ecasoundrc(5)

💖 ecasoundrc(5) 💖

ok bestie, you found the ecasoundrc(5) page, part of the Multimedia software fam, and honestly? this one is a whole vibe. it's the rcfile page. let's get into it 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

ecasoundrc — the ecasound rcfile, aka the config file that runs the whole thing behind the scenes 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

{prefix}/share/ecasound/ecasoundrc
$HOME/.ecasound/ecasoundrc

like, for instance '/usr/local/share/ecasound/ecasoundrc'. that's the vibe. two homes: one global, one personal 👑

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so ecasoundrc is the main configuration file for ecasound, periodt. and listen — any user-specific modification should be done to $HOME/.ecasound/ecasoundrc, NOT to the global resource file. don't be out here editing the shared one, that's not your lane bestie 😭

Ecasound also allows one to disable the normal policy and only read from a specific resource file — see ecasound (1) and the documentation for the -R option for that little trick.

the format? it's giving simple. one line = one configuration variable plus its value. the variable and value get separated with either = or (a space, yes, a whole space, iconic). and any line starting with a #? ignored. comment lines. we love her 💖

👑 VARIABLES 👑

ok this is the main character section. every single one, no skips, no cap:

• midi-device — the MIDI device. if the device name is written in rawmidi,/dev/midi* format, then OSS/Linux or OSS/Lite drivers get used. and rawmidi,/dev/snd/midiCxDy opens an ALSA raw-MIDI device with card number x and device number y. go peep the ecasound (1) man page (the -Md option) for more info. defaults to rawmidi,/dev/midi.
• default-output — the output device used by default. if a chainsetup with zero outputs but one or more inputs gets connected, a default output is added and all the chains are connected to it. and if you pass the special-case value autodetect, ecasound will try to auto-detect a suitable device for you (JACK -> ALSA -> OSS -> rtnull). defaults to autodetect. slay, it just figures it out 🔥
• default-audio-format — default values for sample format, channel count, sampling rate and channel interleaving. syntax is the same as ecasound's -f option (see ecasound (1)). defaults to s16_le,2,44100,i.
• default-to-precise-sample-rates — whether to ignore sample rate differences (and possibly avoid resampling). currently only affects OSS-devices. defaults to false.
• default-mix-mode — if default-mix-mode is sum, the engine mixes multiple channels into one output channel by summing all input channels. in avg mode, mixing is done by taking the average of all input channels. avg is safe from clipping, while sum is closer to the way analog mixers work. defaults to avg.
• bmode-defaults-nonrt — picks the default parameters used with buffering mode nonrt (the other modes are rt and rtlowlatency, fyi). parameters come as a comma-separated tuple of values: 1) buffersize (number, -b), 2) raised priority (true/false, -r), 3) sched_priority (number, -r:X), 4) double buffering (true/false, -z:db), 5) db-bufsize (number, -z:db,X), and 6) max intbuf (true/false, -z:intbuf). defaults to 1024,false,50,false,100000,true.
• bmode-defaults-rt — see bmode-defaults-nonrt. defaults to 1024,true,50,true,100000,true.
• bmode-defaults-rtlowlatency — see bmode-defaults-nonrt. defaults to 256,true,50,true,100000,false.
• resource-directory — the directory for global ecasound configuration files. defaults to {prefix-dir}/share/ecasound. Note! user-specific resource files can be stored to '$(HOME)/.ecasound/'. for instance you can add your own presets definitions to '$(HOME)/.ecasound/effect_presets'.
• resource-file-genosc-envelopes — the configuration file for generic oscillators. it lives in the resource directory. defaults to generic_oscillators.
• resource-file-effect-presets — the configuration file for effect presets. it lives in the resource directory. defaults to effect_presets.
• ladspa-plugin-directory — the directory containing LADSPA effect plugins. defaults to {prefix-dir}/lib/ladspa. if the environment variable LADSPA_PATH exists, the directories specified in it are automatically searched for plugins. Note! to match the syntax of the LADSPA_PATH environment variable, ladspa-plugin-directory can contain multiple directories, separated by : characters.
• ext-cmd-text-editor — if ext-cmd-text-editor-use-getenv is false or "EDITOR" is null, the value of this field is used.
• ext-cmd-text-editor-use-getenv — should ecasound try to query the environment variable "EDITOR". defaults to true.
