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Please review the following information to ensure ** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements ** will be met: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.html. ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \page audiooverview.html \title Audio Overview \brief Audio playback, recording and processing \section1 Audio Features Qt Multimedia offers a range of audio classes, covering both low and high level approaches to audio input, output and processing. In addition to traditional audio usage, the \l{Qt Audio Engine QML Types}{Qt Audio Engine} QML types offer high level 3D positional audio for QML applications. See that documentation for more information. \section1 Audio Implementation Details \section2 Playing Compressed Audio For playing media or audio files that are not simple, uncompressed audio, you can use the \l QMediaPlayer C++ class, or the \l {Audio} and \l {MediaPlayer} QML types. The QMediaPlayer class and associated QML types are also capable of playing \l{multimedia-playing-video}{video}, if required. The compressed audio formats supported does depend on the operating system environment, and also what media plugins the user may have installed. Here is how you play a local file using C++: \snippet multimedia-snippets/media.cpp Local playback You can also put files (even remote URLs) into a playlist: \snippet multimedia-snippets/media.cpp Audio playlist \section2 Recording Audio to a File For recording audio to a file, the \l {QAudioRecorder} class allows you to compress audio data from an input device and record it. \snippet multimedia-snippets/media.cpp Audio recorder \section2 Low Latency Sound Effects In addition to the raw access to sound devices described above, the QSoundEffect class (and \l {SoundEffect} QML type) offers a slightly higher level way to play sounds. These classes allow you to specify a WAV format file which can then be played with low latency when necessary. Both QSoundEffect and SoundEffect have essentially the same API. You can adjust the number of \l {QSoundEffect::loopCount()}{loops} a sound effect is played, as well as the \l {QSoundEffect::setVolume()}{volume} (or \l {QSoundEffect::setMuted()}{muting}) of the effect. For older, Qt 4.x based applications \l QSound is also available. Applications are recommended to use QSoundEffect where possible. \section2 Monitoring Audio Data During Playback or Recording The \l QAudioProbe class allows you to monitor audio data being played or recorded in the higher level classes like \l QMediaPlayer, \l QCamera and \l QAudioRecorder. After creating your high level class, you can simply set the source of the probe to your class, and receive audio buffers as they are processed. This is useful for several audio processing tasks, particularly for visualization or adjusting gain. You cannot modify the buffers, and they may arrive at a slightly different time than the media pipeline processes them. Here's an example of installing a probe during recording: \snippet multimedia-snippets/media.cpp Audio probe \section2 Low Level Audio Playback and Recording Qt Multimedia offers classes for raw access to audio input and output facilities, allowing applications to receive raw data from devices like microphones, and to write raw data to speakers or other devices. Generally these classes do not do any audio decoding, or other processing, but they can support different types of raw audio data. The QAudioOutput class offers raw audio data output, while QAudioInput offers raw audio data input. Both classes have adjustable buffers and latency, so they are suitable for both low latency use cases (like games or VOIP) and high latency (like music playback). The available hardware determines what audio outputs and inputs are available. \section3 Push and Pull The low level audio classes can operate in two modes - \c push and \c pull. In \c pull mode, the audio device is started by giving it a QIODevice. For an output device, the QAudioOutput class will pull data from the QIODevice (using \l QIODevice::read()) when more audio data is required. Conversely, for \c pull mode with QAudioInput, when audio data is available then the data will be written directly to the QIODevice. In \c push mode, the audio device provides a QIODevice instance that can be written or read to as needed. Typically this results in simpler code but more buffering, which may affect latency. \section2 Decoding Compressed Audio to Memory In some cases you may want to decode a compressed audio file and do further processing yourself (for example, mixing multiple samples or using custom digital signal processing algorithms). QAudioDecoder supports decoding local files or data streams from QIODevice instances. Here's an example of decoding a local file: \snippet multimedia-snippets/audio.cpp Local audio decoding \section1 Examples There are both C++ and QML examples available. \section2 C++ Examples \annotatedlist audio_examples \section1 Reference Documentation \section2 C++ Classes \annotatedlist multimedia_audio \section2 QML Types \annotatedlist multimedia_audio_qml */