SPEAKER-TEST(1)             General Commands Manual            SPEAKER-TEST(1)



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  chan-
              nel  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 touch-
       ing 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.



speaker-test                    April 2nd, 2011                SPEAKER-TEST(1)
