SndLib

Bill Schottstaedt (bil@ccrma.stanford.edu)

related documentation:snd.html extsnd.htmlgrfsnd.htmlclm.htmlsndscm.htmllibxm.htmlindex.html

Contents


Introduction

The sound library is a collection of sound file and audio hardware handlers written in C and running currently on SGI (either audio library), Sun, OSS or ALSA (Linux and others), Mac, Mac OSX, HPUX, LinuxPPC, and Windoze systems. It provides relatively straightforward access to many sound file headers and data types, and most of the features of the audio hardware.

The following files make up sndlib:

The naming scheme is more as less as follows: constants start with "MUS_", audio hardware constants with "MUS_AUDIO_", functions involving sound files referenced through the file name start with "mus_sound_", functions involving files at a lower level with "mus_file_", functions involving header access with "mus_header_", functions involving audio hardware access with "mus_audio_", MIDI functions with "mus_midi_", and various others just with "mus_" (number translations, etc). Conversions use the word "to" as in "mus_samples_to_bytes".

To build sndlib (sndlib.so if possible, and sndlib.a):

  ./configure
  make

To install it, 'make install' -- I've tested this process in Linux, SGI, and Sun. It could conceivably work elsewhere.


Headers

Sound files have built-in descriptors known as headers. The following functions return the information in the header. In each case the argument to the function is the full file name of the sound file.

  off_t mus_sound_samples (const char *arg)        /* samples of sound according to header (can be incorrect) */
  off_t mus_sound_frames (const char *arg)         /* samples per channel */
  float mus_sound_duration (const char *arg)
  int mus_sound_datum_size (const char *arg)       /* bytes per sample */
  off_t mus_sound_data_location (const char *arg)  /* location of first sample (bytes) */
  int mus_sound_chans (const char *arg)            /* number of channels (samples are interleaved) */
  int mus_sound_srate (const char *arg)            /* sampling rate */
  int mus_sound_header_type (const char *arg)      /* header type (aiff etc) */
  int mus_sound_data_format (const char *arg)      /* data format (alaw etc) */
  int mus_sound_original_format (const char *arg)  /* unmodified data format specifier */
  char *mus_sound_comment (const char *arg)        /* comment if any */
  off_t mus_sound_comment_start (const char *arg)  /* comment start (bytes) if any */
  off_t mus_sound_comment_end (const char *arg)    /* comment end (bytes) */
  off_t mus_sound_length (const char *arg)         /* true file length (for error checks) */
  int mus_sound_write_date (const char *arg)       /* bare (uninterpreted) file write date */
  int mus_sound_type_specifier (const char *arg)   /* original header type identifier */
  int mus_sound_bits_per_sample(const char *arg)   /* bits per sample */
  int mus_bytes_per_sample(int format)             /* bytes per sample */
  int *mus_sound_loop_info(const char *arg)        /* 6 loop vals (mode,start,end) then base-detune and base-note  (empty list if no loop info found) */
  int mus_sound_initialize(void)                   /* initialize everything */

The following can be used to provide user-understandable descriptions of the header type and the data format:

  char *mus_header_type_name(int type)      /* "AIFF" etc */
  char *mus_data_format_name(int format)    /* "16-bit big endian linear" etc */

In all cases if an error occurs, -1 is returned, and some sort of error message is printed; to customize error handling, use mus_set_error_handler and mus_set_print_handler.

  mus_error_handler_t *mus_error_set_handler(mus_error_handler_t *new_error_handler);
  mus_print_handler_t *mus_print_set_handler(mus_print_handler_t *new_print_handler);

To decode the error indication, use:

  char *mus_error_to_string(int err);

Header data is cached internally, so the actual header is read only if it hasn't already been read, or the write date has changed. Loop points are also available, if there's interest. To go below the "sound" level, see headers.c -- once a header has been read, all the components that have been found can be read via functions such as mus_header_srate.


Data

The following functions provide access to sound file data:

  int mus_sound_open_input (const char *arg) 
  int mus_sound_open_output (const char *arg, int srate, int chans, int data_format, int header_type, const char *comment)
  int mus_sound_reopen_output (const char *arg, int type, int format, off_t data_loc)
  int mus_sound_close_input (int fd) 
  int mus_sound_close_output (int fd, off_t bytes_of_data) 
  int mus_sound_read (int fd, int beg, int end, int chans, mus_sample_t **bufs) 
  int mus_sound_write (int fd, int beg, int end, int chans, mus_sample_t **bufs) 
  off_t mus_sound_seek_frame (int fd, off_t frame)

mus_sample_t defaults to int, but can also be float -- it is set when sndlib is built and refers to Sndlib's internal representation of sample values. There are corresponding macros to convert from the sample type to C types (MUS_SAMPLE_TO_FLOAT, etc), and the reverse (MUS_FLOAT_TO_SAMPLE, etc).

mus_sound_open_input opens arg for reading. Most standard uncompressed formats are readable. This function returns the associated file number, or -1 upon failure.

mus_sound_close_input closes an open sound file. Its argument is the integer returned by mus_sound_open_input.

mus_sound_open_output opens arg, setting its sampling rate to be srate, number of channels to chans, data format to data_format (see sndlib.h for these types: MUS_BSHORT, means 16-bit 2's complement big endian fractions), header type to header_type (AIFF for example; the available writable header types are MUS_AIFC (or AIFF), MUS_RIFF ('wave'), MUS_NEXT, MUS_NIST, and MUS_IRCAM), and comment (if any) to comment. The header is not considered complete without an indication of the data size, but since this is rarely known in advance, it is supplied when the sound file is closed. This function returns the associated file number.

mus_sound_close_output first updates the file's header to reflect the final data size bytes_of_data, then closes the file. The argument fd is the integer returned by mus_sound_open_output.

mus_sound_read reads data from the file indicated by fd, placing data in the array obufs as 32-bit integers in the host's byte order. chans determines how many arrays of ints are in obufs, which is filled by mus_sound_read from its index beg to end with zero padding if necessary. See the sndplay example below.

mus_sound_write writes data to the file indicated by fd, starting for each of chans channels in obufs at beg and ending at end.

mus_sound_seek_frame moves the read or write position for the file indicated by fd to the desired frame.


