1AUDEMO(1) General Commands Manual AUDEMO(1)
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6 audemo - Network Audio System record and play demo
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9 audemo [-audio servername] [-toolkitoption ...] [directory]
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12 audemo provides an X-based window-oriented user interface to the Net‐
13 work Audio System service. It allows the user to play pre-recorded
14 sound files, record new sound files and to manipulate Network Audio
15 System buckets.
16
18 audemo uses the X Toolkit Intrinsics and the Athena Widget Set. For
19 more information, see the Athena Widget Set documentation.
20
22 audemo starts out with a single window divided into several areas:
23 o A collection of command buttons.
25 o A left and right level meter.
27 o A volume indicator and control slider.
29 o An information window.
31 o An editable field containing the directory to be searched for sound
33 files.
34 o An editable field containing a list of sound files to search for.
36 o A window containing the list of sound files that may be selected
38 for playing or loading into buckets.
39
41 To play a sound file you must first select it from the list of files in
42 the file window. You can control which files are listed in this window
43 by editing the Directory and/or Template fields and clicking on the
44 Rescan button. To select a file, single-click on the filename. This
45 will highlight the filename and display information about the file in
46 the information window. The information displayed includes:
47 Filename
49 The full pathname of the file.
50 File Format
52 The file format of the audio file.
53 Data Format
55 The encoding format of the audio data.
56 Tracks
58 The number of tracks of audio data.
59 Frequency
61 The frequency at which the audio data was sampled.
62 Duration
64 The duration of the audio data in seconds.
65 Text
67 Any text information stored in the file.
68 Once the file has been selected, you can start it playing by clicking
70 on the Play command button. A shortcut for playing a file is to dou‐
71 ble-click on the file name. This will select the file and start it
72 playing. When a file is playing, the Play command button is high‐
73 lighted. To stop the playing of a file, click on the highlighted Play
74 button. To enable the left and right level meters, click on the Meter
75 button before starting to play the file. To disable the left and right
76 level meters, click again on the highlighted Meter button. To adjust
77 the volume level, use the volume slider.
78
80 audemo can record sound files in any supported file and data format.
81 To record a sound file you must first bring up the record window by
82 clicking on the Record command button. This will bring up a window
83 containing the following fields and controls:
84 Filename
86 The name of the file you wish to create. Unless a path is speci‐
87 fied here, the file will be created in the current directory.
88 File Format
90 A menu of file formats.
91 Data Format
93 A menu of data formats. Note that each file format does not neces‐
94 sarily support all of the data formats listed.
95 Max Duration
97 See RECORDING TO A BUCKET.
98 Read Only
100 See RECORDING TO A BUCKET.
101 Frequency
103 The sampling rate (in hertz) for the recording. Higher sampling
104 rates yield better quality sound but take up more disk and memory
105 space. Common sampling rates are 8000 (good for voice annota‐
106 tions), 11000, 22000, and 44000.
107 Mic(rophone)
109 This button tells the audio server if you've got a microphone at‐
110 tached to the audio input jack. Clicking this button will high‐
111 light it and cause the audio server to boost the input gain to a
112 level suitable for recording with a microphone.
113 Comment
115 Text (such as a description) you wish to put into the audio file.
116 Gain
118 This slider is used to adjust the recording gain level.
119 Record
121 This button starts or stops the recording.
122 Monitor
124 This button enables or disables monitoring.
125 New Bucket
127 See RECORDING TO A BUCKET.
128 Dismiss
130 This button stops recording and monitoring and closes the record
131 window.
132 Once you have selected the filename, file and data formats, frequency,
134 mic level, comment and gain, you are ready to record. To listen in on
135 the audio that will be recorded you can click on the Monitor button.
136 This will direct all the audio received from the audio input jack to be
137 played on the speaker. When you're ready to record, click on the
138 Record button. All the audio received from the audio input jack will
139 now be recorded into the file. The recording will continue until you
140 click on the Record button again or click on the Dismiss button. NOTE:
141 Audio data can accumulate very rapidly, especially at high sampling
142 rates, resulting in large files.
143
145 The Network Audio System service provides the capability to create
146 server resident sound objects called buckets. audemo allows the user
147 to create buckets, record into them, play from them, load them with
148 data from a file and dump their contents into a file. Note that buck‐
149 ets created by audemo are destroyed when audemo is terminated. These
150 options are available when you bring up the buckets window by clicking
151 on the Buckets button in the main window. The buckets windows is di‐
152 vided into two areas:
153 o A collection of command buttons.
