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NAME
speaker, spkr — console speaker device driver
SYNOPSIS
device speaker
#include <dev/speaker/speaker.h>
DESCRIPTION
The speaker device driver allows applications to control the PC console speaker on an IBM-PC--compatible
machine running FreeBSD.
Only one process may have this device open at any given time; open(2) and close(2) are used to lock and
relinquish it. An attempt to open when another process has the device locked will return -1 with an
EBUSY error indication. Writes to the device are interpreted as `play strings' in a simple ASCII melody
notation. An ioctl(2) request for tone generation at arbitrary frequencies is also supported.
Sound-generation does not monopolize the processor; in fact, the driver spends most of its time sleeping
while the PC hardware is emitting tones. Other processes may emit beeps while the driver is running.
Applications may call ioctl(2) on a speaker file descriptor to control the speaker driver directly;
definitions for the ioctl(2) interface are in <dev/speaker/speaker.h>. The tone_t structure used in
these calls has two fields, specifying a frequency (in Hz) and a duration (in 1/100ths of a second). A
frequency of zero is interpreted as a rest.
At present there are two such ioctl(2) calls. SPKRTONE accepts a pointer to a single tone structure as
third argument and plays it. SPKRTUNE accepts a pointer to the first of an array of tone structures and
plays them in continuous sequence; this array must be terminated by a final member with a zero duration.
The play-string language is modeled on the PLAY statement conventions of IBM Advanced BASIC 2.0. The MB,
MF, and X primitives of PLAY are not useful in a timesharing environment and are omitted. The `octave-
tracking' feature and the slur mark are new.
There are 84 accessible notes numbered 1-84 in 7 octaves, each running from C to B, numbered 0-6; the
scale is equal-tempered A440 and octave 3 starts with middle C. By default, the play function emits
half-second notes with the last 1/16th second being `rest time'.
Play strings are interpreted left to right as a series of play command groups; letter case is ignored.
Play command groups are as follows:
CDEFGAB Letters A through G cause the corresponding note to be played in the current octave. A note
letter may optionally be followed by an “accidental sign”, one of # + or -; the first two of
these cause it to be sharped one half-tone, the last causes it to be flatted one half-tone.
It may also be followed by a time value number and by sustain dots (see below). Time values
are interpreted as for the L command below.
O n If n is numeric, this sets the current octave. n may also be one of L or N to enable or
disable octave-tracking (it is disabled by default). When octave-tracking is on,
interpretation of a pair of letter notes will change octaves if necessary in order to make the
smallest possible jump between notes. Thus ``olbc'' will be played as ``olb>c'', and ``olcb''
as ``olc<b''. Octave locking is disabled for one letter note following >, < and O[0123456].
(The octave-locking feature is not supported in IBM BASIC.)
> Bump the current octave up one.
< Drop the current octave down one.
N n Play note n, n being 1 to 84 or 0 for a rest of current time value. May be followed by
sustain dots.
L n Sets the current time value for notes. The default is L4, quarter or crotchet notes. The
lowest possible value is 1; values up to 64 are accepted. L1 sets whole notes, L2 sets half
notes, L4 sets quarter notes, etc.
P n Pause (rest), with n interpreted as for L n. May be followed by sustain dots. May also be
written ~.
T n Sets the number of quarter notes per minute; default is 120. Musical names for common tempi
are:
Tempo Beats Per Minute
very slow Larghissimo
Largo 40-60
Larghetto 60-66
Grave
Lento
Adagio 66-76
slow Adagietto
Andante 76-108
medium Andantino
Moderato 108-120
fast Allegretto
Allegro 120-168
Vivace
Veloce
Presto 168-208
very fast Prestissimo
M[LNS] Set articulation. MN (N for normal) is the default; the last 1/8th of the note's value is
rest time. You can set ML for legato (no rest space) or MS for staccato (1/4 rest space).
Notes (that is, CDEFGAB or N command character groups) may be followed by sustain dots. Each dot causes
the note's value to be lengthened by one-half for each one. Thus, a note dotted once is held for 3/2 of
its undotted value; dotted twice, it is held 9/4, and three times would give 27/8.
A note and its sustain dots may also be followed by a slur mark (underscore). This causes the normal
micro-rest after the note to be filled in, slurring it to the next one. (The slur feature is not
supported in IBM BASIC.)
Whitespace in play strings is simply skipped and may be used to separate melody sections.
FILES
/dev/speaker speaker device file
SEE ALSO
spkrtest(8)
HISTORY
The speaker device appeared in FreeBSD 1.0.
AUTHORS
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>, June 1990
PORTED BY
Andrew A. Chernov <ache@astral.msk.su>
BUGS
Due to roundoff in the pitch tables and slop in the tone-generation and timer hardware (neither of which
was designed for precision), neither pitch accuracy nor timings will be mathematically exact. There is
no volume control.
The action of two or more sustain dots does not reflect standard musical notation, in which each dot adds
half the value of the previous dot modifier, not half the value of the note as modified. Thus, a note
dotted once is held for 3/2 of its undotted value; dotted twice, it is held 7/4, and three times would
give 15/8. The multiply-by-3/2 interpretation, however, is specified in the IBM BASIC manual and has
been retained for compatibility.
In play strings which are very long (longer than your system's physical I/O blocks) note suffixes or
numbers may occasionally be parsed incorrectly due to crossing a block boundary.
Debian November 10, 2005 SPKR(4)