shithub: pplay

ref: bd843e079f1b1fbac275c82b7144c5d4476268e9
dir: /pplay.man/

View raw version
.TH PPLAY 1
.SH NAME
pplay \- visual PCM audio player
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B pplay
[
.B -cfs
] [
.B pcmfile
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Pplay
is a PCM audio player which shows a time-domain graphical plot of the data.
It operates on the same format used by the audio device (see
.IR audio (3)).
.PP
At startup, the program loads the audio data in its entirety into memory,
unless the
.B -f
option is given, in which case the input file must be seekable.
Data is read either from the file provided as argument, or from standard in.
By default,
.I pplay
writes audio data back to
.BR /dev/audio .
With the
.B -c
option, it writes to standard out instead.
.PP
The graphical plot shows a time-domain representation of the audio data's left channel.
The
.B -s
option enables plotting its right channel below the left.
.PP
The current position in the buffer is shown by a vertical line.
It can be set using the left mouse button.
.PP
.I Pplay
loops a section of the audio data indefinitely.
At start up, this section is set to the entire file.
The section's beginning and end are shown by vertical markers of the same color.
Both are set by using the middle mouse button,
relative to the current position in the buffer:
clicking to the left of the position marker will set the loop start position, and vice versa.
The
.B r
key resets both loop positions to their default values.
.PP
By default, the graphical plot spans the dimensions of the window.
It can be zoomed in or out with the
.L +
and
.L -
keys, and reset with the
.L z
key.
The
.L _
and
.L =
keys zoom in by greater increments.
The view can then be moved by holding the right mouse button,
and moving the cursor horizontally.
.PP
The space key pauses playback.
The
.L b
key resets the position to that of the loop start position.
.PP
The
.L w
key prompts the user to enter a file path to write the looped section to.
.SH EXAMPLES
Load and play an mp3 file (see
.IR audio (1)):
.IP
.EX
% audio/mp3dec <file.mp3 | pplay
.EE
.PP
Use
.IR play (1)
to decode any known audio format:
.IP
.EX
% play -o /fd/1 file | pplay
.EE
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR audio (1),
.IR play (1),
.IR audio (3)
.SH HISTORY
.I Pplay
first appeared in 9front (October, 2017).
.SH BUGS
Most mouse actions redraw the entire plot.