Hardware

The following functions provide access to audio harware. If an error occurs, they return -1.

  int mus_audio_initialize(void)
  void mus_audio_describe(void)
  char *mus_audio_report(void)
  int mus_audio_open_output(int dev, int srate, int chans, int format, int size)
  int mus_audio_open_input(int dev, int srate, int chans, int format, int size)
  int mus_audio_write(int line, char *buf, int bytes)
  int mus_audio_close(int line)
  int mus_audio_read(int line, char *buf, int bytes)
  int mus_audio_mixer_read(int dev, int field, int chan, float *val)
  int mus_audio_mixer_write(int dev, int field, int chan, float *val)
  int mus_audio_systems(void)
  char *mus_audio_system_name(int system)

mus_audio_initialize takes care of any necessary initialization.

mus_audio_describe prints to stdout a description of the current state of the audio hardware. mus_audio_report returns the same description as a string.

mus_audio_systems returns the number of separate and complete audio systems (soundcards essentially) that are available. mus_audio_system_name returns some user-recognizable name for the given card.

mus_audio_open_input opens an audio port to read sound data (i.e. a microphone, line in, etc). The input device is dev (see sndlib.h for details; when in doubt, use MUS_AUDIO_DEFAULT). The input sampling rate is srate or as close as we can get to it. The number of input channels (if available) is chans. The input data format is format (when in doubt, use the macro MUS_COMPATIBLE_FORMAT). And the input buffer size (if settable at all) is size (bytes). This function returns an integer to distinguish its port from others that might be in use. In this and other related functions, the device has an optional second portion that refers to the soundcard or system for that device. MUS_AUDIO_PACK_SYSTEM(n) refers to the nth such card, so (SNDLIB_DAC_DEVICE | MUS_AUDIO_PACK_SYSTEM(1)) is the 2nd card's dac (the default is system 0, the first card).

mus_audio_open_output opens an audio port to write date (i.e. speakers, line out, etc). The output device is dev (see sndlib.h). Its sampling rate is srate, number of channels chans, data format format, and buffer size size. This function returns the associated line number of the output port.

mus_audio_close closes the port (input or output) associated with line.

mus_audio_read reads sound data from line. The incoming bytes bytes of data are placed in buf. If no error was returned from mus_audio_open_input, the data is in the format requested by that function with channels interleaved.

mus_audio_write writes bytes bytes of data in buf to the output port associated with line. This data is assumed to be in the format requested by mus_audio_open_output with channels interleaved.

mus_audio_mixer_read and mus_audio_mixer_write are complicated. They get and set the audio hardware state. The audio hardware is treated as a set of "systems" (sound cards) each of which has a set of "devices" (dacs, adcs, etc), with various "fields" that can be read or set (gain, channels active, etc). For example, a microphone is called the MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE, and its hardware gain setting (if any) is called the MUS_AUDIO_AMP. All gains are considered to be linear between 0.0 and 1.0, so to set the microphone's first channel amplitude to .5 (that is, the gain of the signal before it reaches the analog-to-digital converter),

  float vals[1];
  vals[0]=0.5;
  mus_audio_mixer_write(MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE,MUS_AUDIO_AMP,0,vals);

Similarly

  mus_audio_mixer_read(MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE,MUS_AUDIO_AMP,0,vals);
  amp=vals[0];

returns the current gain in the float array vals. mus_audio_mixer_read can also return a description of the currently available audio hardware.

If a requested operation is not implemented or something goes wrong, -1 is returned.

Systems

Each separate sound card is called a system, accessible via the device argument through the macro MUS_AUDIO_PACK_SYSTEM(n). The count starts at 0 which is the default. The function mus_audio_systems returns how many such cards are available. (Currently it returns more than one only on Linux systems with multiple sound cards).

Devices

Each audio system has a set of available devices. To find out what is available on a given system

  #define LIST_MAX_SIZE 32;
  float device_list[LIST_MAX_SIZE];
  mus_audio_mixer_read(MUS_AUDIO_PACK_SYSTEM(0),MUS_AUDIO_PORT,LIST_MAX_SIZE,device_list);

The list of available devices is returned in the device_list array, with the number of the devices as device_list[0]. The set of device identifiers is in sndlib.h (MUS_AUDIO_LINE_IN for example). Two special devices are MUS_AUDIO_MIXER and MUS_AUDIO_DAC_FILTER. The latter refers to the low-pass filter often associated with a DAC. The former refers to a set of analog gain and tone controls often associated with a sound card. The individual gains are accessed through the various fields (described below).

Fields

The field argument in mus-audio-mixer-read and mus-audio-mixer-write selects one aspect of the given card's devices' controls. The simplest operations involve MUS_AUDIO_AMP and MUS_AUDIO_SRATE. The latter gets or sets the sampling rate of the device, and the former gets or sets the amplitude (between 0.0 and 1.0) of the specified channel of the device. The value to be set or returned is in the 0th element of the vals array. An example of reading the current microphone gain is given above. The meaning of the field argument can depend on which device it is applied to, so there is some complexity here. The channel argument usually selects which channel we are interested in, but in some cases it instead tells mus-audio-mixer-read how big a returned list can get. A brief description of the fields:

MUS_AUDIO_AMP       gain or volume control (0.0 to 1.0)
MUS_AUDIO_SRATE     sampling rate
MUS_AUDIO_CHANNEL   active channels

