[image: 2503356] Debian Package a Day ([image: [info]]debaday) wrote, @ 2004-09-27 11:35:00
[image: Previous Entry]  [image: Add to memories!]  [image: Tell a Friend!]  [image: Next Entry]
vsound - Virtual loopback sound recorder and real audio converter

This program allows you to record the output of any standard OSS program (one that uses /dev/dsp for sound) without having to modify or recompile the program. It uses sox to convert and save the raw data into the desired file format and can help to convert real audio files to some other non-proprietary format.

Andre L. hits one out of the park with:

One of the deep abstractions underlying UNIX and the operating systems it influenced, including GNU/Linux, is that everything should be a file. Want your program to talk to a terminal? Just have it read/write from a special file. Same thing goes for the network. Or the sound card. The OSS part of the Linux kernel provides the special file /dev/dsp to let programs access the sound card; sounds are generated by writing to /dev/dsp. By redirecting /dev/dsp away from the sound card one can record the byte stream generated by any program. This is precisely what vsound does, using a trick called LD_PRELOAD. Thus vsound provides a virtual audio loopback cable.

All this is a long way of saying vsound lets you record the audio output of any program compiled to use OSS, i.e. most programs which use audio. Some programs require the "--timing" option, see the man page for details.

More information on this package can be found on the Debian web site. (If there is a package you would like to see featured here, go to the ...