Java 2 Platform SE v1.3.1: Class AudioFormat

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Java^TM 2 Platform
Std. Ed. v1.3.1

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javax.sound.sampled
Class AudioFormat

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--javax.sound.sampled.AudioFormat

public class AudioFormat
extends Object

AudioFormat is the class that specifies a particular arrangement of data in a sound stream. By examing the information stored in the audio format, you can discover how to interpret the bits in the binary sound data.

Every data line has an audio format associated with its data stream. The audio format of a source (playback) data line indicates what kind of data the data line expects to receive for output. For a target (capture) data line, the audio format specifies the kind of the data that can be read from the line. Sound files also have audio formats, of course. The AudioFileFormat class encapsulates an AudioFormat in addition to other, file-specific information. Similarly, an AudioInputStream has an AudioFormat.

The AudioFormat class accommodates a number of common sound-file encoding techniques, including pulse-code modulation (PCM), mu-law encoding, and a-law encoding. These encoding techniques are predefined, but service providers can create new encoding types. The encoding that a specific format uses is named by its encoding field.

In addition to the encoding, the audio format includes other properties that further specify the exact arrangement of the data. These include the number of channels, sample rate, sample size, byte order, frame rate, and frame size. Sounds may have different numbers of audio channels: one for mono, two for stereo. The sample rate measures how many "snapshots" (samples) of the sound pressure are taken per second, per channel. (If the sound is stereo rather than mono, two samples are actually measured at each instant of time: one for the left channel, and another for the right channel; however, the sample rate still measures the number per channel, so the rate is the same regardless of the number of channels. This is the standard use of the term.) The sample size indicates how many bits are used to store each snapshot; 8 and 16 are typical values. For 16-bit samples (or any other sample size larger than a byte), byte order is important; the bytes in each sample are arranged in either the "little-endian" or "big-endian" style. For encodings like PCM, a frame consists of the set of samples for all channels at a given point in time, and so the size of a frame (in bytes) is always equal to the size of a sample (in bytes) times the number of channels. However, with some other sorts of encodings a frame can contain a bundle of compressed data for a whole series of samples, as well as additional, non-sample data. For such encodings, the sample rate and sample size refer to the data after it is decoded into PCM, and so they are completely different from the frame rate and frame size.

Since:: 1.3
See Also:: DataLine.getFormat(), AudioInputStream.getFormat(), AudioFileFormat, FormatConversionProvider

Inner Class Summary

static class AudioFormat.Encoding
          The Encoding class names the specific type of data representation used for an audio stream.

Field Summary

protected boolean bigEndian
          Indicates whether the audio data is stored in big-endian or little-endian order.

protected int channels
          The number of audio channels in this format (1 for mono, 2 for stereo).

protected AudioFormat.Encoding encoding
          The audio encoding technique used by this format.

protected float frameRate
          The number of frames played or recorded per second, for sounds that have this format.

protected int frameSize
          The number of bytes in each frame of a sound that has this format.

protected float sampleRate
          The number of samples played or recorded per second, for sounds that have this format.

protected int sampleSizeInBits
          The number of bits in each sample of a sound that has this format.

Constructor Summary

AudioFormat(AudioFormat.Encoding encoding, float sampleRate, int sampleSizeInBits, int channels, int frameSize, float frameRate, boolean bigEndian)
          Constructs an AudioFormat with the given parameters.

AudioFormat(float sampleRate, int sampleSizeInBits, int channels, boolean signed, boolean bigEndian)
          Constructs an AudioFormat with a linear PCM encoding and the given parameters.

Method Summary

int getChannels()
          Obtains the number of channels.

AudioFormat.Encoding getEncoding()
          Obtains the type of encoding for sounds in this format.

float getFrameRate()
          Obtains the frame rate in frames per second.

int getFrameSize()
          Obtains the frame size in bytes.

float getSampleRate()
          Obtains the sample rate.

int getSampleSizeInBits()
          Obtains the size of a sample.

boolean isBigEndian()
          Indicates whether the audio data is stored in big-endian or little-endian byte order.

boolean matches(AudioFormat format)
          Indicates whether this format matches the one specified.

String toString()
          Returns a string that describes the format, such as: "PCM SIGNED 22050 Hz 16 bit mono big-endian audio data".

