit immediately.  If this option is not
94              set the program will block until the audio device  is  available
95              again.
96
97       -F, --period-time=#
98              Distance  between  interrupts  is  # microseconds.  If no period
99              time and no period size is given then a quarter  of  the  buffer
100              time is set.
101
102       -B, --buffer-time=#
103              Buffer  duration is # microseconds If no buffer time and no buf‐
104              fer size is given then the maximal allowed buffer time  but  not
105              more than 500ms is set.
106
107       --period-size=#
108              Distance between interrupts is # frames If no period size and no
109              period time is given then a quarter of the buffer size is set.
110
111       --buffer-size=#
112              Buffer duration is # frames If no buffer time and no buffer size
113              is  given then the maximal allowed buffer time but not more than
114              500ms is set.
115
116       -A, --avail-min=#
117              Min available space for wakeup is # microseconds
118
119       -R, --start-delay=#
120              Delay for automatic PCM start is  #  microseconds  (relative  to
121              buffer size if <= 0)
122
123       -T, --stop-delay=#
124              Delay for automatic PCM stop is # microseconds from xrun
125
126       -v, --verbose
127              Show PCM structure and setup.  This option is accumulative.  The
128              VU meter is displayed when this is given twice or three times.
129
130       -V, --vumeter=TYPE
131              Specifies the VU-meter type, either stereo or mono.  The  stereo
132              VU-meter  is  available  only  for 2-channel stereo samples with
133              interleaved format.
134
135       -I, --separate-channels
136              One file for each channel.  This option  disables  max-file-time
137              and  use-strftime,  and ignores SIGUSR1.  The stereo VU meter is
138              not available with separate channels.
139
140       -P     Playback.  This is the default if the program is invoked by typ‐
141              ing aplay.
142
143       -C     Record.  This is the default if the program is invoked by typing
144              arecord.
145
146       -i, --interactive
147              Allow  interactive  operation   via   stdin.    Currently   only
148              pause/resume via space or enter key is implemented.
149
150       -m, --chmap=ch1,ch2,...
151              Give  the channel map to override or follow.  Pass channel posi‐
152              tion strings like FL, FR, etc.
153
154              If a device supports the override  of  the  channel  map,  aplay
155              tries  to pass the given channel map.  If it doesn't support the
156              channel map override but  still  it  provides  the  channel  map
157              information,  aplay  tries to rearrange the channel order in the
158              buffer to match with the returned channel map from the device.
159
160       --disable-resample
161              Disable automatic rate resample.
162
163       --disable-channels
164              Disable automatic channel conversions.
165
166       --disable-format
167              Disable automatic format conversions.
168
169       --disable-softvol
170              Disable software volume control (softvol).
171
172       --test-position
173              Test ring buffer position.
174
175       --test-coef=<coef>
176              Test  coefficient  for  ring  buffer  position;  default  is  8.
177              Expression for validation is: coef * (buffer_size / 2).  Minimum
178              value is 1.
179
180       --test-nowait
181              Do not wait for the ring buffer ‐ eats the whole CPU.
182
183       --max-file-time
184              While recording, when the  output  file  has  been  accumulating
185              sound  for  this  long,  close  it  and  open a new output file.
186              Default is the maximum size supported by the file format: 2  GiB
187              for  WAV  files.  This option has no effect if  --separate-chan‐
188              nels is specified.
189
190       --process-id-file <file name>
191              aplay writes its process ID here, so  other  programs  can  send
192              signals to it.
193
194       --use-strftime
195              When  recording,  interpret  %-codes  in the file name parameter
196              using the strftime facility whenever the output file is  opened.
197              The  important  strftime codes are: %Y is the year, %m month, %d
198              day of the month, %H hour, %M minute and %S  second.   In  addi‐
199              tion, %v is the file number, starting at 1.  When this option is
200              specified, intermediate directories for the output file are cre‐
201              ated  automatically.   This  option  has  no  effect  if --sepa‐
202              rate-channels is specified.
203
204       --dump-hw-params
205              Dump hw_params of the device preconfigured status to stderr. The
206              dump lists capabilities of the selected device such as supported
207              formats, sampling rates, numbers of channels, period and  buffer
208              bytes/sizes/times.   For  raw  device hw:X this option basically
209              lists hardware capabilities of the soundcard.
210
211       --fatal-errors
212              Disables recovery attempts when errors (e.g. xrun)  are  encoun‐
213              tered; the aplay process instead aborts immediately.
214
215

SIGNALS

217       When  recording, SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT will close the output file
218       and exit.  SIGUSR1 will close the output file, open a new one, and con‐
219       tinue  recording.  However, SIGUSR1 does not work with --separate-chan‐
220       nels.
221
222

EXAMPLES

224       aplay -c 1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law foobar
225              will play the raw file "foobar"  as  a  22050-Hz,  mono,  8-bit,
226              Mu-Law .au file.
227
228
229       arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D copy foobar.wav
230              will  record  foobar.wav  as  a 10-second, CD-quality wave file,
231              using the PCM "copy" (which  might  be  defined  in  the  user's
232              .asoundrc file as:
233              pcm.copy {
234                type plug
235                slave {
236                  pcm hw
237                }
238                route_policy copy
239              }
240
241
242       arecord -t wav --max-file-time 30 mon.wav
243              Record  from the default audio source in monaural, 8,000 samples
244              per second, 8 bits per sample.  Start a new file every  30  sec‐
245              onds.   File  names  are mon-nn.wav, where nn increases from 01.
246              The file after mon-99.wav is mon-100.wav.
247
248
249       arecord -f cd -t wav --max-file-time 3600 --use-strftime  %Y/%m/%d/lis‐
250       ten-%H-%M-%v.wav
251              Record  in  stereo  from the default audio source.  Create a new
252              file every hour.  The files are placed in directories  based  on
253              their start dates and have names which include their start times
254              and file numbers.
255
256

SEE ALSO

258        alsamixer(1), amixer(1)
259
260

BUGS

262       Note that .aiff files are not currently supported.
263
264

AUTHOR

266       arecord and aplay are by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz> This document
267       is by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.  Updated for Alsa 0.9 by James
268       Tappin <james@xena.uklinux.net>
269
270
271
272
273                                1 January 2010                        APLAY(1)
Impressum