arecord (1)

NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

       arecord [flags] [filename]

SYNOPSIS

       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.

       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.

INVOKING

       [arecord | aplay ] [flags] filename

       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)

       -c, --channels=#
              The number of channels

       -f --format=FORMAT

       -r, --rate=#<Hz>
              Sampling rate in Hertz.

       -d, --duration=#
              Interrupt after # seconds

       -s, --sleep-min=#
              Min ticks to sleep

       -M, --mmap
              Mmap stream

       -N, --nonblock
              Nonblocking mode

       -F, --period-time=#
              Distance between interrupts is # microseconds

       -B, --buffer-time=#
              Buffer duration is # microseconds

       --period-size=#
              Distance between interrupts is # frames

       --buffer-size=#
              Buffer duration is # frames

       -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.

       -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:

SEE ALSO

        alsamixer(1), amixer(1)

BUGS

       Note that .aiff files are not currently supported.

AUTHOR

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

                                 2 August 2001                        aplay(1)