# phpman > man > out123(1) [out123(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/out123/1/markdown) General Commands Manual [out123(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/out123/1/markdown) ## NAME out123 - send raw PCM audio or a waveform pattern to an output device ## SYNOPSIS **cat** audio.raw | **out123** [ - ] [ _options_ ] **out123** [ _options_ ] _filename_ [ _filename_ ... ] **out123** --wave-freq _freq1_[,_freq2_,...] [ _options_ ] **out123** --source geiger [ _options_ ] ## DESCRIPTION **out123** reads raw PCM data (in host byte order) from standard input and plays it on the audio device specified by given options. Alternatively, it can generate periodic or random signals for playback itself. ## OPTIONS **out123** options may be either the traditional POSIX one letter options, or the GNU style long options. POSIX style options start with a single '-', while GNU long options start with '--'. Option arguments (if needed) follow separated by whitespace (not '='). Note that some options can be absent from your installation when disabled in the build process. **--name** _name_ Set the name of this instance, possibly used in various places. This sets the client name for JACK output. ### -o Select audio output module. You can provide a comma-separated list to use the first one that works. Also see **-a**. ### --list-modules List the available modules. ### --list-devices List the available output devices for given output module. If there is no functional‐ ity to list devices in the chosen module, an error will be printed and out123 will exit with a non-zero code. ### -a --audiodevice Specify the audio device to use. The default as well as the possible values depend on the active output. For the JACK output, a comma-separated list of ports to connect to (for each channel) can be specified. ### -s --stdout The audio samples are written to standard output, instead of playing them through the audio device. The output format is the same as the input ... so in this mode, **out123** acts similar the standard tool **cat**, possibly with some conversions involved. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o raw -a -'. ### -S --STDOUT This variant additionally writes the data to stdout, while still playing it on the output device. So it is more like some flavour of **tee** than a **cat**. ### -O --outfile Write raw output into a file (instead of simply redirecting standard output to a file with the shell). This shortcut is equivalent to '-o raw -a _file_'. ### -w --wav Write output as WAV file _file_ , or standard output if _-_ is or the empty string used as file name. You can also use _--au_ and _--cdr_ for AU and CDR format, respectively. Note that WAV/AU writing to non-seekable files or redirected stdout needs some thought. The header is written with the first actual data. The result of decoding nothing to WAV/AU is a file consisting just of the header when it is seekable and really nothing when not (not even a header). Correctly writing data with prophetic headers to stdout is no easy business. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o wav -a _file_'. **--au** _file_ Write to _file_ in SUN audio format. If - or the empty string is used as the filename, the AU file is written to stdout. See paragraph about WAV writing for header fun with non-seekable streams. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o au -a _file_'. **--cdr** _file_ Write to _file_ as a CDR (CD-ROM audio, more correctly CDDA for Compact Disc Digital Au‐ dio). If - is or the empty string used as the filename, the CDR file is written to stdout. This shortcut is equivalent to '-o cdr -a _file_'. ### -r --rate Set sample rate in Hz (default: 44100). If this does not match the actual input sam‐ pling rate, you get changed pitch. Might be intentional;-) ### -R --inputrate Set input sample rate to a different value. This triggers resampling if the output rate is indeed different. See **--resample**. **--speed** _factor_ Speed up/down playback by that factor using resampling. See **--resample**. **--resample** _method_ This chooses the method for resampling between differing sampling rates or to apply a change in tempo. You can choose between two variants of the syn123 resampler: fine (the default) and dirty. The fine one features 108 dB dynamic range and at worst-case 84% bandwidth. The dirty one uses a bit less CPU time (not that much, though) by re‐ ducing the dynamic range to 72 dB with worst-case bandwidth of 85%. The exact proper‐ ties vary with the sampling rate ratio, as there is interpolation of filter coeffi‐ cients involved. ### -c --channels Set channel count to given value. ### -C --inputch Set input channel count to a differnt value than for output. This probably means you want some remixing. Also see **--mix**. ### -e --encoding Choose output sample encoding. Possible values look like f32 (32-bit floating point), s32 (32-bit signed integer), u32 (32-bit unsigned integer) and the variants with dif‐ ferent numbers of bits (s24, u24, s16, u16, s8, u8) and also special variants like ulaw and alaw 8-bit. See the output of **out123**'s longhelp for actually available en‐ codings. Default is s16. **--endian** _choice_ Select output endianess (byte order). Choice is big, little, or native, which is the default. The processing can only work in native mode, so you need to specify input or output byte order if that does not match your machine. This also sets the input endi‐ aness if that is not set separately. See also **--inputend** and **--byteswap**. ### -E --inputenc Specify input encoding different from output encoding for conversion. **--inputend** _choice_ Select input endianess (byte order). By default it is the same as output byte order. See **--endian**. ### --byteswap A switch to trigger swapping of byte order just before output, after any other trans‐ formations. This works on top of any endianess you specify with ### -m --mono Set for single-channel audio (default is two channels, stereo). ### --stereo Select stereo output (2 channels, default). ### --list-encodings List known encoding short and long names to standard output. **--mix** _matrix_ Specify a mixing matrix between input and output channels as linear factors, comma separated list for the input channel factors for output channel 1, then output channel 2, and so forth. The