MUS_AUDIO_BASS, MUS_AUDIO_TREBLE    mixer's tone control
MUS_AUDIO_LINE                      mixer's line-in gain control
MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE                mixer's microphone gain control
similarly for MUS_AUDIO_IMIX, MUS_AUDIO_IGAIN, 
              MUS_AUDIO_RECLEV, MUS_AUDIO_PCM, MUS_AUDIO_PCM2,
              MUS_AUDIO_OGAIN, MUS_AUDIO_LINE1, 
              MUS_AUDIO_LINE2, MUS_AUDIO_LINE3, MUS_AUDIO_SYNTH 

MUS_AUDIO_FORMAT    return list of usable sound formats (e.g. MUS_BSHORT)
MUS_AUDIO_PORT      return list of available devices (e.g. MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE)

MIDI

There is some simple, very low-level MIDI support in sndlib.

 int mus_midi_open_read(const char *name)
 int mus_midi_open_write(const char *name)
 int mus_midi_close(int line)
 int mus_midi_read(int line, unsigned char *buffer, int bytes)
 int mus_midi_write(int line, unsigned char *buffer, int bytes)
 char *mus_midi_device_name(int sysdev)
 char *mus_midi_describe(void)

These procedures remove all structure imposed by the available MIDI drivers, presenting each such device as if it were a sort of file. mus_midi_open_read and mus_midi_open_write open a given device (its name can be found by calling mus_midi_device_name with an argument of 0), returning an integer that refers to that port in subsequent calls on mus_midi_read, mus_midi_write, and mus_midi_close. No attempt is made to interpret the data, or time its output, etc. mus_midi_describe returns a description of the available MIDI hardware (its result should be freed, whereas the result of mus_midi_device_name should not be freed). The "int" result of each of the functions is -1 if some error occurred (from Guile, they throw 'mus-error). The sysdev argument to mus_midi_device_name is a sndlib-style integer packing the card number ("system" in the left half, and the device number in the right). On the ALSA system I'm testing at the moment, the MIDI device is apparently "hw:1,0" or "/dev/snd/midiC1D0"; this maps into sndlib as card 1, device 0; the corresponding "sysdev" number is 1 << 16. The corresponding Guile functions are:

  mus-midi-open-read name
  mus-midi-open-write name
  mus-midi-close md
  mus-midi-device-name sys-dev
  mus-midi-describe
  mus-midi-read md bytes
  mus-midi-write md bytes

mus-midi-read and mus-midi-write return a list of the bytes read or written (empty if none), or #f if something went wrong.


MusicV

clm.c and friends implement all the generators found in CLM, a common lisp music V implementation, and clm2xen.c ties these into the languages supported by the xen package (currently Guile and Ruby). The primary clm documentation (which describes both the Scheme and Common Lisp implementations) is clm.html found in clm-3.tar.gz alongside sndlib at ccrma-ftp. The simplest way to try these out is to load them into Snd; see extsnd.html, examp.scm, and snd-test.scm in snd-7.tar.gz for more details. The C implementation is essentially the same as the two Lisp versions, but (as might be expected), works at a lower level, expecting the caller to handle garbage collection and so forth. The following briefly describes the C calls (see clm.h).

clm.c implements a bunch of generators and sound IO handlers. Each generator has three associated functions, make-gen, gen, and gen_p; the first creates the generator (if needed), the second gets the next sample from the generator, and the last examines some pointer to determine if it is that kind of generator. In addition, there are a variety of generic functions that generators respond to: mus_free, for example, frees a generator, and mus_frequency returns its current frequency, if relevant. All generators are pointers to mus_any structs. Finally, CLM has two special data types: frame and mixer. A frame is an array that represents a multi-channel sample (that is, in a stereo file, at time 0.0, there are two samples, one for each channel). A mixer is a array of arrays that represents a set of input and output scalers, as if it were the current state of a mixing console's volume controls. A frame (a multi-channel input) can be mixed into a new frame (a multi-channel output) by passing it through a mixer (a matrix, the operation being a matrix multiply).

The other generators are:

Some useful functions provided by clm.c are:

and various others -- see clm.h.

The more useful generic functions are:

Before using any of these functions, call init_mus_module. Errors are reported through mus_error which can be redirected or muffled. See clm2xen.c for an example.


Examples

In the following examples I've omitted the usual garrulous C-header gab and other inessential stuff. The full program code is available as noted below.


SndInfo

This program prints out a description of a sound file (sndinfo.c).

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int fd, chans, srate;
  off_t samples;
  float length;
  time_t date;
  char *comment;
  char timestr[64];
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  fd = mus_file_open_read(argv[1]); /* see if it exists */
  if (fd != -1)
    {
      close(fd);
      date = mus_sound_write_date(argv[1]);
      srate = mus_sound_srate(argv[1]);
      chans = mus_sound_chans(argv[1]);
      samples = mus_sound_samples(argv[1]);
      comment = mus_sound_comment(argv[1]); 
      length = (double)samples / (float)(chans * srate);
      strftime(timestr, 64, "%a %d-%b-%y %H:%M %Z", localtime(&date));
      fprintf(stdout, "%s:\n  srate: %d\n  chans: %d\n  length: %f\n", 
	      argv[1], srate, chans, length);
      fprintf(stdout, "  type: %s\n  format: %s\n  written: %s\n  comment: %s\n", 
	      mus_header_type_name(mus_sound_header_type(argv[1])), 
	      mus_data_format_name(mus_sound_data_format(argv[1])), 
	      timestr, comment);
    }
  else
    fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s\n", argv[1], strerror(errno));
  return(0);
}

