-v or --verbose

Generally show more information than the default. During decoding, show information about the stream including playing time, audio layer, bit rate, sampling frequency, and stereo mode.

-q or --quiet

Generally show less information than the default. Do not show any information during decoding except warnings.

-Q or --very-quiet

Generally show no information except severe errors. Do not show any information or warnings during decoding.

--display-time=mode

Set the default verbose time display mode to mode, which must be one of remaining, current, or overall. This is only relevant with -v (--verbose). See --tty-control below for details on changing the time display mode during playback.

--downsample

Reduce the decoded sampling frequency 2:1. This also reduces the computational overhead of the decoder.

-i or --ignore-crc

Ignore CRC information in the audio stream. This causes frames with CRC errors to be decoded and played anyway. This option is not recommended, but since some encoders have been known to generate bad CRC information, this option is a work-around to play streams from such encoders.

--ancillary-output=path

Write ancillary data from the MPEG audio stream to path. If path is a single dash (-), the data will be written to standard output. Bits from the ancillary data stream are packed into octets; if any bits remain, the final octet will be padded with zero bits. See the NOTES section below for further information about this option.

-o or --output=[type:]path

Direct output to path, rather than playing audio on the native audio device. The format of the output is specified by type which can be any of the supported output formats (see Output Formats below.) If a format is not specified, one will be inferred from path. If path is a single dash (-), the output will be written to standard output.

-b or --bit-depth=depth

Request an output precision of depth bits per sample. Higher bit depths yield higher quality sound. Typical bit depths are 8, 16, 24, and 32, however other depths may also be possible. Whether the request can be honored depends on the capabilities of the audio device or output format. See the NOTES section below for further details about this option.

-R or --sample-rate=hertz

Request an output sampling frequency of hertz samples per second (Hz). The sample rate must be in the range 1000 to 65535 Hz. Whether the request can be honored depends on the capabilities of the audio device or output format. If the effective rate is not the same as the rate of the decoded audio, output may be resampled, possibly resulting in lower quality sound.

-d or --no-dither

Do not dither output PCM samples. This may result in lower quality sound but is useful for analyzing output from the decoder.

--fade-in[=duration]

Gradually fade-in the audio from each file over duration. If not specified, the default duration is 0:05 (five seconds.)

-a or --attenuate=decibels or --amplify=decibels

Attenuate or amplify the signal by decibels (dB). The signal is attenuated if the decibel value is negative; it is amplified if the value is positive. The value must be in the range -175 to +18 dB. The value may be fractional, e.g. -1.5 dB. A value of 0 dB will leave the signal unchanged. Each step of 6 dB will approximately halve (in the negative direction) or double (in the positive direction) the strength of the signal.

-A or --adjust-volume=decibels

Adjust the relative volume for all files. This option overrides any per-file volume adjustment settings. For example, -A0 may be used to ignore relative volume adjustments given by ID3 tags. Relative volume adjustments specified by this option or by ID3 tags are used as the base volume against which the signal is further attenuated or amplified using the -a (--attenuate, --amplify) option or keyboard controls. This option cannot be used together with -G (--replay-gain).

-G or --replay-gain[=profile]

Enable Replay Gain volume adjustments. Replay Gain information contained in the decoded files (if any) is used to make volume adjustments for output. The profile may be one of radio (the default) or audiophile. See the NOTES section below for further details. When Replay Gain is enabled, a default pre-amp gain of +6 dB is also applied; this can be changed with the -a (--attenuate, --amplify) option.

For dual channel streams, an output channel should be selected. If one is not selected, the first (left) channel will be used.

For stereo streams, making a channel selection other than stereo will cause the output to become monaural.

-1 or --left

Output the first (left) channel only.

-2 or --right

Output the second (right) channel only.

-m or --mono

Mix the left and right channels together.

-S or --stereo

Force stereo output, even if the stream is single or dual channel.

-s or --start=time

Begin playing at time, given as an offset from the beginning of the first file (0:00:00), seeking as necessary.

-t or --time=duration

Stop playback after the playing time of the output audio equals duration.

-z or --shuffle

Randomize the list of files given on the command line for playback.

