xenial (1) speaker-test.1.gz

Provided by: alsa-utils_1.1.0-0ubuntu5_amd64 bug

NAME

       speaker-test - command-line speaker test tone generator for ALSA

SYNOPSIS

       speaker-test [-options]

DESCRIPTION

       speaker-test generates a tone that can be used to test the speakers of a computer.

       speaker-test  by  default will test the default device. If you want to test another sound device you will
       have first to get a list of all of the sound cards in your system and the devices associated  with  those
       cards. Notice that there might be for example, one device for analog sound, one for digital sound and one
       for HDMI sound.  To get the list of available cards and devices you can run aplay -L.

       $ aplay -L
       null
           Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
       default:CARD=ICH5
           Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
           Default Audio Device
       front:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
           Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
           Front speakers
       surround40:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
           Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
           4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
       (...)

       in the above example, there are four devices listed: null, default, front and surround40. So, if you want
       to test the last device you can run speaker-test -Dsurround40:ICH5 -c 6. The -c option will indicate that
       the six audio channels in the device have to be tested.

OPTIONS

       -c | --channels NUM
              NUM channels in stream

       -D | --device NAME
              PCM device name NAME

       -f | --frequency FREQ
              sine wave of FREQ Hz

       --help Print usage help

       -b | --buffer TIME
              Use buffer size of TIME microseconds.  When 0 is given, use the maximal buffer size.  The  default
              value is 0.

       -p | --period TIME
              Use  period  size  of TIME microseconds.  When 0 is given, the periods given by -P option is used.
              The default value is 0.

       -P | --nperiods PERIODS
              Use number of periods.  The default value is 4.

       -r | --rate RATE
              stream of RATE Hz

       -t | --test pink|sine|wav
              -t pink means use pink noise (default).

              Pink noise is perceptually uniform noise -- that is, it sounds like every frequency at  once.   If
              you can hear any tone it may indicate resonances in your speaker system or room.

              -t sine means to use sine wave.

              -t wav means to play WAV files, either pre-defined files or given via -w option.

              You can pass the number from 1 to 3 as a backward compatibility.

       -l | --nloops COUNT

              Specifies the number of loops.  Zero means to run infinitely.

              When -s option below with a valid channel is given, speaker-test will perform always a single-shot
              without looping.

       -s | --speaker CHANNEL
              Do a single-shot speaker test for the given channel.  The  channel  number  starts  from  1.   The
              channel  number  corresponds  to left, right, rear-left, rear-right, center, LFE, side-left, side-
              right, and so on.

              For example, when 1 is passed, it tests the left channel only once rather than both channels  with
              looping.

       -w | --wavfile FILE
              Use the given WAV file for the playback instead of pre-defined WAV files.

       -W | --wavdir DIRECTORY
              Specify   the   directory   containing   WAV   files   for   playback.    The   default   path  is
              /usr/share/sounds/alsa.

       -m | --chmap MAP
              Pass the channel map to override.  If  the  playback  in  a  specific  channel  order  or  channel
              positions is required, pass the channel position strings to this option.

       -X | --force-frequency
              Allow  supplied  FREQ  to  be  outside  the  default range of 30-8000Hz. A minimum of 1Hz is still
              enforced.

USAGE EXAMPLES

       Produce stereo sound from one stereo jack:
         speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2

       Produce 4 speaker sound from two stereo jacks:
         speaker-test -Dplug:surround40 -c4

       Produce 5.1 speaker sound from three stereo jacks:
         speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6

       To send a nice low 75Hz tone to the Woofer and then exit without touching any other speakers:
         speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -s1 -f75

       To do a 2-speaker test using the spdif (coax or optical) output:
         speaker-test -Dplug:spdif -c2

       Play in the order of front-right and front-left from the front PCM
         speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -mFR,FL

SEE ALSO

       aplay(1)

AUTHOR

       The speaker-test program was written by James Courtier-Dutton.  Pink noise support was  added  by  Nathan
       Hurst.  Further extensions by Takashi Iwai.