SndPlay

This code plays a sound file (sndplay.c):


int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int fd, afd, i, j, n, k, chans, srate, outbytes;
  off_t frames;
  mus_sample_t **bufs;
  short *obuf;
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  fd = mus_sound_open_input(argv[1]);
  if (fd != -1)
    {
      chans = mus_sound_chans(argv[1]);
      srate = mus_sound_srate(argv[1]);
      frames = mus_sound_frames(argv[1]);
      outbytes = BUFFER_SIZE * chans * 2;
      bufs = (mus_sample_t **)calloc(chans, sizeof(mus_sample_t *));
      for (i=0;i<chans;i++) 
        bufs[i] = (mus_sample_t *)calloc(BUFFER_SIZE, sizeof(mus_sample_t));
      obuf = (short *)calloc(BUFFER_SIZE * chans, sizeof(short));
      afd = mus_audio_open_output(MUS_AUDIO_DEFAULT, srate, chans, MUS_COMPATIBLE_FORMAT, outbytes);
      if (afd != -1)
	{
	  for (i = 0; i < frames; i += BUFFER_SIZE)
	    {
	      mus_sound_read(fd, 0, BUFFER_SIZE - 1, chans, bufs);
	      for (k = 0, j = 0; k < BUFFER_SIZE; k++, j += chans)
		for (n = 0; n < chans; n++) 
                  obuf[j + n] = MUS_SAMPLE_TO_SHORT(bufs[n][k]);
	      mus_audio_write(afd, (char *)obuf, outbytes);
	    }
	  mus_audio_close(afd);
	}
      mus_sound_close_input(fd);
      for (i = 0; i < chans; i++) free(bufs[i]);
      free(bufs);
      free(obuf);
    }
  return(0);
}


SndRecord

This code records a couple seconds of sound from a microphone. Input formats and sampling rates are dependent on available hardware, so in a real program, you'd use mus_audio_mixer_read to find out what was available, then mus_file_read_buffer to turn that data into a stream of floats. You'd also provide, no doubt, some whizzy user interface to turn the thing off. (sndrecord.c)

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int fd, afd, i, err;
  short *ibuf;
#if MACOS
  argc = ccommand(&argv);
#endif
  afd = -1;
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  fd = mus_sound_open_output(argv[1], 22050, 1, MUS_BSHORT, MUS_NEXT, "created by sndrecord");
  if (fd != -1)
    {
      ibuf = (short *)calloc(BUFFER_SIZE, sizeof(short));
      afd = mus_audio_open_input(MUS_AUDIO_MICROPHONE, 22050, 1, MUS_BSHORT, BUFFER_SIZE);
      if (afd != -1)
	{
	  for (i = 0; i < 10; i++) /* grab 10 buffers of input */
	    {
	      err = mus_audio_read(afd, (char *)ibuf, BUFFER_SIZE * 2);
	      if (err != MUS_NO_ERROR) break;
	      write(fd, ibuf, BUFFER_SIZE * 2);
	    }
	  mus_audio_close(afd);
	}
      mus_sound_close_output(fd, BUFFER_SIZE * 10 * 2);
      free(ibuf);
    }
  return(0);
}

AudInfo

This program describes the current audio harware state (audinfo.c):


int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  mus_audio_describe();
  return(0);
}

SndSine

This program writes a one channel NeXT/Sun sound file containing a sine wave at 440 Hz.

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int fd, i, k, frames;
  float phase, incr;
  mus_sample_t *obuf[1];
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  fd = mus_sound_open_output(argv[1], 22050, 1, MUS_BSHORT, MUS_NEXT, "created by sndsine");
  if (fd != -1)
    {
      frames = 22050;
      phase = 0.0;
      incr = 2 * M_PI * 440.0 / 22050.0;
      obuf[0] = (mus_sample_t *)calloc(BUFFER_SIZE, sizeof(mus_sample_t));
      k = 0;
      for (i = 0; i < frames; i++)
	{
	  obuf[0][k] = MUS_FLOAT_TO_SAMPLE(0.1 * sin(phase)); /* amp = .1 */
	  phase += incr;
	  k++;
	  if (k == BUFFER_SIZE)
	    {
	      mus_sound_write(fd, 0, BUFFER_SIZE-1, 1, obuf);
	      k=0;
	    }
	}
      if (k > 0) mus_sound_write(fd, 0, k - 1, 1, obuf);
      mus_sound_close_output(fd, 22050 * mus_bytes_per_sample(MUS_BSHORT));
      free(obuf[0]);
    }
  return(0);
}

clmosc

This is program uses the clm.c oscillator and output functions to write the same sine wave as we wrote in SndSine.

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int i;
  mus_any *osc, *op;
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  init_mus_module();
  osc = mus_make_oscil(440.0, 0.0);
  op = mus_make_sample_to_file("test.snd", 1, MUS_BSHORT, MUS_NEXT);
  if (op) 
    for (i = 0; i < 22050; i++) 
      mus_sample_to_file(op, i, 0, .1 * mus_oscil(osc, 0.0, 0.0));
  mus_free(osc);
  if (op) mus_free(op);
  return(0);
}

Here is the fm-violin and a sample with-sound call:

