Linux Command Line Audio.

What we would like to do is to be able to listen to podcasts and music from either the internet or over the air.You should even listen to files being spoken. Just because you do not have a fancy graphics card does not mean you can not listen to music. Another reason to like this as most of it excepting the sound recording (untested) can be done remotely!

What's needed:

Linux based computer.
A supported sound card.
Speakers or headset.
Microphone(s).
FM radio card ( or analog tv capture card that has a radio tuner.

Note: can do this on a gui based machine from a terminal also. If you are visually impaired, instructables like this can be very important.

You may want to record sound or even take oral notes for later playback, create your own podcast, or even create a podbook. I do this for lecture recording.

$ sudo apt-get install sound-recorder

When recording from the command line the command is:

$ sound-recorder -c 2 -b 16 -P -S 5:00 recording.wav

The options set stereo recording (-c 2), 16 bit sampling (-b 16), priority threading (-P) to ensure high priority in CPU usage, and limiting the recording to 5 minutes. The output is written to the file recording.wav.

Many of these options are the default so you can simply:

$ sound-recorder -P recording.wav

or use

arecord: Linux Command to List all Soundcards and Digital Audio Devices

Here is a quick way to list all detected and working soundcards. Use arecord command line sound recorder and player for ALSA soundcard driver. The -l option List all soundcards and digital audio devices. The -L option list all PCMs defined. The information obtained from following command can be used to play various media files [...]


Record:

$ arecord filename.ext

Playback:

$ aplay filename.ext

You can play your music files or files you have recorded  locally or from a server share. Generally they will be files with the wav, ogg, or mp3 extension.

$ sudo apt -get install mplayer

$ mplayer musicfilename

mplayer actually has a ton of oprions but it's simplest form will usally do the job.

Hint: file *  can let you know what kind of files are in your directory.

$ cd 2011-12-03/
~/2011-12-03$ ls
hpr0861.ogg  hpr0863.ogg  hpr0865.ogg  hpr0867.ogg  hpr0869.ogg  podcast.m3u
hpr0862.ogg  hpr0864.ogg  hpr0866.ogg  hpr0868.ogg  hpr0870.ogg
~/2011-12-03$ file *.ogg
hpr0861.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0862.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0863.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0864.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0865.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0866.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 22050 Hz, ~40222 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0867.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0868.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0869.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
hpr0870.ogg: Ogg data, Vorbis audio, mono, 44100 Hz, ~80000 bps, created by: Xiph.Org libVorbis I
~/2011-12-03$

Set the computer to wake you up an play  reveille.

crontab -e

# run at 6 am on weekdays, to wake me up
0 6 * * 1-5    mplayer /home/you/reveille.mp3

------------------------------

Anohter command line ,usic player is mpg123. I like to log in remotely into a server and start it. That way the machine I a using is not locked into that application.
Note mpg123 you can play either 1 song at a time or many one after the other. For a single song to be played in the background use:

$ mpg123 songfile.ext &

For many songs, create an ascii file with all the filenames including their location.

$ mpg123 -@ playlist &

As we said earlier you can create your own podcast. But what if you what to listen to other podcasts and you do not want to spend a lot of time downloading each file one at a time. You can use what is know as a a podcatcher. The podcatcher is a batch file that goes out to the internet and grabs the files for you based on the listings in a file called bp.conf. You will need to use links2, elinks, or something similar to go out an get what is known as the rss feed. Most sites have their links on the main page. Once you get that link, you you want to put it in your bp.conf file.

i.e.
http://www.hackerpublicradio.org/hpr_ogg_rss.php

make a dir such as podcasts
Download and put bp.conf, bp.sh, and parse_enclosure.xsl3 into that directory.
change to that directory .
$ chmod +x bp.sh
$ ./bp.sh

vim or nano bp.conf and add your rss feeds.

http://www.hackerpublicradio.org/hpr_ogg_rss.php

Have computer get new podcasts once a week

#@weekly   Run once a week.
0 0 * * 0 /home/yourname/musicdirectory/bp.sh

When you want to hear a podcast, go to the music directory and use mplauer. 
There will be subdirectories by date.