• ext-cmd-mp3-input — the command for starting mp3 input. ecasound expects to read signed, 16bit, little-endian stereo audio samples from its standard input. ecasound will query the other audio format parameters by parsing the mp3 file header. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the input mp3. if it exists, "%o" is replaced with the start offset in mp3 frames. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default, mpg123 is launched.
• ext-cmd-mp3-output — the command for starting mp3 output. ecasound will write stereo, signed, 16bit, little-endian samples to standard output. sample rate is configurable. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the output mp3, %S with the sample rate in kHz, and %B with the encoding bitrate in kbps. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch lame. and here's a special exception (added to Ecasound 2.7.0): if the output program is "lame" and the options include "--big-endian", ecasound will detect this and output big-endian samples. ✨
• ext-cmd-ogg-input — the command for starting Ogg Vorbis input. ecasound expects that audio samples are written to standard output. should be noted: ecasound is not able to query the audio format parameters from ogg files, so these need to be set manually by the user. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the input ogg. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch (ogg123).
• ext-cmd-ogg-output — the command for starting Ogg Vorbis output. ecasound will write samples in little-endian format to standard output. other audio parameters are configurable. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the output ogg, %c, %s and %b with matching audio format parameters, and %B with the encoding bitrate in kbps. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch (oggenc).
• ext-cmd-mikmod — the command for starting mikmod input. ecasound expects that signed, 16bit, stereo audio samples are written to standard output. before execution, %f is replaced with the file path, and %s with the selected sample rate. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch mikmod.
• ext-cmd-timidity — the command for starting timidity++ input. ecasound expects that signed, 16bit, stereo audio samples are written to standard output. before execution, %f is replaced with the file path, and %s with the sample rate. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch timidity.
• ext-cmd-flac-input — the command for starting FLAC input. ecasound expects that audio samples are written to standard output. should be noted: ecasound is not able to query the audio format parameters from FLAC files, so these need to be set manually by the user. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the input FLAC file. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch (flac).
• ext-cmd-flac-output — the command for starting FLAC output. ecasound will write samples to standard output. all audio parameters are configurable. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the output flac, %c, %b and %s with matching audio format parameters, %I with either 'signed' or 'unsigned', and %E with either 'little' or 'big'. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch (flac).
• ext-cmd-aac-input — the command for starting AAC input. ecasound expects that signed, 16bit, stereo, big-endian audio samples are written to standard output. should be noted: ecasound is not able to query the input sample rate, so this needs to be set manually by the user. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the input AAC file. Note! FAAC must be compiled with MP4 support. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch faad.
• ext-cmd-aac-output — the command for starting AAC output. ecasound will write big-endian audio samples to standard output. all other audio parameters are configurable. before execution, %f is replaced with the path to the output AAC file, %c, %b and %s with matching audio format parameters. Note! FAAC must be compiled with MP4 support. double-quotes and backslash-escaping can be used to include white-space in individual parameters. by default ecasound will try to launch faac.

💀 DEPRECATED 💀

bestie. she's old. she's retired. do not use her.

• ext-cmd-wave-editor — deprecated. that's it. that's the whole entry. rip 🪦

🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

go read these next, they're all connected iykyk:

• ecasound (1)
• ecatools (1)
• ecasound-iam (1)

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Kai Vehmanen, <kvehmanen -at- eca -dot- cx <kvehmanen -at- eca -dot- cx>> 💜

and that's the page!! tysm for reading, you ate that fr fr 🍓

this lil time capsule is dated 22.03.2009, and it comes to you from the Multimedia software corner of the manual-verse. go forth and configure responsibly, bestie 💅✨🌈