default is a unit matrix if channel counts match, so for 3 chan‐ nels the equivalent of both channels with halved amplitude, so '--mix 0.5,0.5'. For splitting mono to stereo, it is '--mix 1,1' top keep the symmetry. **--filter** _coeff_ Apply digital filter(s) before pre-amplification (see **--preamp**) with the coefficient list coeff as b_0,...,b_N,a_0,...,a_N where a_0=1 is mandatory and perhaps helps orientation a bit. Multiple filters are separated by ':'. ### -P --preamp Enable a pre-amplification stage that amplifies the signal with the given value in dB before output. **--offset** _value_ Apply a PCM offset (floating point value scaled in [-1:1] in the pre-amplification stage. Normally, you would do that to correct a known DC offset in a recording. **--clip** _mode_ Select clipping mode: 'soft' or 'hard' for forced clipping also for floating point output, 'implicit' (default) for implied hard clipping during conversion where neces‐ sary. ### --dither Enable dithering for conversions to integer. If you insist. This is just some un- spectacular TPDF dither. For some people, that is not fancy enough. Most people can‐ not be bothered that way or the other. ### --test-format Check if given format is supported by given driver and device (in command line before encountering this), silently returning 0 as exit value if it is the case. ### --test-encodings Print out the short names of encodings supported with the current setup. ### --query-format If the selected driver and device communicate some default accepted format, print out a command line fragment for **out123** setting that format, always in that order: --rate --channels --encoding ### -o --headphones Direct audio output to the headphone connector (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN). ### -o --speaker Direct audio output to the speaker (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN). ### -o --lineout Direct audio output to the line-out connector (some hardware only; AIX, HP, SUN). ### -b --buffer Use an audio output buffer of _size_ Kbytes. This is useful to bypass short periods of heavy system activity, which would normally cause the audio output to be interrupted. You should specify a buffer size of at least 1024 (i.e. 1 Mb, which equals about 6 seconds of usual audio data) or more; less than about 300 does not make much sense. The default is 0, which turns buffering off. **--preload** _fraction_ Wait for the buffer to be filled to _fraction_ before starting playback (fraction be‐ tween 0 and 1). You can tune this prebuffering to either get sound faster to your ears or safer uninterrupted web radio. Default is 0.2 (changed from 1 since version 1.23). **--devbuffer** _seconds_ Set device buffer in seconds; <= 0 means default value. This is the small buffer be‐ tween the application and the audio backend, possibly directly related to hardware buffers. **--timelimit** _samples_ Set playback time limit in PCM samples if set to a value greater than zero. **out123** will stop reading from stdin or playing from the generated wave table after reaching that number of samples. **--seconds** _seconds_ Set time limit in seconds instead. **--source** _name_ Choose the signal source: 'file' (default) for playback of the given file(s) on the command line or standard input if there are none, or one of the generators 'wave' (see **--wave-freq**), geiger (see **--geiger-activity**), or just 'white' for some white noise. **--wave-freq** _frequencies_ Set wave generator frequency or list of those with comma separation for enabling a generated test signal instead of standard input. Empty values repeat the previous one. **--wave-pat** _patterns_ Set the waveform patterns of the generated waves as comma-separated list. Choices in‐ clude sine, square, triangle, sawtooth, gauss, pulse, and shot. Empty values repeat the previous one. **--wave-phase** _phases_ Set waveform phase shift(s) as comma-separated list, negative values inverting the pattern in time and empty value repeating the previous. There is also **--wave-direction** overriding the negative bit. ### --wave-direction Set wave direction explicitly (the sign counts). **--wave-sweep** _frequency_ Sweep a generated wave to the given frequency, from first one specified for **--wave-freq**, using the first wave pattern and direction, too. **--sweep-time** _seconds_ Set frequency sweep duration in seconds if > 0. This defaults to the configured time limit if set, otherwise one second, as endless sweeps are not sensible. **--sweep-count** _count_ Set timelimit to exactly produce that many (smooth) sweeps **--sweep-type** _type_ Set sweep type: lin(ear) for linear, qua(d) (default) for quadratic, or exp(onential) for an exponential change of frequency with time. ### --sweep-hard Disable post-sweep smoothing for periodicity. **--genbuffer** _bytes_ Set the buffer size (limit) for signal generators, if > 0 (default), this enforces a periodic buffer also for non-periodic signals, benefit: less runtime CPU overhead, as everything is precomputed as enforced periodic signal. **--wave-limit** _samples_ This is an alias for **--genbuffer**. **--pink-rows** _number_ Activate pink noise source and choose rows for the algorithm (<1 chooses default). The generator follows code provided by Phil Burk () and uses the Gardner method. **--geiger-activity** _number_ This configures the simulation of a Geiger-Mueller counter as source, with the given numer as average events per second. Play with it. It's fun! ### -t --test Test mode. The audio stream is read, but no output occurs. ### -v --verbose Increase the verbosity level. ### -q --quiet Quiet. Suppress diagnostic messages. ### --aggressive Tries to get higher priority ### -T --realtime Tries to gain realtime priority. This option usually requires root privileges to have any effect. **-?**, **--help** Shows short usage instructions. ### --longhelp Shows long usage instructions. ### --version Print the version string. ## AUTHORS Maintainer: Thomas Orgis <>, <> Creator (ancestry of code inside mpg123): Michael Hipp Uses code or ideas from various people, see the AUTHORS file accompanying the source code. ## LICENSE **out123** is licensed under the GNU Lesser/Library General Public License, LGPL, version 2.1 . ## WEBSITE 26 Apr 2020 [out123(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/out123/1/markdown)