static int feq(float x, int i) {return(fabs(x-i)<.00001);}

void fm_violin(float start, float dur, float frequency, float amplitude, float fm_index, mus_any *op)
{
 float pervibfrq = 5.0,
   ranvibfrq = 16.0,
   pervibamp = .0025,
   ranvibamp = .005,
   noise_amount = 0.0,
   noise_frq = 1000.0,
   gliss_amp = 0.0,
   fm1_rat = 1.0,
   fm2_rat = 3.0,
   fm3_rat = 4.0,
   reverb_amount = 0.0,
   degree = 0.0, 
   distance = 1.0;
  float fm_env[] = {0.0, 1.0, 25.0, 0.4, 75.0, 0.6, 100.0, 0.0};
  float amp_env[] = {0.0, 0.0,  25.0, 1.0, 75.0, 1.0, 100.0, 0.0};
  float frq_env[] = {0.0, -1.0, 15.0, 1.0, 25.0, 0.0, 100.0, 0.0};
  int beg = 0, end, easy_case = 0, npartials, i;
  float *coeffs, *partials;
  float frq_scl, maxdev, logfrq, sqrtfrq, index1, index2, index3, norm;
  float vib = 0.0, modulation = 0.0, fuzz = 0.0, indfuzz = 1.0, ampfuzz = 1.0;
  mus_any *carrier, *fmosc1, *fmosc2, *fmosc3, *ampf;
  mus_any *indf1, *indf2, *indf3, *fmnoi = NULL, *pervib, *ranvib, *frqf = NULL, *loc;
  beg = start * mus_srate();
  end = beg + dur * mus_srate();
  frq_scl = mus_hz_to_radians(frequency);
  maxdev = frq_scl * fm_index;
  if ((noise_amount == 0.0) && 
      (feq(fm1_rat, floor(fm1_rat))) && 
      (feq(fm2_rat, floor(fm2_rat))) && 
      (feq(fm3_rat, floor(fm3_rat)))) 
    easy_case = 1;
  logfrq = log(frequency);
  sqrtfrq = sqrt(frequency);
  index1 = maxdev * 5.0 / logfrq; 
  if (index1 > M_PI) index1 = M_PI;
  index2 = maxdev * 3.0 * (8.5 - logfrq) / (3.0 + frequency * .001); 
  if (index2 > M_PI) index2 = M_PI;
  index3 = maxdev * 4.0 / sqrtfrq; 
  if (index3 > M_PI) index3 = M_PI;
  if (easy_case)
    {
      npartials = floor(fm1_rat);
      if ((floor(fm2_rat)) > npartials) npartials = floor(fm2_rat);
      if ((floor(fm3_rat)) > npartials) npartials = floor(fm3_rat);
      npartials++;
      partials = (float *)CALLOC(npartials, sizeof(float));
      partials[(int)(fm1_rat)] = index1;
      partials[(int)(fm2_rat)] = index2;
      partials[(int)(fm3_rat)] = index3;
      coeffs = mus_partials_to_polynomial(npartials, partials, 1);
      norm = 1.0;
    }
  else norm = index1;
  carrier = mus_make_oscil(frequency, 0.0);
  if (easy_case == 0)
    {
      fmosc1 = mus_make_oscil(frequency * fm1_rat, 0.0);
      fmosc2 = mus_make_oscil(frequency * fm2_rat, 0.0);
      fmosc3 = mus_make_oscil(frequency * fm3_rat, 0.0);
    }
  else fmosc1 = mus_make_oscil(frequency, 0.0);
  ampf = mus_make_env(amp_env, 4, amplitude, 0.0, 1.0, dur, 0, 0, NULL);
  indf1 = mus_make_env(fm_env, 4, norm, 0.0, 1.0, dur, 0, 0, NULL);
  if (gliss_amp != 0.0) 
    frqf = mus_make_env(frq_env, 4, gliss_amp * frq_scl, 0.0, 1.0, dur, 0, 0, NULL);
  if (easy_case == 0)
    {
      indf2 = mus_make_env(fm_env, 4, index2, 0.0, 1.0, dur, 0, 0, NULL);
      indf3 = mus_make_env(fm_env, 4, index3, 0.0, 1.0, dur, 0, 0, NULL);
    }
  pervib = mus_make_triangle_wave(pervibfrq, frq_scl * pervibamp, 0.0);
  ranvib = mus_make_rand_interp(ranvibfrq, frq_scl * ranvibamp);
  if (noise_amount != 0.0) fmnoi = mus_make_rand(noise_frq, noise_amount * M_PI);
  loc = mus_make_locsig(degree, distance, reverb_amount, 1, (mus_any *)op, NULL, MUS_LINEAR);
  for (i = beg; i < end; i++)
    {
      if (noise_amount != 0.0) fuzz = mus_rand(fmnoi, 0.0);
      if (frqf) vib = mus_env(frqf); else vib = 0.0;
      vib += mus_triangle_wave(pervib, 0.0) + mus_rand_interp(ranvib, 0.0);
      if (easy_case)
	modulation = mus_env(indf1) * 
                     mus_polynomial(coeffs, mus_oscil(fmosc1, vib, 0.0), npartials);
      else
	modulation = mus_env(indf1) * mus_oscil(fmosc1, (fuzz + fm1_rat * vib), 0.0) + 
	             mus_env(indf2) * mus_oscil(fmosc2, (fuzz + fm2_rat * vib), 0.0) + 
	             mus_env(indf3) * mus_oscil(fmosc3, (fuzz + fm3_rat * vib), 0.0);
      mus_locsig(loc, i, mus_env(ampf) * mus_oscil(carrier, vib + indfuzz * modulation, 0.0));
    }
  mus_free(pervib);
  mus_free(ranvib);
  mus_free(carrier);
  mus_free(fmosc1);
  mus_free(ampf);
  mus_free(indf1);
  if (fmnoi) mus_free(fmnoi);
  if (frqf) mus_free(frqf);
  if (!(easy_case))
    {
      mus_free(indf2);
      mus_free(indf3);
      mus_free(fmosc2);
      mus_free(fmosc3);
    }
  else
    FREE(partials);
  mus_free(loc);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  mus_any *osc = NULL, *op = NULL;
  mus_sound_initialize();	
  init_mus_module();
  op = mus_make_sample_to_file("test.snd", 1, MUS_BSHORT, MUS_NEXT);
  if (op)
    {
      fm_violin(0.0, 20.0, 440.0, .3, 1.0, op);
      mus_free(op);
    }
  return(0);
}

The CLM version is v.ins, the Scheme version can be found in v.scm, and the Ruby version is in v.rb. This code can be run:

cc v.c -o vc -O3 -lm io.o headers.o audio.o sound.o clm.o -DLINUX

For generators such as src that take a function for "as-needed" input, you can use something like:

static Float input_as_needed(void *arg, int dir) {/* get input here -- arg is "sf" passed below */}

static SCM call_phase-vocoder(void)
{
  mus_any *pv;
  int sf; /* file channel or whatever */
  pv = mus_make_phase_vocoder(NULL, 512, 4, 128, 0.5, NULL, NULL, NULL, (void *)sf);
  mus_phase_vocoder(pv, &input_as_needed);
  /* etc */
}

Michael Scholz has written a package using these functions, and several CLM instruments: see the sndins directory, and in particular the README file, for details.


