SPEAKER(4)                OpenBSD Programmer's Manual               SPEAKER(4)

NAME
     speaker - console speaker device driver

SYNOPSIS
     spkr0     at pcppi?

DESCRIPTION
     The speaker device driver allows applications to control the built-in
     speaker on machines providing a PCPPI speaker interface.

     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() for tone generation at arbi-
     trary 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() on a speaker file descriptor to control the
     speaker driver directly; definitions for the ioctl() interface are in
     <dev/isa/spkrio.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 ioctls.  The SPKRTONE ioctl accepts a
     pointer to a single tone structure as a third argument and plays it.  The
     SPKRTUNE ioctl accepts a pointer to the first of an array of tone struc-
     tures and plays them in continuous sequence; this array must be terminat-
     ed by a final member with a zero duration.

     The play-string language is modelled on the PLAY statement conventions of
     IBM BASIC 2.0.  The MB, MF and X primitives of PLAY are not useful in a
     UNIX environment and are omitted.  The ``octave-tracking'' feature is al-
     so new.

     There are 84 accessible notes numbered 1-83 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 flat-
          ted 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 by `>', `<', and `O[0123456]'.

                > -- 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
          notes.  The lowest possible value is 1; values up to 64 are accept-
          ed.  L1 sets whole notes, L2 sets half notes, L4 sets quarter notes,
          etc.

     P <n>
          Pause (rest), with n interpreted as for L.  May be followed by sus-
          tain dots.  May also be written `~'.

     T <n>
          Sets the number of quarter notes per minute; default is 120.  Musi-
          cal 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 (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 un-
     dotted value; dotted twice, it is held 9/4, and three times would give
     27/8.

     Whitespace in play strings is simply skipped and may be used to separate
     melody sections.

FILES
     /dev/speaker

SEE ALSO
     intro(4), pcppi(4)

AUTHORS
     Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>, Feb 1990

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.

     In play strings which are very long (longer than your system's physical
     I/O blocks) note suffixes or numbers may occasionally be parsed incor-
     rectly due to crossing a block boundary.

OpenBSD 4.7                     January 3, 2010                              3
