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APLAY(1)							      APLAY(1)

NAME
       arecord, aplay - command-line sound recorder and player for ALSA sound‐
       card driver

SYNOPSIS
       arecord [flags] [filename]
       aplay [flags] [filename [filename]] ...

DESCRIPTION
       arecord is a command-line soundfile recorder  for  the  ALSA  soundcard
       driver.	It  supports several file formats and multiple soundcards with
       multiple devices. If recording with interleaved mode samples  the  file
       is automatically split before the 2GB filesize.

       aplay  is  much	the same, only it plays instead of recording. For sup‐
       ported soundfile formats, the sampling rate, bit depth,	and  so	 forth
       can be automatically determined from the soundfile header.

       If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is used. The
       aplay utility accepts multiple filenames.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
	      Help: show syntax.

       --version
	      Print current version.

       -l, --list-devices
	      List all soundcards and digital audio devices

       -L, --list-pcms
	      List all PCMs defined

       -D, --device=NAME
	      Select PCM by name

       -q --quiet
	      Quiet mode. Suppress messages (not sound :))

       -t, --file-type TYPE
	      File type (voc, wav, raw or au).	If this parameter  is  omitted
	      the WAVE format is used.

       -c, --channels=#
	      The number of channels.  The default is one channel.  Valid val‐
	      ues are 1 through 32.

       -f --format=FORMAT
	      Sample format
	      Recognized sample formats are: S8 U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE U16_BE
	      S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE
	      FLOAT_BE FLOAT64_LE  FLOAT64_BE  IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE  IEC958_SUB‐
	      FRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM SPECIAL S24_3LE S24_3BE
	      U24_3LE U24_3BE S20_3LE S20_3BE U20_3LE U20_3BE S18_3LE  S18_3BE
	      U18_3LE
	      Some of these may not be available on selected hardware
	      The available format shortcuts are:
	      -f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
	      -f cdr (16 bit big endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_BE -c2 -f44100]
	      -f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r48000]
	      If no format is given U8 is used.

       -r, --rate=#<Hz>
	      Sampling	rate in Hertz. The default rate is 8000 Hertz.	If the
	      value specified is less than 300, it is taken  as	 the  rate  in
	      kilohertz.  Valid values are 2000 through 192000 Hertz.

       -d, --duration=#
	      Interrupt after # seconds.  A value of zero means infinity.  The
	      default is zero, so if this option is omitted then  the  arecord
	      process will run until it is killed.

       -s, --sleep-min=#
	      Min ticks to sleep. The default is not to sleep.

       -M, --mmap
	      Use memory-mapped (mmap) I/O mode for the audio stream.  If this
	      option is not set, the read/write I/O mode will be used.

       -N, --nonblock
	      Open the audio device in non-blocking mode.  If  the  device  is
	      busy  the	 program will exit immediately.	 If this option is not
	      set the program will block until the audio device	 is  available
	      again.

       -F, --period-time=#
	      Distance	between	 interrupts  is	 # microseconds.  If no period
	      time and no period size is given then a quarter  of  the	buffer
	      time is set.

       -B, --buffer-time=#
	      Buffer  duration is # microseconds If no buffer time and no buf‐
	      fer size is given then the maximal allowed buffer time  but  not
	      more than 500ms is set.

       --period-size=#
	      Distance between interrupts is # frames If no period size and no
	      period time is given then a quarter of the buffer size is set.

       --buffer-size=#
	      Buffer duration is # frames If no buffer time and no buffer size
	      is  given then the maximal allowed buffer time but not more than
	      500ms is set.

       -A, --avail-min=#
	      Min available space for wakeup is # microseconds

       -R, --start-delay=#
	      Delay for automatic PCM start is	#  microseconds	 (relative  to
	      buffer size if <= 0)

       -T, --stop-delay=#
	      Delay for automatic PCM stop is # microseconds from xrun

       -v, --verbose
	      Show PCM structure and setup.  This option is accumulative.  The
	      VU meter is displayed when this is given twice or three times.

       -V, --vumeter=TYPE
	      Specifies the VU-meter type, either stereo or mono.  The	stereo
	      VU-meter	is  available  only  for 2-channel stereo samples with
	      interleaved format.