155 o A table of buckets currently accessible. This table contains the
157 following columns:
158 Description
160 The text description.
161 Duration
163 The duration of the audio data in seconds.
164 Tracks
166 The number of tracks of audio data.
167 Frequency
169 The frequency at which the audio data was sampled.
170 Format
172 A code letter indicating the encoding format of the audio data.
173 A key to the format code letters can be displayed by clicking
174 on the Format Key button.
175 Access
177 A combination of code letters indicating the access mode of the
178 bucket. A key to the access code letters can be displayed by
179 clicking on the Access Key button.
180
182 To create a bucket from from an audio data file, select the filename
183 from the list of files in the file window then click the Load button in
184 the buckets window. The first line of the buckets table should now
185 contain the information about the newly created bucket.
186
188 To play a bucket, select the bucket you wish to play by clicking on
189 it's information in the buckets table. The entry you click on should
190 be highlighted. Then click on the Play button in the buckets window.
191 A shortcut for playing from a bucket is to double-click on the bucket
192 information. This will select the bucket and start playing from it.
193 To stop the playing of a bucket, click on the highlighted Play button
194 in the buckets window. The level meters and volume level can be con‐
195 trolled in the same way as when playing from a file.
196
198 To record into a new bucket, click on the Record button in the buckets
199 window. This will bring up the record window. This record window is
200 the same as the one used for recording to files. Instead of specifying
201 a filename, in the Max Duration field, enter the maximum duration (in
202 seconds) of data that the bucket is to hold. Clicking on the Read Only
203 button will prevent other applications from writing into or destroying
204 the bucket. The frequency, mic level, format and comment are used in
205 the same way as when recording to files. Once all of the fields are
206 set appropriately, click the New Buckett button. This will create a
207 new bucket according to the specifications given. The first line of
208 the buckets table should now contain the information about the newly
209 created bucket. To begin recording into the bucket, select the bucket
210 by clicking on it's information in the buckets table. Then click the
211 Record button in the record window. All the audio received from the
212 audio input jack will now be recorded into the bucket. The recording
213 will continue until you click on the Record button again, click on the
214 Dismiss or the bucket is filled. The Gain slider and the Monitor but‐
215 ton operate the same as when recording to a file.
216
218 To save a bucket to a file, first select the bucket by clicking on its
219 information in the buckets table. Then click on the Save button in the
220 buckets window. A dialog box will pop up prompting you for the name of
221 the file in which to save the bucket data, and the file format. The
222 data format used will be that of the bucket. Note that each file for‐
223 mat may only support selected data formats. If no path is given in the
224 filename, the file will be created in the current directory. Clicking
225 on Ok or pressing the RETURN key will cause the file to be created and
226 the data from the bucket to be written to the file.
227
229 To delete a bucket, first select the bucket by clicking on it's infor‐
230 mation in the buckets table. Then click on the Delete button in the
231 buckets window. If the audemo has the appropriate access permissions
232 for the bucket, the bucket will be deleted and it's information will be
233 removed from the bucket table.
234
236 Clicking on the Quit button will cause audemo to exit, stopping any
237 playing or recording operations and destroying any buckets that were
238 created.
239
241 -audio servername
242 This option specifies the Network Audio System server to which
243 audemo should connect.
244 directory
246 The directory name that audemo will use to build the list of
247 selectable file names. When directory is not specified on the
248 command line, the current working directory is used.
249
251 In the following example, in a TCP/IP network, mcxterm is the name of
252 the desktop machine running the audio server. The default port is 8000
253 and sound files are located in ~/snd:
254 audemo -audio tcp/mcxterm:8000 ~/snd
256 In the following example, the shortened form of the audio server name
258 is used and sound files from the current working directory will be
259 used:
260 audemo -audio mcxterm:0
262
264 In addition to the standard toolkit environment variables, the follow‐
265 ing environment variables are used by audemo:
266 AUDIOSERVER
268 This variable specifies the default audio server to contact if
269 -audio is not specified on the command line. If this variable
270 is not set and the -audio is not specified on the command line,
271 audemo will attempt to connect to the audio server running on
272 the X Window System display.
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275 Warning: audemo is the xterm of the Network Audio System. It was writ‐
276 ten to test features as the Network Audio System was being developed.
277 It was also the author's first Xt program. Consequently, it's pretty
278 ugly and should be completely re-written from scratch.
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281 nas(1), X(1)
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284 Copyright 1993, 1994 Network Computing Devices, Inc.
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287 Greg Renda, Network Computing Devices, Inc.
288 1.9.5 AUDEMO(1)