Can control music on a remote machine.  Use this for botht he nexus 7 and other computers around the network. allows on computer to be a sort of stereo.

Love MPD. It is both a music player and an internet radio player. You can install this on a really old machine or a new arm based linux device. Just add an amp and  speakers and you have a new age stereo that can be controlled remotely..
Make your directories where you want your music to be and then copy them there if they are not already there. Now to inbstall the basic software. You have the program itself (mpd)and a command line player to test it.(mpc)

$sudo apt-get install mpd mpc.

Sure sure your stero and or speakers are attached to the sound card and they work. Now to test it. We will do it with a radio station if you do not have any music to t4est with.

$ mpc add http://relay3.slayradio.org:8000/
adding: http://relay3.slayradio.org:8000/

$ mpc play
You should hear the radio station out of your speakers now.

Now let’s edit the config file for file location and to allow the server to be accesed from other systems. Warning this is not secure, as your better off sshing into the machine to control it.

$ sudo vim /etc/mpd.con
Change the directory where you files are (uncomment  the line also
# Files and directories #######################################################
#
# This setting controls the top directory which MPD will search to discover the
# available audio files and add them to the daemon’s online database. This
# setting defaults to the XDG directory, otherwise the music directory will be
# be disabled and audio files will only be accepted over ipc socket (using
# file:// protocol) or streaming files over an accepted protocol.
#
# music_directory               “/var/lib/mpd/music”

If you want to access the machine remotely you will need to change the hostname to the nmae of the michine, Warning: people will be albe to telnet into the machine unless you password protect the system.
#
# This setting sets the address for the daemon to listen on. Careful attention
# should be paid if this is assigned to anything other then the default, any.
# This setting can deny access to control of the daemon. Choose any if you want
# to have mpd listen on every address
#
# For network
# bind_to_address               “localhost”

Permissions:

# Permissions #################################################################
#
# If this setting is set, MPD will require password authorization. The password
# can setting can be specified multiple times for different password profiles.
#
#password                        “password@read,add,control,admin”
#
# This setting specifies the permissions a user has who has not yet logged in.
#
#default_permissions             “read,add,control,admin”
#
###############################################################################

There are other settings, but I will let you check that out your selves..

Now to access the system form other machines. There is a client for about every system known to man. You can check them out yourself at:

 

http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients

To ad a radio station, you most likely yhave to an a url.

Lots of radio stations broad cast over the internet now, so you do not need an antenna to get quite a few stations. You will need to get the music feed. Some site have it right there for you. Some you have to extract the feed form a file. Newer stations no longer allow you to easily use a feed to play it in your computer.

$ sudo apt-get install mpg123

you will need to get the website and port mo.

mpg321 website:portnimber

i.e.
$ mpg321 http://sc1.audiorealm.com:10074/e

in some cases you will have to download the playlist file and extract the the url:port. you can use links2 ot or elinks to grab the playlist name and then use wget to grab the file. once you have file you can extrat the url:portnumber.

i.e.
$ wget http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/KBPAFMAAC.pls

Som stations use the m3u format.
$ cat 96-32.m3u
http://sc1.audiorealm.com:10074/

The it is just a matter of running mpg123

$ mpg123 http://sc1.audiorealm.com:10074/

Some newer station require flash of a particular player to listen to their music.  That is a subject for another day.

Over the air radio is nice because it will not use any intenet bandwidth except a site to list what radio station are available in your area. You will need to get an old radio tuner card or some old analog tv capture cards have them. You might have to look around for one. they no longer seem to be sold in the stores.

$ sudo apt-get install radio

To get the tuner card to search for stations you would:

$ radio i

and then to play the stations you would just

$ radio


--------------------------------------------------------------------
NAME
       radio - console radio application

SYNOPSIS
       radio [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
       radio is a interactive, ncurses-bases console radio application.

OPTIONS
       -h     print a short help text.

