Ubuntu Manpage: siggen - an Ncurses based signal generator program

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

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