1:mod:`aifc` --- Read and write AIFF and AIFC files
2==================================================
3
4.. module:: aifc
5   :synopsis: Read and write audio files in AIFF or AIFC format.
6   :deprecated:
7
8**Source code:** :source:`Lib/aifc.py`
9
10.. index::
11   single: Audio Interchange File Format
12   single: AIFF
13   single: AIFF-C
14
15
16.. deprecated-removed:: 3.11 3.13
17   The :mod:`aifc` module is deprecated
18   (see :pep:`PEP 594 <594#aifc>` for details).
19
20--------------
21
22This module provides support for reading and writing AIFF and AIFF-C files.
23AIFF is Audio Interchange File Format, a format for storing digital audio
24samples in a file.  AIFF-C is a newer version of the format that includes the
25ability to compress the audio data.
26
27Audio files have a number of parameters that describe the audio data. The
28sampling rate or frame rate is the number of times per second the sound is
29sampled.  The number of channels indicate if the audio is mono, stereo, or
30quadro.  Each frame consists of one sample per channel.  The sample size is the
31size in bytes of each sample.  Thus a frame consists of
32``nchannels * samplesize`` bytes, and a second's worth of audio consists of
33``nchannels * samplesize * framerate`` bytes.
34
35For example, CD quality audio has a sample size of two bytes (16 bits), uses two
36channels (stereo) and has a frame rate of 44,100 frames/second.  This gives a
37frame size of 4 bytes (2\*2), and a second's worth occupies 2\*2\*44100 bytes
38(176,400 bytes).
39
40Module :mod:`aifc` defines the following function:
41
42
43.. function:: open(file, mode=None)
44
45   Open an AIFF or AIFF-C file and return an object instance with methods that are
46   described below.  The argument *file* is either a string naming a file or a
47   :term:`file object`.  *mode* must be ``'r'`` or ``'rb'`` when the file must be
48   opened for reading, or ``'w'``  or ``'wb'`` when the file must be opened for writing.
49   If omitted, ``file.mode`` is used if it exists, otherwise ``'rb'`` is used.  When
50   used for writing, the file object should be seekable, unless you know ahead of
51   time how many samples you are going to write in total and use
52   :meth:`writeframesraw` and :meth:`setnframes`.
53   The :func:`.open` function may be used in a :keyword:`with` statement.  When
54   the :keyword:`!with` block completes, the :meth:`~aifc.close` method is called.
55
56   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
57      Support for the :keyword:`with` statement was added.
58
59Objects returned by :func:`.open` when a file is opened for reading have the
60following methods:
61
62
63.. method:: aifc.getnchannels()
64
65   Return the number of audio channels (1 for mono, 2 for stereo).
66
67
68.. method:: aifc.getsampwidth()
69
70   Return the size in bytes of individual samples.
71
72
73.. method:: aifc.getframerate()
74
75   Return the sampling rate (number of audio frames per second).
76
77
78.. method:: aifc.getnframes()
79
80   Return the number of audio frames in the file.
81
82
83.. method:: aifc.getcomptype()
84
85   Return a bytes array of length 4 describing the type of compression
86   used in the audio file.  For AIFF files, the returned value is
87   ``b'NONE'``.
88
89
90.. method:: aifc.getcompname()
91
92   Return a bytes array convertible to a human-readable description
93   of the type of compression used in the audio file.  For AIFF files,
94   the returned value is ``b'not compressed'``.
95
96
97.. method:: aifc.getparams()
98
99   Returns a :func:`~collections.namedtuple` ``(nchannels, sampwidth,
100   framerate, nframes, comptype, compname)``, equivalent to output of the
101   :meth:`get\*` methods.
102
103
104.. method:: aifc.getmarkers()
105
106   Return a list of markers in the audio file.  A marker consists of a tuple of
107   three elements.  The first is the mark ID (an integer), the second is the mark
108   position in frames from the beginning of the data (an integer), the third is the
109   name of the mark (a string).
