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Introduction to Sound

Sound is an integral part of QuickTime. Applications programmers can use QuickTime to record and play a wide variety of audio media using high-level calls that do not require knowledge of the Sound Manager API or details of the sound media themselves.

Note: If you are developing sound applications for Mac OS X, you should also see Mac OS X Audio. The QuickTime sound documentation is divided into nine sections:

• Introduction to Sound from Inside Macintosh -- background information

• QuickTime Audio -- issues of interest to QuickTime developers

• Sound Dialog -- dialog used when recording, resampling, or exporting sound

• Sound Manager -- the complete API, up to version 3.0

• Additions Since 3.0 -- additions to the Sound Manager since ver. 3.0

• Mac-Only Functions -- Sound Manager functions not in the Windows DLL

• Sound Input Mgr -- low-level routines for recording audio

• Sound Components -- how to create a new sound component

• QuickTime Music -- music synthesizer and MIDI support in QuickTime

Most QuickTime programmers should read the QuickTime Audio section, and may want to read the Introduction as background information.

Programmers whose applications will allow recording, resampling, recompression, or exporting of sound tracks will need to read the Sound Dialog section.

The Sound Manager is now cross-platform, so Windows developers may want to take advantage of the Sound Manager to do things that would otherwise be more difficult, such as mixing multiple channels of interactive sound in a game. These developers should read the Introduction, Sound Manager, and Additions Since 3.0 sections.

Only developers who plan to write a new sound component, such as an audio codec, need to read the Sound Components section.

The QuickTime Music section describes the music synthesizer included with QuickTime, and goes into considerable detail about support for MIDI audio files and MIDI instruments.

Cross-platform and Windows developers should note that some of the Sound Manager routines are not in the Windows DLL. These routines must not be used in Windows applications. Generally speaking, these routines have been superseded by better cross-platform functions. The Sound Manager functions not in the DLL are:

• GetSoundVol

• GetSysBeepVolume

• MACEVersion

• SetSoundVol

• SetSysBeepVolume

• SndGetSysBeepState

• SndPauseFilePlay

• SndPlayDoubleBuffer

• SndRecordToFile

• SndSetSysBeepState

• SndStartFilePlay

• SndStopFilePlay

• SPBRecordToFile

• SPBSignInDevice

• SPBSignOutDevice

The Introduction from "Inside Macintosh: Sound" follows:

Introduction to Sound from Inside Macintosh

• About Sound on Macintosh Computers

  • Sound Capabilities

  • Sound Production

  • Sound Recording

  • Sound Resources

  • Sound Files

  • Speech Generation

  • The User Interface for Sound

• Using Sound on Macintosh Computers

  • Producing an Alert Sound

  • Playing a Sound Resource

  • Playing a Sound File

  • Checking For Sound-Recording Equipment

  • Recording a Sound Resource

  • Recording a Sound File

  • Checking For Speech Capabilities

  • Generating Speech From a String

• Sound Reference

• Playing Sounds

  • SysBeep

  • SndPlay

  • SndStartFilePlay

• Recording Sounds

  • SndRecord

  • SndRecordToFile

• Generating and Stopping Speech

  • SpeakString

  • SpeechBusy

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