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

encoding

protected AudioFormat.Encoding encoding

The audio encoding technique used by this format.

sampleRate

protected float sampleRate

The number of samples played or recorded per second, for sounds that have this format.

sampleSizeInBits

protected int sampleSizeInBits

The number of bits in each sample of a sound that has this format.

channels

protected int channels

The number of audio channels in this format (1 for mono, 2 for stereo).

frameSize

protected int frameSize

The number of bytes in each frame of a sound that has this format.

frameRate

protected float frameRate

The number of frames played or recorded per second, for sounds that have this format.

bigEndian

protected boolean bigEndian

Indicates whether the audio data is stored in big-endian or little-endian order.

Constructor Detail

AudioFormat

public AudioFormat(AudioFormat.Encoding encoding,
                   float sampleRate,
                   int sampleSizeInBits,
                   int channels,
                   int frameSize,
                   float frameRate,
                   boolean bigEndian)

Constructs an AudioFormat with the given parameters. The encoding specifies the convention used to represent the data. The other parameters are further explained in the class description.

Parameters:: encoding - the audio encoding technique; sampleRate - the number of samples per second; sampleSizeInBits - the number of bits in each sample; channels - the number of channels (1 for mono, 2 for stereo, and so on); frameSize - the number of bytes in each frame; frameRate - the number of frames per second; bigEndian - indicates whether the data for a single sample is stored in big-endian byte order (false means little-endian)

AudioFormat

public AudioFormat(float sampleRate,
                   int sampleSizeInBits,
                   int channels,
                   boolean signed,
                   boolean bigEndian)

Constructs an AudioFormat with a linear PCM encoding and the given parameters. The frame size is set to the number of bytes required to contain one sample from each channel, and the frame rate is set to the sample rate.

Parameters:: sampleRate - the number of samples per second; sampleSizeInBits - the number of bits in each sample; channels - the number of channels (1 for mono, 2 for stereo, and so on); signed - indicates whether the data is signed or unsigned; bigEndian - indicates whether the data for a single sample is stored in big-endian byte order (false means little-endian)

Method Detail

getEncoding

public AudioFormat.Encoding getEncoding()

Obtains the type of encoding for sounds in this format.

Returns:: the encoding type
See Also:: AudioFormat.Encoding.PCM_SIGNED, AudioFormat.Encoding.PCM_UNSIGNED, AudioFormat.Encoding.ULAW, AudioFormat.Encoding.ALAW

getSampleRate

public float getSampleRate()

Obtains the sample rate.

Returns:: the number of samples per second
See Also:: getFrameRate()

getSampleSizeInBits

public int getSampleSizeInBits()

Obtains the size of a sample.

Returns:: the number of bits in each sample
See Also:: getFrameSize()

getChannels

public int getChannels()

Obtains the number of channels.

Returns:: The number of channels (1 for mono, 2 for stereo, etc.)

getFrameSize

public int getFrameSize()

Obtains the frame size in bytes.

Returns:: the number of bytes per frame
See Also:: getSampleSizeInBits()

getFrameRate

public float getFrameRate()

Obtains the frame rate in frames per second.

Returns:: the number of frames per second
See Also:: getSampleRate()

isBigEndian

public boolean isBigEndian()

Indicates whether the audio data is stored in big-endian or little-endian byte order. If the sample size is not more than one byte, the return value is irrelevant.

Returns:: true if the data is stored in big-endian byte order, false if little-endian

matches

public boolean matches(AudioFormat format)

Indicates whether this format matches the one specified. To match, two formats must have the same encoding, the same number of channels, and the same number of bits per sample and bytes per frame. The two formats must also have the same sample rate, unless the specified format has the sample rate value AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED, which any sample rate will match. The frame rates must similarly be equal, unless the specified format has the frame rate value AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED. The byte order (big-endian or little-endian) must match if the sample size is greater than one byte.

Parameters:: format - format to test for match
Returns:: true if this format matches the one specified, false otherwise.

toString

public String toString()

Returns a string that describes the format, such as: "PCM SIGNED 22050 Hz 16 bit mono big-endian audio data". The contents of the string may vary between implementations of Java Sound.

Overrides:: toString in class Object

Returns:: a string that describes the format parameters

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

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javax.sound.sampled Class AudioFormat

encoding

sampleRate

sampleSizeInBits

channels

frameSize

frameRate

bigEndian

AudioFormat

AudioFormat

getEncoding

getSampleRate

getSampleSizeInBits

getChannels

getFrameSize

getFrameRate

isBigEndian

matches

toString

javax.sound.sampled
Class AudioFormat