Here are solutions to two of the most common problems you might encounter when playing audio files.
- Problem: 8 kHz audio files do not sound as good as they did before I switched to JDK 1.2.
- Solution: The Java Sound engine up-samples 8 kHz audio data to 22 kHz, which can result in added noise during playback. If you find that the audio quality is not acceptable, start with a higher-quality audio clip to avoid the up-sampling.
- Problem: Some of my audio files won't play.
- Solution: You cannot play WAV, AU, AIFF, or AU files compressed using ADPCM or other compression schemes. The Java Sound engine supports only linear PCM audio files.
It's probably in the wrong format. Java 1.1 and earlier only understand 8 bit, mulaw-encoded, 8000 Hz, one-channel files. Many sound conversion programs will convert various formats to .au files but not necessarily to 8 bit, mulaw-encoded, 8000 Hz, one-channel files.
** some browsers will play 16bit, mulaw-encoded, 8000hz, mono, .au files **
Sound Forge on the PC will let you record and modify sounds and supports the .au format.
CAEN computers have a sound exchange program called sox. (type man sox
for information)
CAEN and ITD support for sounds on Suns:
audiotool - audio play/record tool (type man audiotool for more info)
audiotool [ -p ] [ -d device ] [ generic-tool-arguments ] [audio-file ... ]
audioconvert - - convert audio file formats (type man audioconvert to get info)
audioconvert [ -pF ] [ -f outfmt ] [ -o outfile ] [ [ -i infmt ] [ file... ] ]
Sources for sound utilities on the Mac: (thanks to Marisa Bond)
Available from Shareware.com
SoundApp 2.4.4 for PPC or 68k (Freeware)
SoundApp can play or convert files dropped onto it into a variety of formats. In addition, it supports Play Lists which are lists of sound files that can be saved for later usage. Files in a Play List can be played or converted as a group or individually. SoundApp supports a randomized shuffle playback mode and repeated playback of Play Lists.
The following sound file formats are supported: SoundCap (including Huffman-compressed), Studio Session Instruments, SoundEdit (including stereo, MACE-3 and MACE-6), AIFF, AIFF-C (8-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit, MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law), System 7 sound and 'snd ' resource (including MACE-3, MACE-6, IMA 4:1 and µ-law), QuickTime MooV (soundtracks only, including MIDI movies), Sun Audio .au and NeXT .snd (including µ-law, a-law, 8-, 16-, 24- and 32-bit linear, 32- and 64-bit floating point, G.721 ADPCM and G.723 ADPCM), Windows WAVE (including GSM-, IMA- and MS ADPCM-compressed, µ-law and a-law, 8-, 16- and 32-bit linear), MPEG audio (layers I, II and III, requires a PowerPC processor for playback), Sound Blaster VOC, many varieties of MODs, ScreamTracker 3 module (S3M), Multitracker module (MTM), MIDI (type 0, 1 and 2, including GS and XG), Amiga IFF/8SVX (including stereo and compressed), Sound Designer, Sound Designer II, IRCAM (8-, 16-bit and 32-bit floating point), PSION sound, DVI ADPCM and raw GSM.
SoundApp can convert all of these formats except MIDI to System 7 sound and sound suitcase (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings), AIFF (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings), WAVE (linear, µ-law, a-law and IMA encodings), Sun Audio and NeXT (linear, µ-law and a-law encodings), Sound Designer II, QuickTime (linear, µ-law, MACE-3, MACE-6 and IMA encodings) and PSION formats. SoundApp can also convert MPEG files on a 680x0 Macintosh, although it cannot play them. SoundApp also supports generic QuickTime conversion, which allows any QuickTime-recognized format to be converted to a QuickTime movie file and any QuickTime movie to be converted to an AIFF sound file. These two features are provided as a convenience, as they are entirely handled via QuickTime.
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There's also something called GrabAudio that allows you to take stuff off
CDs and record them into a variety of formats. I think it's also available
from Shareware.com....