       -I, --separate-channels
	      One file for each channel.  This option  disables	 max-file-time
	      and  use-strftime,  and ignores SIGUSR1.	The stereo VU meter is
	      not available with separate channels.

       -P     Playback.	 This is the default if the program is invoked by typ‐
	      ing aplay.

       -C     Record.  This is the default if the program is invoked by typing
	      arecord.

       -i, --interactive
	      Allow  interactive  operation   via   stdin.    Currently	  only
	      pause/resume via space or enter key is implemented.

       -m, --chmap=ch1,ch2,...
	      Give  the channel map to override or follow.  Pass channel posi‐
	      tion strings like FL, FR, etc.

	      If a device supports the override	 of  the  channel  map,	 aplay
	      tries  to pass the given channel map.  If it doesn't support the
	      channel map override but	still  it  provides  the  channel  map
	      information,  aplay  tries to rearrange the channel order in the
	      buffer to match with the returned channel map from the device.

       --disable-resample
	      Disable automatic rate resample.

       --disable-channels
	      Disable automatic channel conversions.

       --disable-format
	      Disable automatic format conversions.

       --disable-softvol
	      Disable software volume control (softvol).

       --test-position
	      Test ring buffer position.

       --test-coef=<coef>
	      Test  coefficient	 for  ring  buffer  position;  default	is  8.
	      Expression for validation is: coef * (buffer_size / 2).  Minimum
	      value is 1.

       --test-nowait
	      Do not wait for the ring buffer ‐ eats the whole CPU.

       --max-file-time
	      While recording, when the	 output	 file  has  been  accumulating
	      sound  for  this	long,  close  it  and  open a new output file.
	      Default is the maximum size supported by the file format: 2  GiB
	      for  WAV	files.	This option has no effect if  --separate-chan‐
	      nels is specified.

       --process-id-file <file name>
	      aplay writes its process ID here, so  other  programs  can  send
	      signals to it.

       --use-strftime
	      When  recording,	interpret  %-codes  in the file name parameter
	      using the strftime facility whenever the output file is  opened.
	      The  important  strftime codes are: %Y is the year, %m month, %d
	      day of the month, %H hour, %M minute and %S  second.   In	 addi‐
	      tion, %v is the file number, starting at 1.  When this option is
	      specified, intermediate directories for the output file are cre‐
	      ated  automatically.   This  option  has	no  effect  if --sepa‐
	      rate-channels is specified.

       --dump-hw-params
	      Dump hw_params of the device preconfigured status to stderr. The
	      dump lists capabilities of the selected device such as supported
	      formats, sampling rates, numbers of channels, period and	buffer
	      bytes/sizes/times.   For	raw  device hw:X this option basically
	      lists hardware capabilities of the soundcard.

       --fatal-errors
	      Disables recovery attempts when errors (e.g. xrun)  are  encoun‐
	      tered; the aplay process instead aborts immediately.

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

EXAMPLES
       aplay -c 1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law foobar
	      will play the raw file "foobar"  as  a  22050-Hz,	 mono,	8-bit,
	      Mu-Law .au file.

       arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D copy foobar.wav
	      will  record  foobar.wav	as  a 10-second, CD-quality wave file,
	      using the PCM "copy" (which  might  be  defined  in  the	user's
	      .asoundrc file as:
	      pcm.copy {
		type plug
		slave {
		  pcm hw
		}
		route_policy copy
	      }

       arecord -t wav --max-file-time 30 mon.wav
	      Record  from the default audio source in monaural, 8,000 samples
	      per second, 8 bits per sample.  Start a new file every  30  sec‐
	      onds.   File  names  are mon-nn.wav, where nn increases from 01.
	      The file after mon-99.wav is mon-100.wav.

       arecord -f cd -t wav --max-file-time 3600 --use-strftime	 %Y/%m/%d/lis‐
       ten-%H-%M-%v.wav
	      Record  in  stereo  from the default audio source.  Create a new
	      file every hour.	The files are placed in directories  based  on
	      their start dates and have names which include their start times
	      and file numbers.

SEE ALSO
	alsamixer(1), amixer(1)

BUGS
       Note that .aiff files are not currently supported.

AUTHOR
       arecord and aplay are by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz> This document
       is by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.	 Updated for Alsa 0.9 by James
       Tappin <james@xena.uklinux.net>

				1 January 2010			      APLAY(1)
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