       -d     enable debug output.

       -q     quit after processing the cmd line options, don't enter interac
              tive ncurses mode.  Only useful together with other options  for
              obvious reasons ...

       -m     mute radio.

       -f freq
              tune the specified radio frequency (and unmute the radio).

       -c dev specify radio device (default is /dev/radio).

       -s     Do a scan for radio stations.

       -S     Same  as  above  + write a radio.fmmap with the signal for every
              frequency.  You can get  a  graph  for  it  with  gnuplot  (plot
              "radio.fmmap" w lin).

       -i     Scan,  write a initial ~/.radio file to stdout and quit.  So you
              can create a config file where you only have to fill in the cor
              rect  station  names later this way: "radio -i > ~/.radio".  See
              below for the config file syntax.

CONFIGURATION
       radio picks up station names and present stations from a  config  file.
       It  can  parse  kradio (KDE radio app) config files, therefore it first
       tries the usual KDE config file location: ~/.kde/share/config/kradiorc.
       Failing that, radio tries ~/.radio (which makes things a bit easier for
       people who don't use kradio).

       The format looks like this:

       # KDE Config File
       [Buttons]
       1=95800000
       2=91400000
       [Stations]
       100600000=Hundert,6
       95800000=Radio eins
       102600000=Fritz
       94300000=r.s.2
       91400000=Berliner Rundfunk

       The [Buttons] section can have up  to  eight  entries.   That  are  the
       present  stations,  they  get  mapped to F1-F8.  The [Stations] section
       maps frequencies to station names.  The frequencies  in  both  sections
       are specified in Hz.

KEYS
       X         exit
       ESC,Q,E      mute and exit.
       up/down      inc/dec frequency
       pgup/pgdown  next/previous station.  This one uses the
                    stations from the config file by default.
                    When started with the -s option these keys
                    will cycle througth the stations found during
                    the scan.
       F1-F8, 1-8   preset buttons.
       Ctrl+L       redraw screen.

For PS and PDF files:
See https://www.instructables.com/id/Ereader-is-optional-by-using-your-portable-music-p/ for more details.

For text files:

sudo apt-get install festival espeak.

$ cat textfilemname | festival --tts

Note: this is also great to use in batch files for headless servers so that you can be notified when certain jobs are done, warning messages, and etc.

Now to play a text file then use:

$ festival --tts filename.txt
 

Yes, your linux computer can sing (sort of). If you are into musical notes and the like you should be able to modify the xml file to your needs. For now we will just use the scale as a starting poing.

You need to create an xml file called doremi.xml

doremi.xml:
[code]
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE SINGING PUBLIC "-//SINGING//DTD SINGING mark up//EN"
      "Singing.v0_1.dtd"
[]>
<SINGING BPM="30">
<PITCH NOTE="G3"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">doe</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="A3"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">ray</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="B3"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">me</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="C4"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">fah</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="D4"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">sew</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="E4"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">lah</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="F#4"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">tee</DURATION></PITCH>
<PITCH NOTE="G4"><DURATION BEATS="0.3">doe</DURATION></PITCH>
</SINGING>
[/code]

Once the file is created you can go into the interactive mode by just typing testival.

$ festival
Festival Speech Synthesis System 1.96:beta July 2004
Copyright (C) University of Edinburgh, 1996-2004. All rights reserved.
For details type `(festival_warranty)'
festival>  (tts "doremi.xml" 'singing)

Then you should hear the computer sing.

"<control> d" to exit.

You can construct multi-part songs by synthesizing each part and generating waveforms, them combining them. For example

text2wave -mode singing america1.xml -o america1.wav
text2wave -mode singing america2.xml -o america2.wav
text2wave -mode singing america3.xml -o america3.wav
text2wave -mode singing america4.xml -o america4.wav
ch_wave -o america.wav -pc longest america?.wav

The voice used to sing is the current voice. Note that the number of syllables in the words must match that at run time, which means thios doesn't always work cross dialect (UK voices sometimes wont work without tweaking.

ffmpeg has many many uses but on is to strip auto from videos i.e.

