aplay is much the same, only it plays instead of recording. For supported soundfile formats, the sampling rate, bit depth, and so forth can be automatically determined from the soundfile header.

[arecord | aplay ] [flags] filename

If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is used. The aplay utility accepts multiple filenames.

-h, --help

Help: show syntax.

--version

Print current version.

-l, --list-devices

List all soundcards and digital audio devices

-L, --list-pcms

List all PCMs defined

-D, --device=NAME

Select PCM by name

-q --quiet

Quiet mode. Suppress messages (not sound :))

-t, --file-type TYPE

File type (voc, wav, raw or au)

-c, --channels=#

The number of channels

-f --format=FORMAT

Sample format Recognized sample formats are: S8 U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE U16_BE S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE FLOAT_BE FLOAT64_LE FLOAT64_BE IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE IEC958_SUBFRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM Some of these may not be available on selected hardware There are also two format shortcuts available:

-f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
-f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r48000]

-r, --rate=#<Hz>

Sampling rate in Hertz.

-d, --duration=#

Interrupt after # seconds

-s, --sleep-min=#

Min ticks to sleep

-M, --mmap

Mmap stream

-N, --nonblock

Nonblocking mode

-F, --period-time=#

Distance between interrupts is # microseconds

-B, --buffer-time=#

Buffer duration is # microseconds

--period-size=#

Distance between interrupts is # frames

--buffer-size=#

Buffer duration is # frames

-A, --avail-min=#

Min available space for wakeup is # microseconds

-R, --start-delay=#

Delay for automatic PCM start is # microseconds (relative to buffer size if <= 0)

-T, --stop-delay=#

Delay for automatic PCM stop is # microseconds from xrun

-v, --verbose

Show PCM structure and setup. This option is accumulative. The VU meter is displayed when this is given twice.

-I, --separate-channels

One file for each channel

aplay -c 1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law foobar

will play the raw file "foobar" as a 22050-Hz, mono, 8-bit, Mu-Law .au file.

arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D copy foobar.wav

will record foobar.wav as a 10-second, CD-quality wave file, using the PCM "copy" (which might be defined in the user's .asoundrc file as:

pcm.copy {
  type plug
  slave {
    pcm hw
  }
  route_policy copy
}