How to produce sound in C on Linux?

Question

I need a way to play certain musical notes in my C program on Linux. When using windows, it is possible to #include <dos.h> and use straight forward functions like sound(note/frequency), delay(time in ms), and the self explaining nosound(). Is there anything parallel on Linux? Thanks

Answer 1

I like the tip above concerning libao - I just gave it a try and it works nicely. Here is a similar level of complexity using OpenAL to synthesize a raw audio buffer in PCM format then to render as audio

// sudo apt-get install libopenal-dev

// gcc -o openal_play_monday   openal_play_monday.c  -lopenal -lm

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>    // gives malloc
#include <math.h>


#ifdef __APPLE__
#include <OpenAL/al.h>
#include <OpenAL/alc.h>
#elif __linux
#include <AL/al.h>
#include <AL/alc.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#endif

ALCdevice  * openal_output_device;
ALCcontext * openal_output_context;

ALuint internal_buffer;
ALuint streaming_source[1];

int al_check_error(const char * given_label) {

    ALenum al_error;
    al_error = alGetError();

    if(AL_NO_ERROR != al_error) {

        printf("ERROR - %s  (%s)\n", alGetString(al_error), given_label);
        return al_error;
    }
    return 0;
}

void MM_init_al() {

    const char * defname = alcGetString(NULL, ALC_DEFAULT_DEVICE_SPECIFIER);

    openal_output_device  = alcOpenDevice(defname);
    openal_output_context = alcCreateContext(openal_output_device, NULL);
    alcMakeContextCurrent(openal_output_context);

    // setup buffer and source

    alGenBuffers(1, & internal_buffer);
    al_check_error("failed call to alGenBuffers");
}

void MM_exit_al() {

    ALenum errorCode = 0;

    // Stop the sources
    alSourceStopv(1, & streaming_source[0]);        //      streaming_source
    int ii;
    for (ii = 0; ii < 1; ++ii) {
        alSourcei(streaming_source[ii], AL_BUFFER, 0);
    }
    // Clean-up
    alDeleteSources(1, &streaming_source[0]);
    alDeleteBuffers(16, &streaming_source[0]);
    errorCode = alGetError();
    alcMakeContextCurrent(NULL);
    errorCode = alGetError();
    alcDestroyContext(openal_output_context);
    alcCloseDevice(openal_output_device);
}

void MM_render_one_buffer() {

    /* Fill buffer with Sine-Wave */
    // float freq = 440.f;
    float freq = 100.f;
    float incr_freq = 0.1f;

    int seconds = 4;
    // unsigned sample_rate = 22050;
    unsigned sample_rate = 44100;
    double my_pi = 3.14159;
    size_t buf_size = seconds * sample_rate;

    // allocate PCM audio buffer        
    short * samples = malloc(sizeof(short) * buf_size);

   printf("\nhere is freq %f\n", freq);
    int i=0;
    for(; i<buf_size; ++i) {
        samples[i] = 32760 * sin( (2.f * my_pi * freq)/sample_rate * i );

        freq += incr_freq;  //  change freq just to make things interesting

        if (100.0 > freq || freq > 5000.0) {

            incr_freq *= -1.0f;  // toggle direction of freq increment
        }
    }

    /* upload buffer to OpenAL */
    alBufferData( internal_buffer, AL_FORMAT_MONO16, samples, buf_size, sample_rate);
    al_check_error("populating alBufferData");

    free(samples);

    /* Set-up sound source and play buffer */
    // ALuint src = 0;
    // alGenSources(1, &src);
    // alSourcei(src, AL_BUFFER, internal_buffer);
    alGenSources(1, & streaming_source[0]);
    alSourcei(streaming_source[0], AL_BUFFER, internal_buffer);
    // alSourcePlay(src);
    alSourcePlay(streaming_source[0]);

    // ---------------------

    ALenum current_playing_state;
    alGetSourcei(streaming_source[0], AL_SOURCE_STATE, & current_playing_state);
    al_check_error("alGetSourcei AL_SOURCE_STATE");

    while (AL_PLAYING == current_playing_state) {

        printf("still playing ... so sleep\n");

        sleep(1);   // should use a thread sleep NOT sleep() for a more responsive finish

        alGetSourcei(streaming_source[0], AL_SOURCE_STATE, & current_playing_state);
        al_check_error("alGetSourcei AL_SOURCE_STATE");
    }

    printf("end of playing\n");

    /* Dealloc OpenAL */
    MM_exit_al();

}   //  MM_render_one_buffer

int main() {

    MM_init_al();

    MM_render_one_buffer();
}

If you want to take OpenAL further ... take a gander at this

https://github.com/scottstensland/render-audio-openal

Out of the box OpenAL plays a buffer of PCM audio just fine ... however it leaves as an exercise the ability to play a stream. In that github repo I wrote an audio server using OpenAL which implements playing streaming audio ... enjoy

Answer 2

one way

including #include<conio.h> and in side main() or where you want to use call print("\a")

printf("\a");

2nd way

including header file

#include <windows.h>

and calling function Beep(500, 500);

Beep(freq, dur); where freq =beep frequency which is int and dutation in also int

Answer 3

Windows uses its own one and only sound architecture, therefore you can access the sound() routine.

Different linux machines, depending on the packages installed, may require different approaches. Maybe the utility beep (out of this question on stackexchange) can guide you to the right direction