Other Examples

The primary impetus for the sound library was the development of Snd and CLM, both of which are freely available.


Current Status


SystemSndSineSndInfoAudinfoSndPlaySndRecordCLMMIDI
SGI old and new ALokokokokokokpartly tested
OSS (Linux et al)okokokokokokuntested
Macokokokokokoknot written
Windozeokokokoknot writtenoknot written
Sunokokokokokoknot written
LinuxPPCokokokokuntestedokuntested
ALSAokokokokokokpartly tested
Mac OSXokokokokokokuntested


Incomplete: OMF, AVI, ASF, QuickTime, SoundFont 2.0, TwinVQ.
Handled by Snd: Mus10, IEEE text, HCOM, various compression schemes.


Lower Levels

If you'd like to go below the "sound" interface described above, the following functions are exported from sndlib. You need to remember to call mus_sound_initialize (or the underlying initializers) before using these functions (this is normally done for you by the various "sound_" functions).

  int mus_header_read (char *name)
  int mus_header_write (char *name, int type, int in_srate, int in_chans, off_t loc, off_t size_in_samples, int format, char *comment, int len)
  int mus_header_writable(int type, int format)

These read and write a sound file's header. The loc parameter is normally 0 (the data location depends on many things -- you'd normally write the header, then use mus_header_data_location to get the resultant data location). len is the length (bytes) of comment. mus_header_writable returns 1 if the given combination of header type and data format can be handled by sndlib.

Once mus_header_read has been called, the data in it can be accessed through:

  off_t mus_header_samples (void)            samples 
  off_t mus_header_frames (void)             frames (samples / chans)
  off_t mus_header_data_location (void)      location of data (bytes)
  int mus_header_chans (void)                channels
  int mus_header_srate (void)                srate
  int mus_header_type (void)                 header type (i.e. aiff, wave, etc)  (see sndlib.h)
  int mus_header_format (void)               data format (see sndlib.h)
  int mus_header_comment_start (void)        comment start location (if any) (bytes)
  int mus_header_comment_end (void)          comment end location
  int mus_header_aux_comment_start (int n)   if multiple comments, nth start location
  int mus_header_aux_comment_end (int n)     if multiple comments, nth end location
  int mus_header_type_specifier (void)       original (header-specific) type ID
  int mus_header_bits_per_sample (void)      sample width in bits
  off_t mus_header_true_length (void)        true (lseek) file length
  char *mus_header_type_name (int type)      header_type name
  char *mus_data_format_name (int format)    data_format name

Various less useful header fields are accessible: see headers.c or sndlib.h for details. The next functions handle various IO calls:

  int mus_file_open_read (const char *arg)              open file read-only
  int mus_file_probe (const char *arg)                  return 1 if file exists
  int mus_file_open_write (const char *arg)             open file read-write, creating it if necessary, else truncating
  int mus_file_create (const char *arg)                 create file
  int mus_file_reopen_write (const char *arg)           open file read-write without changing anything
  int mus_file_close (int fd)                           close file
  off_t mus_file_seek_frame (int tfd, off_t frame)      go to a specific frame in file
  int mus_file_read (int fd, int beg, int end, int chans, mus_sample_t **bufs)
  int mus_file_read_chans (int fd, int beg, int end, int chans, mus_sample_t **bufs, mus_sample_t *cm)
  int mus_file_read_any (int tfd, int beg, int chans, int nints, mus_sample_t **bufs, mus_sample_t *cm)
  int mus_file_write_zeros (int tfd, off_t num)
  int mus_file_write (int tfd, int beg, int end, int chans, mus_sample_t **bufs)
  float mus_file_prescaler(int tfd)
  float mus_file_set_prescaler(int tfd, float val)

The prescaler functions are useful in several pathological cases. If you're reading float data that is extremely soft (i.e. max amp below .001), the transfer to integer form in sndlib can cause bits to be lost, resulting in hiss. In this case set the prescaler for the file to 1000.0 or so to get the data into a more normal range. The mus_file_set_prescaler call should come just after opening the sound file, before trying to read any data.

If you're trying to deal with various data types yourself, the following functions may be useful; they perform various byte-order-aware type conversions:

  void mus_bint_to_char (unsigned char *j, int x)
  int mus_char_to_bint (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_lint_to_char (unsigned char *j, int x)
  int mus_char_to_lint (const unsigned char *inp)
  int mus_char_to_uninterpreted_int (unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_bfloat_to_char (const unsigned char *j, float x)
  float mus_char_to_bfloat (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_lfloat_to_char (unsigned char *j, float x)
  float mus_char_to_lfloat (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_bshort_to_char (unsigned char *j, short x)
  short mus_char_to_bshort (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_lshort_to_char (unsigned char *j, short x)
  short mus_char_to_lshort (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_ubshort_to_char (unsigned char *j, unsigned short x)
  unsigned short mus_char_to_ubshort (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_ulshort_to_char (unsigned char *j, unsigned short x)
  unsigned short mus_char_to_ulshort (unsigned char *inp)
  double mus_char_to_ldouble (const unsigned char *inp)
  double mus_char_to_bdouble (const unsigned char *inp)
  void mus_bdouble_to_char (unsigned char *j, double x)
  void mus_ldouble_to_char (unsigned char *j, double x)
  unsigned int mus_char_to_ubint (const unsigned char *inp)
  unsigned int mus_char_to_ulint (const unsigned char *inp)

Finally, a couple functions are provided to read and write sound files to and from arrays:

  int mus_file_to_array (const char *filename, int chan, int start, int samples, mus_sample_t *array)
  int mus_array_to_file (const char *filename, mus_sample_t *ddata, int len, int srate, int channels)

