Audio Playback

A command line and Ruby tool for playing audio files

Under the hood the portaudio and libsndfile libraries are used, enabling the gem to be cross-platform on any systems where these libraries are available

Installation

These packages must be installed first:

libsndfile (link)
portaudio (link)

Both libraries are available in Homebrew, APT, Yum as well as many other package managers. For those who wish to compile themselves or need more information about those packages, follow the links above for more information

Once those libraries are installed, install the gem itself using

gem install audio-playback

Or if you're using Bundler, add this to your Gemfile

gem "audio-playback"

Usage

Command line

playback [filename] [options]

options:

-l Latency in seconds. Defaults to use the default latency for the selected output device
-b Buffer size in bytes. Defaults to 4096
-c Output audio to the given channel(s). Eg -c 0,1 will direct audio to channels 0 and 1. Defaults to use channels 0 and 1 on the selected device
-d Duration. Will stop after the given amount of time. Eg -d 56 stops after 56 seconds of playback
-e End position. Will stop at the given absolute time, irregardless of seek. Eg -e 56 stops at 56 seconds. -s 01:09:30 -e 01:10:00 stops at 1 hour 10 minutes after 30 seconds of playback
-o Output device id or name. Defaults to the system default
-s Seek to given time position. Eg -s 56 seeks to 56 seconds and -s 01:10:00 seeks to 1 hour 10 min.
-v or --verbose Verbose
--loop Loop playback continuously
--list-devices List the available audio output devices

example:

playback test/media/1-stereo-44100.wav -v -c 1

With Ruby

require "audio-playback"

# Prompt the user to select an audio output
@output = AudioPlayback::Device::Output.gets

options = {
  :channels => [0,1],
  :latency => 1,
  :output_device => @output
}

@playback = AudioPlayback.play("test/media/1-stereo-44100.wav", options)

# Play in the foreground
@playback.block

options:

:buffer_size Buffer size in bytes. Defaults to 4096
:channel or :channels Output audio to the given channel(s). Eg :channels => [0,1] will direct the audio to channels 0 and 1. Defaults to use channels 0 and 1 on the selected device
:latency Latency in seconds. Defaults to use the default latency for the selected output device
:logger Logger object
:output_device Output device id or name

More Examples

More Ruby code examples:

License

Licensed under Apache 2.0, See the file LICENSE