
		SOX: Sound Tools



SOX (also known as Sound Tools) translates sound samples between different
file formats, and performs various sound effects.

This release understands:

  o Raw files in various binary formats
  o Raw textual data
  o Microsoft .WAV files
    o MS ADPCM (Read only)
    o IMA ADPCM (Read only)
  o MAUD files
  o Sound Blaster .VOC files
  o IRCAM SoundFile files
  o SUN .au files
    o ADPCM (compressed)
  o mutant DEC .au files
  o Apple/SGI AIFF files
  o CD-R (music CD format)
  o Macintosh HCOM files
  o Sounder files
  o NeXT .snd files
  o Soundtool (DOS) files
  o Psion (palmtop) A-law files

The sound effects include:

  o Channel Averaging
  o Band-pass filter
  o Chorus effect
  o Cut out loop samples
  o Add an echo 
  o Add a sequence of echos
  o Apply a flanger effect
  o Apply a high-pass filter
  o Apply a low-pass filter
  o Display a list of loops in a file
  o Add masking noise to a signal
  o Apply a phaser effect
  o Convert from stereo to mono
  o Change sampling rates using several different algorthms.
  o Apply a reverb effect
  o Reverse the sound samples (to search for Satanic messages ;-)
  o Convert from mono to stereo
  o Display general stats on a sound sample
  o Add the world-famous Fender Vibro-Champ effect

Big news! Lots of new effects have been added.  This includes most the
popular "Guitar Effects" talked about in the same named FAQ available.

The 'resample' and 'polyphase' effect does high-grade signal rate
changes using real signal theory.  Yes, it's very slow.  There seems
to be a small problem with alaising with 'resample' currently.

More big news!  Sample loops are now supported in a few
file formats: SMP and AIFF.  WAV and VOC needs it.  I don't know
what other formats actually know about sampler notes & loops.
(To make a loop, you need a waveform editor that knows about
them and has special features.)

History:

This is the 12th release, Patchlevel 15 of the Sound Tools.
Sox was originally writen and mantained by Lance Norskog but
unfortunetly he has stopped mantaining it since 1995.  I, Chris
Bagwell (cbagwell@sprynet.com), have started mantaining it since
1996 to the present.  Lance may take supporting it back up in the future
but until that time I will keep pushing its development forward.

Caveats:
SOX is intended as the Swiss Army knife of sound
processing tools.  It doesn't do anything very well,
but sooner or later it comes in very handy.
SOX is really only useable day-to-day if you
hide the wacky options with one-line shell scripts.

Installing:
Use the DOS, Unix, Amiga, OS2, or OS9 Makefile as appropriate.
Please read the Makefile's for several options that may need
to be customized for your setup.

See the INSTALL file for more detailed instructions.

Now, read TIPS, CHEAT.eft and CHEAT.  These give a background on how
SOX deals with sound files and how to convert this format
to that format, and apply various effects with examples for the most 
popular formats.

SOX uses file suffices to determine the nature of a sound sample file.
If it finds the suffix in its list, it uses the appropriate read
or write handler to deal with that file.  You may override the suffix
by giving a different type via the '-t type' argument.  See the manual
page for more information.  The 'tests.sh' script illustrates various
sox usages.

SOX has an auto-detect feature that attempts to figure out
the nature of an unmarked sound sample.  It works very well.
This is the 'auto' file format.

I hope to inspire the creation of a common base of sound processing
tools for computer multimedia work, similar to the PBM toolkit for 
image manipulation.

Sound Tools may be used for any purpose.  Source
distributions must include the copyright notices.  Binary
distributions must include acknowledgements to the creators.
Files are copyright by their respective authors.

If you have bugfixes/enhancements, please send it to me.
I'd like to coordinate the releases and do a peer review.
Please document your changes.  I don't possess every kind
of computer currently sold, and SOX is now beyond the phase
where I can understand and test most of your contributions.

The majority of SOX features and source code are contributed
by you the user.  Thank you very much for making SOX
a success!

	Creator:
		Lance Norskog		thinman@meer.net (inactive currently)

	Mantainer:
		Chris Bagwell		cbagwell@sprynet.com

	Contributors:
		Juergen Mueller		jmueller@uia.ua.ac.be
			chorus, echo, echos, flanger, phaser, and reverb
			effects.
		Guido Van Rossum	guido@cwi.nl
			AU, AIFF, AUTO, HCOM, reverse,
			many bug fixes
		Jef Poskanzer		jef@well.sf.ca.us
			original code for u-law and delay line
		Bill Neisius		bill%solaria@hac2arpa.hac.com 
			DOS port, 8SVX, Sounder, Soundtool formats
			Apollo fixes, stat with auto-picker
		Rick Richardson		rick@digibd.com
			WAV and SB driver handlers, fixes
		David Champion		dgc3@midway.uchicago.edu
			Amiga port 
		Pace Willisson		pace@blitz.com
			Fixes for ESIX
		Leigh Smith		leigh@psychokiller.dialix.oz.au
			SMP and comment movement support.
			AIFF Loop/MIDI support
		David Sanderson		dws@ssec.wisc.edu
			AIX3.1 fixes
			(Note that to my knowledge AIX on RS/6000s has
			NO SUPPORT for playing any sort of sound file,
			so please don't write to me any more to ask
			"how do I play sound files on my AIX box".  I
			ported sox to AIX solely to use it to translate
			between sound file formats.)
		Glenn Lewis		glewis@pcocd2.intel.com
			AIFF chunking fixes
		Brian Campbell		brianc@quantum.qnx.com
			QNX port and 16-bit fixes
		Chris Adams		gt8741@prism.gatech.edu
			DOS port fixes
		John Kohl		jtkohl@kolvir.elcr.ca.us
			BSD386 port, VOC stereo support
		Ken Kubo		ken@hmcvax.claremont.edu
			VMS port, VOC stereo support
		Frank Gadegast 		<phade@cs.tu-berlin.de>
			Microsoft C 7.0 & C Borland 3.0 ports
		David Elliot		<dce@scmc.sony.com>
			CD-R format support
		David Sears		<dns@essnj3.essnjay.com>
			Linux support
		Tom Littlejohn          <tlit@seq1.loc.gov>
			Raw textual data
		Boisy G. Pitre 		boisy@microware.com
			OS9 port
                Sun Microsystems, Guido Van Rossum
		        CCITT G.711, G.721, G.723 implementation
		Graeme Gill		graeme@labtam.labtam.oz.au
			A-LAW format, Good .WAV handling,
			avg channel expansion
		Allen Grider		grider@hfsi.hfsi.com
			VOC stereo mode, WAV file handling
		Michel Fingerhut 	Michel.Fingerhut@ircam.fr
			Upgrade 'sf' format to current IRCAM format.
			Float file support.
		Chris Knight
			Achimedes Acorn support
		Richard Caley 		R.Caley@ed.ac.uk
			Psion WVE handler
		Lutz Vieweg		lkv@mania.RoBIN.de
			MAUD (Amiga) file handler
		Tim Gardner		timg@tpi.com
			Windows NT port for V7
		Jimen Ching 		jiching@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu
			Libst porting bugs
		Lauren Weinstein	lauren@vortex.com
			DOS porting, scripts, professional use
		Chris Bagwell		cbagwell@sprynet.com
			OSS and Sun players, bugfixes, ADPCM support,
			patch collection and maintance.
		(your name could be here, too)
		(I've probably lost a few, and several people fixed
		 the same bugs.)

