# Playing raw PCM files in ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 29, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071 "2010-08-29T20:45:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/1 "2010-08-29T20:45:24Z")
Hello everyone, I am trying to play the music from the old game “Ascendancy” using Ruby, the files are 8-bit unsigned raw PCM files at 22 khz. I thought about using SDL for playing them, but I can’t seem to find any way to load these files with the ruby bindings. Has anyone done this before or has any other idea how to play the sound? ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/2 "2010-08-29T21:02:23Z")
On 8/29/2010 2:45 PM, Roger B. wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I am trying to play the music from the old game “Ascendancy” using > Ruby, the files are 8-bit unsigned raw PCM files at 22 khz. I thought > about using SDL for playing them, but I can’t seem to find any way to > load these files with the ruby bindings. Has anyone done this before > or has any other idea how to play the sound? You might be better off converting these sounds to something that can be handled more easily. You could use a command-line tool like Sox to do the job, just iterate over the files (in Ruby, perhaps) and convert them to wav files. This has the added benefit of possibly encoding them in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis for smaller file sizes. Raw PCM should be able to be handled though. The problem is, raw PCM has no header information. If you know the exact format, you could theoretically load it into memory and have it played, but it’ll be a pain. If you get any of the settings wrong, you might as well be pumping random noise through your speakers. ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/3 "2010-08-29T21:18:47Z")
On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 8:58 PM, Michael M. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > You might be better off converting these sounds to something that can be > handled more easily. You could use a command-line tool like Sox to do the > job, just iterate over the files (in Ruby, perhaps) and convert them to wav > files. This has the added benefit of possibly encoding them in MP3 or Ogg > Vorbis for smaller file sizes. Thanks for the suggestion, but I would really like to play the files directly from the games archive format. > Raw PCM should be able to be handled though. The problem is, raw PCM has no > header information. If you know the exact format, you could theoretically > load it into memory and have it played, but it’ll be a pain. If you get any > of the settings wrong, you might as well be pumping random noise through > your speakers. That’s exactly what I want to do, but I found no way to actually do this. Wrong settings are no problem here, because all the music files in the game use the same format and the program is just supposed to play these songs. ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/4 "2010-08-30T19:37:09Z")
Roger B. wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I am trying to play the music from the old game “Ascendancy” using > Ruby, the files are 8-bit unsigned raw PCM files at 22 khz. I thought > about using SDL for playing them, but I can’t seem to find any way to > load these files with the ruby bindings. Has anyone done this before > or has any other idea how to play the sound? Linux or windows? -r ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/5 "2010-08-30T21:59:18Z")
On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Roger P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Linux or windows? Possibly both. But mainly Linux. ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/6 "2010-08-31T05:30:43Z")
On Aug 29, 1:45 pm, Roger B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I am trying to play the music from the old game “Ascendancy” using > Ruby, the files are 8-bit unsigned raw PCM files at 22 khz. I thought > about using SDL for playing them, but I can’t seem to find any way to > load these files with the ruby bindings. Has anyone done this before > or has any other idea how to play the sound? Are you unable to load them because of the lack of headers or is there another reason? If it’s the lack of headers, would it be too difficult to create them on the fly and then use SDL? ---
**Author:** ![boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@boothy](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/boothy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/playing-raw-pcm-files-in-ruby/194071/7 "2010-08-31T00:56:09Z")
> I am trying to play the music from the old game “Ascendancy” using > Ruby, the files are 8-bit unsigned raw PCM files at 22 khz. I thought > about using SDL for playing them, but I can’t seem to find any way to > load these files with the ruby bindings. Has anyone done this before > or has any other idea how to play the sound? call out to VLC?