sox/git/soxformat.7

10 '\" Replacement em-dash for nroff (default is too short).
34 SoX \- Sound eXchange, the Swiss Army knife of audio manipulation
48 are marked e.g. `(also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)'.  This might be
54 .B sox \-h
58 \&\fB.raw\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR),
70 the sample rate and the data encoding must be given using command-line
74 and 64-bit (IEEE single and double precision) floating point PCM
76 16, 24, and 32-bit signed integer PCM respectively; \fBu8\fR, \fBu16\fR,
77 \fBu24\fR, and \fBu32\fR indicate 8, 16, 24, and 32-bit unsigned integer
78 PCM respectively; \fBul\fR indicates `\(*m-law' (8-bit), \fBal\fR
79 indicates `A-law' (8-bit), and \fBlu\fR and \fBla\fR are inverse bit
80 order `\(*m-law' and inverse bit order `A-law' respectively.  For all raw
111 \&\fB.8svx\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
114 \&\fB.aiff\fR, \fB.aif\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
123 \&\fB.aiffc\fR, \fB.aifc\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
124 AIFF-C is a format based on AIFF that was created to allow
130 Macs as well as iTunes on any platform.  AIFF-C files produced
137 AIFF-C is defined in DAVIC 1.4 Part 9 Annex B.
138 This format is referred from ARIB STD-B24, which is specified for
143 recording audio.  ALSA is only used in Linux-based operating systems, though
146 	sox infile \-t alsa
147 	sox infile \-t alsa default
148 	sox infile \-t alsa plughw:0,0
149 	sox \-b 16 \-t alsa hw:1 outfile
159 Ambisonic B-Format: a specialisation of
162 See http://www.ambisonia.com/Members/mleese/file-format-for-b-format for
166 \&\fB.amr\-nb\fR (optional)
170 AMR-NB audio has a fixed sampling rate of 8 kHz and supports encoding
171 to the following bit-rates (as selected by the
172 .B \-C
177 \&\fB.amr\-wb\fR (optional)
181 AMR-WB audio has a fixed sampling rate of 16 kHz and supports encoding
182 to the following bit-rates (as selected by the
183 .B \-C
200 	sox infile \-t ao
201 	sox infile \-t ao default
202 	sox infile \-t ao pulse
210 \&\fB.au\fR, \fB.snd\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
215 .B \-L
219 are probably original Sun \(*m-law 8000\ Hz files and
226 .B \-r
228 .B \-c
241 channels formatted as 16-bit signed integers (big endian)at a sample
250 System Preferences->Sound menu and then under the Output and Input tabs.
254 	sox infile \-t coreaudio
255 	sox infile \-t coreaudio default
256 	sox infile \-t coreaudio "Internal Speakers"
268 This format is sometimes used with bit-reversed samples\*mthe
269 .B \-X
270 format option can be used to set the bit-order.
275 be used with any bit-rate.  E.g.
278 	play \-r 28k outfile.cvu sinc \-3.4k
292 are 1 and \-1.  This file format can be used to
309 A self-describing variant of
316 \&\fB.flac\fR (optional; also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
318 FLAC is an open, patent-free CODEC designed for compressing
321 quality.
333 .B \-C
344 Grandstream ring-tone files.
345 Whilst this file format can contain A-Law, \(*m-law, GSM, G.722,
347 writing only A-Law and \(*m-law.  E.g.
349    sox music.wav \-t gsrt ring.bin
353 \&\fB.gsm\fR (optional; also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
367 Single channel 16-bit PCM format used by HTK,
370 \&\fB.ircam\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
374 \&\fB.ima\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
375 A headerless file of IMA ADPCM audio data. IMA ADPCM claims 16-bit precision
380 LPC-10 is a compression scheme for speech developed in the United
395 An IFF-conforming audio file type, registered by
397 with the `Toccata' sound-card on the Amiga.
398 Allows 8bit linear, 16bit linear, A-Law, \(*m-law
402 MP3 compressed audio; MP3 (MPEG Layer 3) is a part of the patent-encumbered
405 quality loss.
410 from source code, or, in some cases, obtain pre-built dynamically loadable
419 MP3 compression parameters can be selected using SoX's \fB\-C\fR option
424 value of the \fB\-C\fR value is a positive integer, it's taken as
427 The second most important parameter is probably "quality" (really
428 performance), which allows balancing encoding speed vs. quality.
429 In LAME, 0 specifies highest quality but is very slow, while
430 9 selects poor quality, but is fast. (5 is the default and 2 is
431 recommended as a good trade-off for high quality encodes.)
