AU : Java Glossary

AU
a format for sound files that Java and Unix systems use. Sometimes called Sun Audio Format. Applets play the files with Applet.getAudioClip and Applet.play methods. Applications use AudioPlayer.player.start( inputstream ). I have written a Java class called Sound to to generate *.AU files in RAM (Random Access Memory) mathematically. You can Download it free. It also converts *.AU files encoded with 8-bit mu-law back into 16-bit linear samples for mathematical analysis. AudioClip can only play 8-bit, mu-law-encoded, 8000 Hz (Hertz), one-channel (mono), AU files. There are other AU variants it cannot handle yet. How do you play sounds one after the other? How do you know when one has finished. You can estimate the time a sample will take to play by the sample count (or more roughly by the simple length of the file.) An AudioPlayer implementation might:
  1. Enqueue AU files to be played.
  2. Play all the AU files given to it simultaneously.
  3. Fail, perhaps annoying the user with a dialog box, if you give it more than one at a time.
You have to code defensively.

To convert Microsoft Windows WAVfiles to AU format you need some sort of utility such as the shareware Goldwave.

AU files are very bulky. Often MP3 files are used to save transmission time.

There are 27 different encodings supported in AU files. 8-bit PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation) is one likely to be supported by javax.sound.sampled. Click to test your browser’s AU support  click to listen.


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