$ ffmpeg -i video.flv -ab 160k -ac 2 -ar 44100 -vn audio.mp3

saydate - talks the date and uptime of the machine.

sox with play and rec are also programs to look at.
                   http://sox.sourceforge.net/soxi.pdf

SoXI(1) SoundeXchange SoXI(1)
NAME
SoXI − Sound eXchange Information, display sound file metadata
SYNOPSIS
soxi [−V[level]] [−T] [−t|−r|−c|−s|−d|−D|−b|−B|−e|−a] infile1 ...
DESCRIPTION
Displays information from the header of a given audio file or files. Supported audio file types are listed and
described in soxformat(7). Note however, that soxi is intended for use only with audio files with a selfdescribing
header.
By default, as much information as is available is shown. An option may be given to select just a single
piece of information (perhaps for use in a script or batch-file).
OPTIONS
−V Set verbosity. See sox(1) for details.
−T Used with multiple files; changes the behaviour of −s, −d and −D to display the total across all
given files. Note that when used with −s with files with different sampling rates, this is of questionable
value.
−t Show detected file-type.
−r Show sample-rate.
−c Show number of channels.
−s Show number of samples (0 if unavailable).
−d Show duration in hours, minutes and seconds (0 if unavailable). Equivalent to number of samples
divided by the sample-rate.
−D Show duration in seconds (0 if unavailable).
−b Show number of bits per sample.
−B Show the bitrate averaged over the whole file (0 if unavailable).
−e Show the name of the audio encoding.
−a Show file comments (annotations) if available.
BUGS
Please report any bugs found in this version of SoX to the mailing list (sox-users@lists.sourceforge.net).
SEE ALSO
sox(1), soxformat(7), libsox(3)
The SoX web site at http://sox.sourceforge.net
LICENSE
Copyright 2008-9 by Chris Bagwell and SoX Contributors.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See
the GNU General Public License for more details.
AUTHORS
Chris Bagwell (cbagwell@users.sourceforge.net). Other authors and contributors are listed in the
ChangeLog file that is distributed with the source code.
soxi February19, 2011 1
SoXI(1) SoundeXchange SoXI(1)
NAME
SoXI − Sound eXchange Information, display sound file metadata
SYNOPSIS
soxi [−V[level]] [−T] [−t|−r|−c|−s|−d|−D|−b|−B|−e|−a] infile1 ...
DESCRIPTION
Displays information from the header of a given audio file or files. Supported audio file types are listed and
described in soxformat(7). Note however, that soxi is intended for use only with audio files with a selfdescribing
header.
By default, as much information as is available is shown. An option may be given to select just a single
piece of information (perhaps for use in a script or batch-file).
OPTIONS
−V Set verbosity. See sox(1) for details.
−T Used with multiple files; changes the behaviour of −s, −d and −D to display the total across all
given files. Note that when used with −s with files with different sampling rates, this is of questionable
value.
−t Show detected file-type.
−r Show sample-rate.
−c Show number of channels.
−s Show number of samples (0 if unavailable).
−d Show duration in hours, minutes and seconds (0 if unavailable). Equivalent to number of samples
divided by the sample-rate.
−D Show duration in seconds (0 if unavailable).
−b Show number of bits per sample.
−B Show the bitrate averaged over the whole file (0 if unavailable).
−e Show the name of the audio encoding.
−a Show file comments (annotations) if available.
BUGS
Please report any bugs found in this version of SoX to the mailing list (sox-users@lists.sourceforge.net).
SEE ALSO
sox(1), soxformat(7), libsox(3)
The SoX web site at http://sox.sourceforge.net
LICENSE
Copyright 2008-9 by Chris Bagwell and SoX Contributors.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later
version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without
even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See
the GNU General Public License for more details.
AUTHORS
Chris Bagwell (cbagwell@users.sourceforge.net). Other authors and contributors are listed in the
ChangeLog file that is distributed with the source code.
soxi February19, 2011 1

Modify to your own preferences.