433 Because the \fB\-C\fR value is a float, the fractional part is used
434 to select quality. 128.2 selects 128 kbps encoding with a quality
436 128 kbps encoding with default quality, so 0 means use default. Instead
437 of 0 you have to use .01 (or .99) to specify the highest quality
440 LAME uses bitrate to specify a constant bitrate, but higher quality
441 can be achieved using Variable Bit Rate (VBR). VBR quality (really
442 size) is selected using a number from 0 to 9. Use a value of 0 for high
443 quality, larger files, and 9 for smaller files of lower quality. 4 is
446 In order to squeeze the selection of VBR into the the \fB\-C\fR value
447 float we use negative numbers to select VRR. -4.2 would select default
448 VBR encoding (size) with high quality (speed). One special case is 0,
450 Compression value of 0 is always treated as a high quality vbr, as a
451 result both -0.2 and 0.2 are treated as highest quality VBR (size) and
452 high quality (speed).
458 \&\fB.nist\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
462 Xiph.org's Ogg Vorbis compressed audio; an open, patent-free CODEC designed
465 of quality loss.
468 compression levels/qualities given as a number from \-1 (highest
469 compression/lowest quality) to 10 (lowest compression, highest quality).
470 By default the encoding quality level is 3 (which gives an encoded rate
472 .B \-C
473 option (see above) with a number from \-1 to 10; fractional numbers (e.g.
482 Xiph.org's Opus compressed audio; an open, lossy, low-latency codec
489 recording audio.  OSS support is available in Unix-like operating systems,
492 	sox infile \-t oss
493 	sox infile \-t oss /dev/dsp
494 	sox \-b 16 \-t oss /dev/dsp outfile
504 Ensoniq PARIS file format (big and little-endian respectively).
518 	play \-t mp3 \(dqhttp://a.server/pls?rn=265&file=filename.pls\(dq
520 and SoX does not know about alternative servers\*mhit Ctrl-C twice in
525 System alarms and recordings made by the built-in Record application.
526 When writing, SoX defaults to A-law, which is recommended; if you must
527 use ADPCM, then use the \fB\-e ima-adpcm\fR switch. The sound quality is poor
537 	sox infile \-t pulseaudio
538 	sox infile \-t pulseaudio default
556 \&\fB.sf\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
562 Asterisk PBX `signed linear' 8khz, 16-bit signed integer, little-endian
565 \&\fB.sph\fR, \fB.nist\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
569 \(*m-law and PCM data.  It will ignore any header information that
571 will treat the data as either \(*m-law or PCM.  This will allow SoX
577 SMP files are for use with the PC-DOS package SampleVision by Turtle Beach
590 This is a pseudo-type that forces libsndfile to be used. For writing files, the
597 	sox infile \-t sndio
608 An MS-DOS/Windows format from the early '90s.
613 An MS-DOS/Windows format from the early '90s.
628 recorded as a 64-bit integer.  Comments are also supported.
640 	sox infile \-t sunau /dev/audio
644 	sox infile \-t sunau \-e mu-law \-c 1 /dev/audio
656 Yamaha TX-16W sampler.
657 A file format from a Yamaha sampling keyboard which wrote IBM-PC
667 \&\fB.voc\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
669 VOC files are multi-part and contain silence parts, looping, and
676 blocks, and files containing \(*m-law, A-law, and 2/3/4-bit ADPCM samples.
682 \&\fB.vox\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
684 extension .vox.  This ADPCM data has 12-bit precision packed into only 4-bits.
690 passing the decoded audio through a high-pass filter, e.g.:
696 Sonic Foundry's 64-bit RIFF/WAV format.
698 \&\fB.wav\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
710 SoX can read and write linear PCM, floating point, \(*m-law, A-law, MS ADPCM, and IMA (or DVI) ADPC…
715    play \-t mp3 mp3\-encoded.wav
719 .B \-B
723 MS-Windows native audio device driver.  Examples:
725 	sox infile \-t waveaudio
726 	sox infile \-t waveaudio default
727 	sox infile \-t waveaudio 1
728 	sox infile \-t waveaudio "High Definition Audio Device ("
730 If the device name is omitted, \fB-1\fR, or \fBdefault\fR, then you
753 A non-standard, but widely used, variant of
755 Some applications cannot read a standard WAV file header for PCM-encoded
756 data with sample-size greater than 16-bits or with more than two
757 channels, but can read a non-standard
760 format can be used to create files with the non-standard header that
762 detect and read WAV files with the non-standard header.)
764 The most common use of this file-type is likely to be along the following
767 	sox infile.any \-t wavpcm \-e signed-integer outfile.wav
776 \&\fB.wve\fR (also with \fB\-t sndfile\fR)
777 Psion 8-bit A-law.  Used on Psion SIBO PDAs (Series 3 and similar).
783 These are 16-bit ADPCM audio files used by Maxis games.  Writing .xa files is
811 Copyright 1998\-2013 Chris Bagwell and SoX Contributors.