-r or --repeat[=max]

Play the input files max times, or indefinitely. Playback can be stopped prematurely by giving a time limit with the -t (--time) option. If -z (--shuffle) is also used, the files will be continuously shuffled and repeated in such a way that the same file is not played again until at least half of the other files have played in the interim.

--tty-control

Enable keyboard controls during playback. This is the default unless standard input is not a terminal, output is redirected with -o (--output), or either of -q (--quiet) or -Q (--very-quiet) is given. The keyboard controls are:

P

Pause; press any key to resume.

S

Stop; press any key to replay the current file from the beginning.

F

Forward; advance to the next file.

B

Back; replay the current file, unless it has been playing for less than 4 seconds, in which case replay the previous file.

T

Time display; change the time display mode. This only works with -v (--verbose). The display mode alternates among overall playing time, current time remaining, and current playing time.

+

Increase gain; increase the audio output gain by 0.5 dB.

-

Decrease gain; decrease the audio output gain by 0.5 dB.

Q

Quit; stop decoding and exit.

--no-tty-control

Disable keyboard controls during playback. This is the default when standard input is not a terminal, output is redirected with -o (--output), or either of -q (--quiet) or -Q (--very-quiet) is given.

-T or --show-tags-only

Show ID3 and/or encoder tags from the input files but do not otherwise decode or play any audio. By default only ID3 tags are shown (if any). With -v (--verbose), all tags are shown. Encoder tags recognized by madplay include the Xing VBR header tag and the header tag format written by lame(1).

-V or --version

Display the effective version and build options for madplay and exit.

--license

Display copyright, license, and warranty information and exit.

-h or --help

Display usage information and exit.

Because MAD produces samples with a precision greater than 24 bits, by default madplay will dither the samples to the precision of the output format. This produces high quality audio that generally sounds superior to the output of a simple rounding algorithm. However, dithering may unfavorably affect an analytic examination of the output, and therefore it may be disabled by using the -d (--no-dither) option.

The actual precision of output samples can be requested with the -b (--bit-depth) option. Whether the request can be honored depends on the capabilities of the audio device or output format. If this option is not specified, a typical default depth will be used (often 16) or in the case of output to an audio device, the highest bit depth determined to work reliably with the device will be used.

Note that bit depths greater than 24 are effectively the same as 24-bit precision samples padded to the requested depth.

MPEG audio streams contain an ancillary data stream in addition to audio data. Most often this does not contain any useful information and may simply consist of padding bits. The MPEG-2 extension to multichannel audio uses part of this ancillary stream to convey multichannel information; presently MAD does not interpret such data.

For applications which have uses for the stream, ancillary data can be extracted with the --ancillary-output option.

madplay optionally supports the Replay Gain proposed standard with the -G (--replay-gain) option to make compensating volume adjustments when playing decoded audio from different sources. There are two Replay Gain profiles: radio strives to make gain adjustments that give all tracks equal loudness, while audiophile attempts to give ideal listening loudness. These adjustments are relative to a reference of 83 dB SPL.

A pre-amp gain is also used in conjunction with Replay Gain to achieve the overall desired loudness. When Replay Gain is enabled, this pre-amp gain defaults to +6 dB, however it can be changed with the -a (--attenuate, --amplify) option or keyboard controls.

Note that when enabled, Replay Gain overrides any relative volume adjustments specified by ID3 tags (RVA2). Replay Gain is also incompatible with the -A (--adjust-volume) option; any attempt to use it will be ignored.

Replay Gain information is read either from an ID3 tag (RGAD) or from an encoder tag written by lame(1). If both are present, the information in the ID3 tag takes precedence. In accordance with the proposed standard, if the requested Replay Gain profile is not available but the alternate is, the alternate is used instead.

Due to an unfortunate heresy, versions of lame(1) since 3.95.1 write Replay Gain information using a reference of 89 dB SPL instead of the 83 dB specified in the Replay Gain proposed standard. To compensate, madplay automatically subtracts 6 dB from the Replay Gain values read from such tags.

Note that madplay does not yet support hard limiting as suggested by the Replay Gain proposed standard; nor does it automatically reduce the pre-amp gain to avoid clipping.