APLAY(1)

NAME
arecord, aplay - command-line sound recorder and player for ALSA soundcard 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 supported 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.

-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_SUBFRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM
    Some of these may not be available on selected hardware
    There are also two format shortcuts available:
    -f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
    -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.

-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 buffer 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

  Example:

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
    }

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>