Sndlib and Guile

Much of sndlib is accessible at run time in any program that has one of the languages supported by the xen package (Guile, Ruby); the modules sndlib2xen and clm2xen tie most of the library into that language making it possible to call the library functions from its interpreter. The documentation is scattered around, unfortunately: the clm side is in clm.html and extsnd.html with many examples in Snd's examp.scm. Most of these are obvious translations of the constants and functions described above into Scheme.

  mus-next mus-aifc mus-riff mus-nist mus-raw mus-ircam mus-aiff mus-bicsf mus-soundfont mus-voc mus-svx

  mus-bshort mus-lshort mus-mulaw mus-alaw mus-byte mus-ubyte mus-bfloat
  mus-lfloat mus-bint mus-lint mus-b24int mus-l24int mus-bdouble mus-ldouble
  mus-ubshort mus-ulshort

  mus-audio-default mus-audio-duplex-default mus-audio-line-out mus-audio-line-in
  mus-audio-microphone mus-audio-speakers mus-audio-dac-out mus-audio-adat-in
  mus-audio-aes-in mus-audio-digital-in mus-audio-digital-out mus-audio-adat-out
  mus-audio-aes-out mus-audio-dac-filter mus-audio-mixer mus-audio-line1
  mus-audio-line2 mus-audio-line3 mus-audio-aux-input mus-audio-cd mus-audio-aux-output
  mus-audio-spdif-in mus-audio-spdif-out

  mus-audio-amp mus-audio-srate mus-audio-channel mus-audio-format mus-audio-port
  mus-audio-imix mus-audio-igain mus-audio-reclev mus-audio-pcm mus-audio-pcm2
  mus-audio-ogain mus-audio-line mus-audio-synth mus-audio-bass mus-audio-treble
  mus-audio-direction mus-audio-samples-per-channel

  mus-sound-samples (filename)             samples of sound according to header (can be incorrect)
  mus-sound-frames (filename)              frames of sound according to header (can be incorrect)
  mus-sound-duration (filename)            duration of sound in seconds
  mus-sound-datum-size (filename)          bytes per sample
  mus-sound-data-location (filename)       location of first sample (bytes)
  mus-sound-chans (filename)               number of channels (samples are interleaved)
  mus-sound-srate (filename)               sampling rate
  mus-sound-header-type (filename)         header type (e.g. mus-aiff)
  mus-sound-data-format (filename)         data format (e.g. mus-bshort)
  mus-sound-length (filename)              true file length (bytes)
  mus-sound-type-specifier (filename)      original header type identifier
  mus-sound-maxamp(filename)               returns a list of max amps and locations thereof
  mus-sound-loop-info(filename)            returns list of 4 loop values (the actual mark positions here, not
                                           the so-called id's), then base-note and base-detune
  
  mus-header-type-name (type)              e.g. "AIFF"
  mus-data-format-name (format)            e.g. "16-bit big endian linear"
  mus-sound-comment (filename)             header comment, if any
  mus-sound-write-date (filename)          sound write date
  data-format-bytes-per-sample (format)    bytes per sample

  mus-audio-describe ()                    describe audio hardware state
  mus-audio-report ()                      return audio hardware state as a string
  mus-audio-set-oss-buffers (num size)     in Linux (OSS) sets the number and size of the OSS "fragments"
  mus-audio-sun-outputs (speaker headphones line-out) On the Sun, cause output to go to the chosen devices
  mus-audio-reinitialize                   force re-check of available audio devices

  mus-sound-open-input (filename)          open filename (a sound file) returning an integer ("fd" below)
  mus-sound-open-output (filename srate chans data-format header-type comment)
                                           create a new sound file with the indicated attributes, return "fd"
  mus-sound-reopen-output (filename chans data-format header-type data-location)
                                           reopen (without disturbing) filename, ready to be written
  mus-sound-close-input (fd)               close sound file
  mus-sound-close-output (fd bytes)        close sound file and update its length indication, if any
  mus-sound-read (fd beg end chans sdata)  read data from sound file fd loading the data array from beg to end
                                           sdata is a sound-data object that should be able to accommodate the read
  mus-sound-write (fd beg end chans sdata) write data to sound file fd
  mus-sound-seek-frame (fd frame)          move to frame in sound file fd
  mus-file-data-clipped (fd)               whether output is clipped

  mus-audio-open-output (device srate chans format bufsize)
                                           open audio port device ready for output with the indicated attributes
  mus-audio-open-input (device srate chans format bufsize)
                                           open audio port device ready for input with the indicated attributes
  mus-audio-write (line sdata frames)      write frames of data from sound-data object sdata to port line
  mus-audio-read (line sdata frames)       read frames of data into sound-data object sdata from port line
  mus-audio-close (line)                   close audio port line
  mus-audio-mixer-read (device field channel vals)
                                           read current state of device's field -- see mus_audio_mixer_read above.
  mus-audio-mixer-write (device field channel vals)
                                           write new state for device's field -- see mus_audio_mixer_write above.
  mus-audio-systems ()                     returns how many separate "systems" (soundcards) it can find.  To specify
                                           a particular system in the "device" parameters, add (ash system 16) to the device.

  make-sound-data (chans, frames)      return a sound-data object with chans arrays, each of length frames
  sound-data-ref (obj chan frame)      return (as a float) the sample in channel chan at location frame
  sound-data-set! (obj chan frame val) set obj's sample at frame in chan to (the float) val
  sound-data? (obj)                    #t if obj is of type sound-data
  sound-data-length (obj)              length of each channel of data in obj
  sound-data-chans (obj)               number of channels of data in obj
  sound-data->vct (sdobj chan vobj)    place sound-data channel data in vct 
  vct->sound-data (vobj sdobj chan)    place vct data in sound-data

;;; this function prints header information
(define info
  (lambda (file)
    (string-append
     file
     ": chans: " (number->string (mus-sound-chans file))
     ", srate: " (number->string (mus-sound-srate file))
     ", " (mus-header-type-name (mus-sound-header-type file))
     ", " (mus-data-format-name (mus-sound-data-format file))
     ", len: " (number->string
                (/ (mus-sound-samples file)
                   (* (mus-sound-chans file) (mus-sound-srate file)))))))