110
111
112.. method:: aifc.getmark(id)
113
114   Return the tuple as described in :meth:`getmarkers` for the mark with the given
115   *id*.
116
117
118.. method:: aifc.readframes(nframes)
119
120   Read and return the next *nframes* frames from the audio file.  The returned
121   data is a string containing for each frame the uncompressed samples of all
122   channels.
123
124
125.. method:: aifc.rewind()
126
127   Rewind the read pointer.  The next :meth:`readframes` will start from the
128   beginning.
129
130
131.. method:: aifc.setpos(pos)
132
133   Seek to the specified frame number.
134
135
136.. method:: aifc.tell()
137
138   Return the current frame number.
139
140
141.. method:: aifc.close()
142
143   Close the AIFF file.  After calling this method, the object can no longer be
144   used.
145
146Objects returned by :func:`.open` when a file is opened for writing have all the
147above methods, except for :meth:`readframes` and :meth:`setpos`.  In addition
148the following methods exist.  The :meth:`get\*` methods can only be called after
149the corresponding :meth:`set\*` methods have been called.  Before the first
150:meth:`writeframes` or :meth:`writeframesraw`, all parameters except for the
151number of frames must be filled in.
152
153
154.. method:: aifc.aiff()
155
156   Create an AIFF file.  The default is that an AIFF-C file is created, unless the
157   name of the file ends in ``'.aiff'`` in which case the default is an AIFF file.
158
159
160.. method:: aifc.aifc()
161
162   Create an AIFF-C file.  The default is that an AIFF-C file is created, unless
163   the name of the file ends in ``'.aiff'`` in which case the default is an AIFF
164   file.
165
166
167.. method:: aifc.setnchannels(nchannels)
168
169   Specify the number of channels in the audio file.
170
171
172.. method:: aifc.setsampwidth(width)
173
174   Specify the size in bytes of audio samples.
175
176
177.. method:: aifc.setframerate(rate)
178
179   Specify the sampling frequency in frames per second.
180
181
182.. method:: aifc.setnframes(nframes)
183
184   Specify the number of frames that are to be written to the audio file. If this
185   parameter is not set, or not set correctly, the file needs to support seeking.
186
187
188.. method:: aifc.setcomptype(type, name)
189
190   .. index::
191      single: u-LAW
192      single: A-LAW
193      single: G.722
194
195   Specify the compression type.  If not specified, the audio data will
196   not be compressed.  In AIFF files, compression is not possible.
197   The name parameter should be a human-readable description of the
198   compression type as a bytes array, the type parameter should be a
199   bytes array of length 4.  Currently the following compression types
200   are supported: ``b'NONE'``, ``b'ULAW'``, ``b'ALAW'``, ``b'G722'``.
201
202
203.. method:: aifc.setparams(nchannels, sampwidth, framerate, comptype, compname)
204
205   Set all the above parameters at once.  The argument is a tuple consisting of the
206   various parameters.  This means that it is possible to use the result of a
207   :meth:`getparams` call as argument to :meth:`setparams`.
208
209
210.. method:: aifc.setmark(id, pos, name)
211
212   Add a mark with the given id (larger than 0), and the given name at the given
213   position.  This method can be called at any time before :meth:`close`.
214
215
216.. method:: aifc.tell()
217   :noindex:
218
219   Return the current write position in the output file.  Useful in combination
220   with :meth:`setmark`.
221
222
223.. method:: aifc.writeframes(data)
224
225   Write data to the output file.  This method can only be called after the audio
226   file parameters have been set.
227
228   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
229      Any :term:`bytes-like object` is now accepted.
230
231
232.. method:: aifc.writeframesraw(data)
233
234   Like :meth:`writeframes`, except that the header of the audio file is not
235   updated.
236
237   .. versionchanged:: 3.4
238      Any :term:`bytes-like object` is now accepted.
239
240
241.. method:: aifc.close()
242   :noindex:
243
244   Close the AIFF file.  The header of the file is updated to reflect the actual
245   size of the audio data. After calling this method, the object can no longer be
246   used.
247
248