Provided by: siggen_2.3.10-11_amd64 
NAME
siggen - an Ncurses based signal generator program
SYNOPSIS
siggen [options] [waveform [freq]]
DESCRIPTION
siggen is a simple signal generator program, with an Ncurses based user interface, that can digitally
generate standard waveforms on the LINUX /dev/dsp device. 8 or 16 bit samples can be generated depending
on the hardware.
siggen allows two independent waveforms to be generated. In stereo the two signals appear on different
channels. In mono the two signals are digitally mixed onto the one mono channel.
The frequency is specified as an integer number of Hertz. Fractional Hertz frequencies are not supported.
Of course, only frequencies less than half the samplerate (number of samples/sec) are accurately
meaningful. Higher frequencies can be specified, but don't expect to hear them!
On screen values for individual fields can be locked to prevent accidental changes. The unlock facility
unlocks all locked fields.
Corresponding values for the 2 channels can be set to track, the values are made equal and a change to
one causes a change to the other. e.g. making the frequency values track will make both channels the
same frequency, and altering one freq. value alters both simultaneously.
The waveforms that can be generated are:
sine A standard sine wave
cosine a sine wave with a 90 degree phase shift
square a standard square wave with a 50% mark space ratio
triangle
a linear rise from 0 to peak, thru' 0 to negative peak, and back to 0
sawtooth
a ramp waveform with 'infinitely' fast flyback (:-) An ideal oscilloscope timebase signal.
noise This is weak. All it consists of is one second of pseudo-randomly generated samples, played
repeatedly. I'd love to do proper white/pink noise, but I don't know enough, and I don't think the
structure of the program is conducive to accurate noise generation.
pulse A square waveform where the mark/space ratio (as a percentage) can be specified. The default value
is 10% (mark/space ratio of 1:9).
A lot of thought has gone into the algorithms for generating the waveforms. I believe the sin/cos wave
to be very pure (modulo your sound card :-), but I don't have access to a THD meter to measure it. For
best signal accuracy leave the gain setting at 100(%). The generator will then make the wave's peak value
fit the maximum digital values allowed. Use a mixer program to control the output volume, or an external
attenuator.
The gain factor option can be useful for simulating a signal that has been subject to clipping, by
specifying a gain of > 100%. In fact a trapezoid signal can be made by generating a clipped sawtooth
wave. The greater the gain, the closer the signal approaches a square wave (the rise and fall times
decrease).
siggen ordinarily generates one seconds worth of 1 Hz samples at the specified samplerate, for each
waveform, and generates frequency F by circularly sampling every Fth sample. Each buffer fragment is
generated for the parameter(s) set at that moment. Buffer fragment sizes are set so that aprox. 10
fragments/sec are generated. Changing a generation parameter, e.g. waveform, frequency, gain, will impact
the next buffer fragment generated, and hence changes appear to be almost immediate.
The -res option can be used to make siggen generate signals with 0.1Hz resolution, or 0.01Hz resolution.
However be warned at 0.1Hz resolution the basic waveform sample buffers generated are each 10 times (and
at 0.01Hz resolution 100 times) as big as the samplerate. It typically requires 5.5Mbytes of memory to
run at 0.1Hz resolution, 16bit 32000 samples/sec. and 55Mbytes of memory to run at 0.01Hz resolution.
Because of the large buffer sizes, the initial waveform calculation time can also be lengthy. Remember
also that the waveforms are re-calculated whenever the playing parameters, 8/16bit, mono/stereo,
samplerate are changed.
If your sounds periodically 'breaks' up with clicks or breaks, it is usually a sign that siggen is not
being scheduled sufficiently often. Either increase the priority (see nice et al.), kill off other
processes, get a faster processor, or increase the number of audio buffer fragments that siggen uses.
This last will make siggen respond more sluggishly to changes in generation parameters. syslogd and
crond are two processes that I've found useful to kill off - YMMV.
Defaults
output to /dev/dsp, 22050 samples/sec, stereo if stereo card else mono, 16 bit samples if
possible, else 8 bit, 3 audio buffer fragments.
CONFIGURATION FILES
Three possible configuration files can be used: a LOCAL config file (usually in current directory), a
HOME config file in user's $HOME directory and a GLOBAL config file.
All the siggen suite of programs are compiled with the names of the config files built in. By default the
configuration files are:
./.siggen.conf
is the LOCAL config file.
$HOME/.siggen.conf
is the HOME config file.
/etc/siggen.conf
is the GLOBAL config file.
siggen -h
will indicate which config files will be searched for.
The config files do not have to exist. If they exist and are readable by the program they are used,
otherwise they are simply ignored.
The config files are always searched for configuration values in the order LOCAL, HOME, GLOBAL. This
allows a scheme where the sysadmin sets up default config values in the GLOBAL config file, but allows a
user to set some or all different values in their own HOME config file, and to set yet more specific
values when run from a particular directory.
If no configuration files exist, the program provides builtin default values, and most of these values
can be set by appropriate command line switches and flags.
See siggen.conf(5) for details of the configuration files.
siggen looks for configuration values BUFFERSPERSEC, CHANNELS, DACFILE, FRAGMENTS, RESOLUTION,
SAMPLERATE, SAMPLESIZE, VERBOSE, VI_KEYS.
BUFFERSPERSEC
The aprox. number of sound buffer fragments to play every second (Sound buffersize is always a
power of 2).
CHANNELS
sets the number of channels, see '-c' option.
DACFILE
allows the name of the DAC/DSP/PCM device to be changed from /dev/dsp
FRAGMENTS
The number of Audio Buffers to configure in the driver.
RESOLUTION
The minimum change possible to the frequency setting. Only 3 values allowed: 1Hz , 0.1Hz or 0.01Hz
SAMPLERATE
sets the number of samples/sec for the DAC device
SAMPLESIZE
sets whether 8 or 16 bit samples to be generated
VERBOSE
sets whether or not to run in verbose mode.
VI_KEYS
if set then the VI cursor moving keys "HJKL" are enabled
OPTIONS
-h display usage and help info
-BPS n configure to play aprox. n audio buffers per second.
-C configfile
Use configfile as the LOCAL configuration file.
-NB n set number of audio buffers to n
-v be verbose
-s samples
generate with samplerate of samples/sec
-8|-16 or -b 8|16
force 8 bit or 16 bit mode.
-1|-2 mono or stereo
-res n set resolution of frequency generation. Valid values are: 1Hz, 0.l1Hz or 0.01Hz
EXAMPLES
FILES
SEE ALSO
signalgen, swgen, tones, sweepgen, siggen.conf
BUGS
COPYING
Copyright 1995-2008 Jim Jackson
The software described by this manual is covered by the GNU General Public License, Version 2, June 1991,
issued by :
Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
675 Mass Ave,
Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice
and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for
verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the
above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be included in translation
instead of in the original English.
AUTHOR
Jim Jackson
Email: jj@franjam.org.uk
Release 2 20 Aug 1999 siggen(1)