;;; this function reads the first 32 samples of a file, returning the 30th in channel 0
(define read-sample-30 
  (lambda (file)
    (let* ((fd (mus-sound-open-input file))
	   (chans (mus-sound-chans file))
	   (data (make-sound-data chans 32)))
      (mus-sound-read fd 0 31 chans data)
      ;; we could use sound-data->vct here to return all the samples
      (let ((val (sound-data-ref data 0 29)))
	(mus-sound-close-input fd)
	val))))

;;; here we get the microphone volume, then set it to .5
  (define vals (make-vct 32))
  (mus-audio-mixer-read mus-audio-microphone mus-audio-amp 0 vals)
  (vct-ref vals 0)
  (vct-set! vals 0 .5)
  (mus-audio-mixer-write mus-audio-microphone mus-audio-amp 0 vals)

;;; this function plays a sound (we're assuming that we can play 16-bit linear little-endian data)
(define play-sound
  (lambda (file)
    (let* ((sound-fd (mus-sound-open-input file))
	   (chans (mus-sound-chans file))
	   (frames (mus-sound-frames file))
	   (bufsize 256)
	   (data (make-sound-data chans bufsize))
	   (bytes (* bufsize chans 2)))
      (mus-sound-read sound-fd 0 (1- bufsize) chans data)
      (let ((audio-fd (mus-audio-open-output mus-audio-default (mus-sound-srate file) chans mus-lshort bytes)))
	(do ((i 0 (+ i bufsize)))
	    ((>= i frames))
	  (mus-audio-write audio-fd data bufsize)
	  (mus-sound-read sound-fd 0 (1- bufsize) chans data))
	(mus-sound-close-input sound-fd)
	(mus-audio-close audio-fd)))))

You can load sndlib into the standard Guile interpreter:

guile> (define lib (dynamic-link "/home/bil/sndlib/sndlib.so"))
guile> (dynamic-call "mus_sndlib_xen_initialize" lib)
guile> (mus-sound-srate "/home/bil/cl/oboe.snd")
22050
guile> (dynamic-call "mus_xen_init" lib)
guile> (define osc (make-oscil 440))
guile> (oscil osc)
0.0

The first dynamic-call (mus_sndlib_xen_initialize) ties sndlib2xen.c into Guile, and the second (mus_xen_init) ties clm2xen.c into Guile. See bess.scm and bess.rb in the Snd tarball. Here's a more extended example, using code from Snd's play.scm, slightly revised to make it independent of Snd:


(use-modules (ice-9 format) (ice-9 optargs))

(define lib (dynamic-link "/home/bil/test/sndlib/sndlib.so"))
(dynamic-call "mus_sndlib_xen_initialize" lib)
(dynamic-call "mus_xen_init" lib)

(define* (open-play-output #:optional out-chans out-srate out-format out-bufsize)
  ;; returns (list audio-fd chans frames)
  (let* ((outchans (or out-chans 1))
	 (cur-srate (or out-srate (and (not (null? (sounds))) (srate)) 22050))
	 (pframes (or out-bufsize 256))
	 (frm (or out-format mus-lshort))
	 (outbytes (* pframes 2))     ; 2 here since we'll first try to send short (16-bit) data to the DAC
	 (audio-fd ;; ALSA throws an error where the rest of the audio cases simply report failure
	           ;;   so we turn off the "error" printout, catch the error itself, and toss it
	  (let ((val (catch #t
			    (lambda ()
			      (mus-audio-open-output mus-audio-default cur-srate outchans frm outbytes))
			    (lambda args -1)))) ; -1 returned in case of error
	    val)))
    (if (= audio-fd -1)
	;; ask card what it wants -- ALSA with some cards, for example, insists on 10 (virtual) channels and mus-lintn data!
	(let ((vals (make-vct 32)))
	  (mus-audio-mixer-read mus-audio-default mus-audio-format 32 vals)
	  (let ((fmt (inexact->exact (vct-ref vals 1))))
	    (mus-audio-mixer-read mus-audio-default mus-audio-channel 32 vals)
	    (set! outchans (inexact->exact (vct-ref vals 0)))
	    (let ((err (mus-audio-mixer-read mus-audio-default mus-audio-samples-per-channel 2 vals)))
	      (if (not (= err -1))
		  (set! pframes (inexact->exact (vct-ref vals 0))))
	      (let* ((bps (mus-bytes-per-sample fmt)))
		(set! outbytes (* bps pframes outchans))
		(set! audio-fd (catch #t
				      (lambda ()
					(mus-audio-open-output mus-audio-default cur-srate outchans fmt outbytes))
				      (lambda args -1))))))))
    (list audio-fd outchans pframes)))

(define* (play-sine freq amp)
  "(play-sine freq amp) plays a 1 second sinewave at freq and amp"
  (let* ((audio-info (open-play-output 1 22050 #f 256))
	 (audio-fd (car audio-info))
	 (outchans (cadr audio-info))
	 (pframes (caddr audio-info)))
    (if (not (= audio-fd -1))
	(let ((len 22050)
	      (osc (make-oscil freq))
	      (data (make-sound-data outchans pframes)))
	  (do ((beg 0 (+ beg pframes)))
	      ((> beg len))
	    (do ((i 0 (1+ i)))
		((= i pframes))
	      (sound-data-set! data 0 i (* amp (oscil osc))))
	    (mus-audio-write audio-fd data pframes))
	  (mus-audio-close audio-fd))
	#f)))

Now, load this code into guile+sndlib, and (play-sine 440 .1).


Sndlib and Forth

Michael Scholz has provided a Forth version of sndlib and CLM -- see the README file in the gfm directory for details.

related documentation:snd.html extsnd.htmlgrfsnd.htmlclm.htmlsndscm.htmllibxm.htmlindex.html