qplay(1)

✨ qplay — convert QBASIC play strings to PCM ✨

okay bestie, welcome to qplay(1) from the hxtools collection 💖 this one is niche but SO fun, stay with me.

🌸 SYNTAX 🌸

qplay [-i part] [-q part] [-r rate] [file...] | aplay -f dat -c 1

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so here's the tea: qplay takes QBASIC-style strings — the ones meant for its PLAY command — and turns them into linear 16-bit raw PCM. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it flawlessly 💅

usually you're gonna want to pipe that output straight into a raw PCM player like aplay(1) so it actually comes out of a sound device. and listen — turn your volume down first 🙈 square waves do NOT come to play and they will jumpscare you. not a vibe.

by default, bsvplay will mix 1:1 square:sine waves to give a medium tone hardness. cute, balanced, iconic.

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👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -q part — how much square wave to mix in (default: 1.0) 🔥
• -i part — how much sine wave to mix in (default: 1.0). so like, if you pass -q2 -i1, your final PCM output is gonna be 2/3*squarepcm + 1/3*sinpcm. math ate, honestly 🧮✨
• -r rate — the PCM sample rate (default: 48000 Hz) 🎧

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🦋 FILE FORMAT / PLAY STATEMENTS 🦋

the file format qplay expects is, obviously, not BASIC — it's raw PLAY command strings, periodt. any line starting with a leading hash mark (#) gets ignored, like it never happened 💀

commands are case insensitive and whitespace is mostly ignored, live your truth. also the original QBasic manpage is slightly incorrect (not me calling it out 😭); what's below is what qplay actually supports.

🎵 Octave commands

• O n — sets the current octave. there are seven octaves, n = 0-6.
• > — increases octave by 1. the upper octave limit in QBasic was 6; qplay has a limit of 9. we went higher, no cap 📈
• < — decreases octave by 1. octave cannot drop below 0, she has boundaries.

🎶 Tone commands

• A - G — plays a note in the range A-G. the number sign (#) or the plus sign (+) after a note specifies sharp; a minus sign (-) specifies flat. 🎹
• N n — plays note n. the range for n is 0-84 (in the seven possible octaves, there are 84 notes); n = 0 means a rest. silence is valid, we love a pause 😌

✨ Suffixes

• # or + — follows a specified note and turns it into a sharp.
• - — follows a specified note and turns it into a flat.

⏱️ Duration commands

• L n — sets the length of each note. L4 is a quarter note, L1 is a whole note, etc. the range for n is 1-64. the length may also follow the note, when a change of length only is desired for a particular note. for example, A16 can be equivalent to L16A. same energy, different font 💅
• MN — sets "music normal" so that each note will play 7/8 of the time determined by the length (L).
• ML — sets "music legato" so that each note will play the full period set by length (L).
• MS — sets "music staccato" so that each note will play 3/4 of the time determined by the length (L).

🥁 Tempo commands

• P n — specifies a pause, ranging from 1-64. this option corresponds to the length of each note, set with L n.
• T n — sets the "tempo", or the number of L4 quarter notes in one minute. the range for n is 32-255. the default for n is 120.
• . — a period after a note causes the note to play 3/2 times the length determined by L (length) times T (tempo). the period has the same meaning as in a musical score. multiple periods can appear after a note. each period adds a length equal to one-half the length of the previous period. for example, the command A. plays 1 + 1/2, or 3/2 times the length, and A.. plays 1 + 1/2 + 1/4, or 7/4 times the length. periods can appear after a pause (P). in this case, the pause length is scaled in the same way notes are scaled. dots on dots on dots, she's extra and she earned it ✨

🧚 Variables

• X(var) — play the string in the variable var.

variable definitions in qplay syntax are for example:

$var = "CDEF";

and they must stand on a single line. one line only bestie, no line breaks, I don't make the rules 🫶

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

echo "L16O2CDEFGAB>CDEFGAB>L4C" | qplay - | aplay -fdat -c1

will play a tone ladder 🎼 climb that scale, main character energy.

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

aplay(1), bsvplay(1), hxtools(7)

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fr fr that's the whole page. go make some square waves and remember: volume down first, or the jumpscare is on you 😭🔊

mwah 💋 this was hxtools, dated 2008-02-06 — old but iconic, she's been serving since forever 👑