.\" .Dd November 10, 2005 .Dt SPKR 4 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm speaker , .Nm spkr .Nd console speaker device driver .Sh SYNOPSIS .Cd device speaker .In dev/speaker/speaker.h .Sh DESCRIPTION The speaker device driver allows applications to control the PC console speaker on an .Tn IBM-PC Ns --compatible machine running .Fx . .Pp Writes to the device are interpreted as `play strings' in a simple ASCII melody notation. An .Xr ioctl 2 request for tone generation at arbitrary frequencies is also supported. .Pp Only one string can be playing at a time. Concurrent .Xr write 2 and .Xr ioctl 2 calls from separate threads or processes are serialized per string. .Pp 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. .Pp Applications may call .Xr ioctl 2 on a speaker file descriptor to control the speaker driver directly; definitions for the .Xr ioctl 2 interface are in .In dev/speaker/speaker.h . The .Li 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. .Pp At present there are two such .Xr ioctl 2 calls. .Dv SPKRTONE accepts a pointer to a single tone structure as third argument and plays it. .Dv SPKRTUNE accepts a pointer to the first of an array of tone structures and plays them in continuous sequence; this array must be terminated by a final member with a zero duration. .Pp The play-string language is a dialect of the Music Markup Language (MML) used in various computer and gaming systems since the 1970s. It is a subset of the MML variant supported by the PLAY statement of .Tn IBM Advanced BASIC 2.0, .Tn MS BASICA and GW-BASIC, as well as the Standard Musical Expression (SMX) supported in .Tn MS QBasic. .Li MB , .Li MF , and .Li X primitives of MML/SMX are not supported. The `octave-tracking' feature and the slur mark are specific to the .Fx implementation. .Pp There are 84 accessible notes numbered 1-84 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'. .Pp Play strings are interpreted left to right as a series of play command groups; letter case is ignored. Play command groups are as follows: .Bl -tag -width CDEFGABxx .It Li 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 .Dq Em "accidental sign" , one of # + or -; the first two of these cause it to be sharped one half-tone, the last causes it to be flatted 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. .It Ns Li O Sy n If .Sy n is numeric, this sets the current octave. .Sy n may also be one of .Li L or .Li 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, < and O[0123456]. The octave-locking feature is not supported in .Tn IBM and .Tn MS BASIC dialects. .It Li > Bump the current octave up one. .It Li < Drop the current octave down one. .It Ns Li N Sy n Play note .Sy n , .Sy n being 1 to 84 or 0 for a rest of current time value. May be followed by sustain dots. .It Ns Li L Sy n Sets the current time value for notes. The default is .Li L4 , quarter or crotchet notes. The lowest possible value is 1; values up to 64 are accepted. .Li L1 sets whole notes, .Li L2 sets half notes, .Li L4 sets quarter notes, etc. .It Ns Li P Sy n Pause (rest), with .Sy n interpreted as for .Li L Sy n . May be followed by sustain dots. May also be written .Li ~ . .It Ns Li T Sy n Sets the number of quarter notes per minute; default is 120. Musical names for common tempi are: .Bd -literal -offset indent 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 .Ed .It Li M[LNS] Set articulation. .Li MN .Li ( N for normal) is the default; the last 1/8th of the note's value is rest time. You can set .Li ML for legato (no rest space) or .Li MS for staccato (1/4 rest space). .El .Pp Notes (that is, .Li CDEFGAB or .Li 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 undotted value; dotted twice, it is held 9/4, and three times would give 27/8. .Pp A note and its sustain dots may also be followed by a slur mark (underscore). This causes the normal micro-rest after the note to be filled in, slurring it to the next one. The slur feature is not supported in .Tn IBM and .Tn MS BASIC dialects. .Pp Whitespace in play strings is simply skipped and may be used to separate melody sections. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /dev/speakerxx .It Pa /dev/speaker speaker device file .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr spkrtest 8 .Pp Additional information about MML: .Bl -dash -offset indent .It .Lk https://electronicmusic.fandom.com/wiki/Music_Macro_Language "The Electronic Music Wiki - Music Macro Language" .It .Rs .%T "IBM Personal Computer BASIC manual" .%I "IBM Corporation" .%D "1982" .Re .It .Rs .%T "BASICA manual" .%I "Microsoft Corporation" .%D "1982" .Re .It .Rs .%T "GW-BASIC manual" .%I "Microsoft Corporation" .%D "1987" .Re .It .Rs .%T "QBasic manual" .%I "Microsoft Corporation" .%D "1991" .Re .It .Rs .%A "Eleanor Selfridge-Field" .%T "Beyond MIDI: the handbook of musical codes" .%I "MIT Press" .%D "1997" .Re .El .Sh HISTORY The .Nm device appeared in .Fx 1.0 . .Pp Prior to .Fx 16 , only one file descriptor could hold the device open. .Sh AUTHORS .An -nosplit The .Nm driver was written by .An Eric S. Raymond Aq Mt esr@snark.thyrsus.com in June 1990 and ported by .An Andrew A. Chernov Aq Mt ache@astral.msk.su . Support for concurrent open was added by .An Raphael Poss Aq Mt knz@thaumogen.net . .Sh 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. .Pp The action of two or more sustain dots does not reflect standard musical notation, in which each dot adds half the value of the previous dot modifier, not half the value of the note as modified. Thus, a note dotted once is held for 3/2 of its undotted value; dotted twice, it is held 7/4, and three times would give 15/8. The multiply-by-3/2 interpretation, however, is specified in the .Tn IBM BASIC manual and has been retained for compatibility. .Pp In play strings which are very long (longer than your system's physical I/O blocks) note suffixes or numbers may occasionally be parsed incorrectly due to crossing a block boundary.