[linux-audio-dev] Vsound-like tools for ALSA?

[Clemens Ladisch]

Mark Constable wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 07:42 pm, Mike Rawes wrote:
> > pcm.fileout {
> >   type file
> >   slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
> >   file alsaout.raw
> > }
> >
> > ..then aplay -D fileout foo.wav, will create a file called alsaout.raw
>
> ... and, how would one go about doing this for pmidi, an
> ALSA app that does not support the -D option ?

pmidi plays MIDI events, not PCM data.  You have to record the output
of the synthesizer to get PCM data.

> And is it safe to presume this file will get created in
> the current directory ?

Yes.  The definition is read by the ALSA library, which is part of the
process of whatever program that is using the ALSA device.

> > Quite how you determine the format of the .raw file is beyond me -
> > anybody?!

.raw files don't have any header, so you have to guess.  (The sample
format is almost always S16_LE, but for the number of channels (mostly
1 or 2) or the sample rate, you have to try until it doesn't sound too
bad.  ;-)


HTH
Clemens