autoharp.sh
[code]
#!/bin/bash
#
# script to emulate an autoharp..
#
while :
do
clear
echo "************************"
echo "* My Autoharp          "*
echo "***********************"*
echo "* [1] C major          *"
echo "* [2] A minor          *"
echo "* [3] G major 7th      *"
echo "* [4] F major          *"
echo "* [5] D minor          *"
echo "* [6] E minor          *"
echo "*                      *"
echo "* [0] Exit/Stop        *"
echo "************************"
echo -n "Enter your menu choice [1-6, or 0]: "
read yourch
echo "\n"
case $yourch in
1) play -n synth pl C2 pl E2 pl G2 pl C3 pl E3 pl G3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
2) play -n synth pl A2 pl C2 pl E2 pl A3 pl C3 pl E3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
3) play -n synth pl G2 pl B2 pl D3 pl G3 pl D4 pl G4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
4) play -n synth pl F2 pl A2 pl C2 pl F3 pl A3 pl C3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
5) play -n synth pl D2 pl F2 pl A2 pl D3 pl A3 pl F4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
6) play -n synth pl E2 pl G2 pl B2 pl E3 pl B3 pl G4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
0) exit 0;;
*) echo "Oopps!!! Please select choice 1,2,3,4,5, or 6"
echo "Press Enter to continue. . ." ; read ;;
esac
done
[/code]

$ chmod +x autoharp.sh

$ ./autoharp.sh

Press whatever number (and the return) for the associated chord.

************************
* My Autoharp        *
************************
* [1] C major          *
* [2] A minor          *
* [3] G major 7th      *
* [4] F major          *
* [5] D minor          *
* [6] E minor          *
*                      *
* [0] Exit/Stop        *
************************
Enter your menu choice [1-6, or 0]:


------------------------------------
newer script:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Script to emulate an autoharp.
#
while :
do
clear
echo "************************"
echo "* My autoharp          "*
echo "***********************"*
echo "* [1] C major          *"
echo "* [2] A minor          *"
echo "* [3] G major 7th      *"
echo "* [4] F major          *"
echo "* [5] D minor          *"
echo "* [6] E minor          *"
echo "* [7] E major 7th      *"
echo "* [8] A major 7th      *"
echo "* [9] C major 7th      *"
echo "* [+] D major 7th      *"
echo "* [-] G major          *"
echo "*                      *"
echo "* [0] Exit/Stop        *"
echo "************************"
echo
echo "Enter your menu choice [1-9, +, - or 0]: "
read -n 1 yourch
case $yourch in
1) play -n synth pl C2 pl E2 pl G2 pl C3 pl E3 pl G3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
2) play -n synth pl A2 pl C2 pl E2 pl A3 pl C3 pl E3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
3) play -n synth pl G2 pl B2 pl D2 pl F4 pl G3 pl B3 pl D3 pl F4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
4) play -n synth pl F2 pl A2 pl C2 pl F3 pl A3 pl C3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
5) play -n synth pl D2 pl F2 pl A2 pl D3 pl A3 pl F4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
6) play -n synth pl E2 pl G2 pl B2 pl E3 pl B3 pl G4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
7) play -n synth pl E2 pl G#2 pl B2 pl D2 pl E3 pl B3 pl G#4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
8) play -n synth pl A2 pl C#2 pl E2 pl G2 pl A3 pl C#3 pl E3 pl G3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
9) play -n synth pl C2 pl E2 pl G2 pl A#2  pl C3 pl E3 pl G3 pl A#3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
+)  play -n synth pl D2 pl F#2 pl A2 pl C3  pl D3 pl F#3 pl A3 pl C4 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
-) play -n synth pl G2 pl B2 pl D2 pl G3 pl B3 pl D3 delay 0 .05 .1 .15 .2 .25 remix - fade 0 1.5 .1 norm -1  ;;
0) exit 0;;
*) echo "Oopps!!! Please select choice 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,-, or +"
echo "Press Enter to continue. . ." ; read ;;
esac
done