# How to play an audio in Julia?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [December 5, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881 "2019-12-05T00:42:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/1 "2019-12-05T00:42:23Z")

</div>

Since [AudioIO.jl](https://github.com/ssfrr/AudioIO.jl) is unmaintained and [LibSndFile.jl](https://github.com/JuliaAudio/LibSndFile.jl) isn’t working well.

There is another “famous” Julia’s audio module?

I have an audio in .ogg or .mp3 (any format). I want to read and play it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/2 "2019-12-05T01:43:54Z")

</div>

Even [WAV.jl](https://github.com/dancasimiro/WAV.jl) have problem.

All these packages are difficult to install. They don’t have `docs` and even adding many dependencies manually they crash.

There is another good package?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/3 "2019-12-05T01:56:07Z")

</div>

From the [issue you posted](https://github.com/JuliaAudio/LibSndFile.jl/issues/27) it looks like there’s some issues with your environment that are holding FFTW.jl back to an older version, which is causing you problems. I’d suggest installing into a fresh environment, or posting the results of `pkg> status` and perhaps folks can help you debug your environment. (use `]` to get to the `pkg>` prompt).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/4 "2019-12-05T01:58:36Z")

</div>

Here:

```julia
(v1.3) pkg> status
    Status `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Project.toml`
  [c52e3926] Atom v0.11.3
  [247af7c9] AudioIO v0.0.0 #master (https://github.com/ssfrr/AudioIO.jl)
  [6e4b80f9] BenchmarkTools v0.4.3
  [336ed68f] CSV v0.5.18
  [c5f51814] CUDAdrv v4.0.4
  [be33ccc6] CUDAnative v2.6.0
  [5ae59095] Colors v0.9.6
  [861a8166] Combinatorics v1.0.0
  [34da2185] Compat v2.2.0
  [3a865a2d] CuArrays v1.5.0
  [a93c6f00] DataFrames v0.19.4
  [e30172f5] Documenter v0.24.2
  [7a1cc6ca] FFTW v1.0.1
  [5789e2e9] FileIO v1.1.0
  [c43c736e] Genie v0.22.7 #master (https://github.com/GenieFramework/Genie.jl)
  [7073ff75] IJulia v1.20.2
  [4e3cecfd] ImageShow v0.2.1
  [682c06a0] JSON v0.21.0
  [e5e0dc1b] Juno v0.7.2
  [194296ae] LibPQ v1.0.5
  [39abe10b] MySQL v0.7.1
  [91a5bcdd] Plots v0.28.2
  [295af30f] Revise v2.3.2
  [8149f6b0] WAV v1.0.3
┌ Warning: Some packages (indicated with a red arrow) are not downloaded, use `instantiate` to instantiate the current environment
└ @ Pkg.Display /buildworker/worker/package_linux64/build/usr/share/julia/stdlib/v1.3/Pkg/src/Display.jl:233

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/5 "2019-12-05T02:02:22Z")

</div>

Even after removing AudioIO.

```julia
(v1.3) pkg> rm FFTW
  Updating `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Project.toml`
  [7a1cc6ca] - FFTW v1.0.1
  Updating `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Manifest.toml`
 [no changes]

(v1.3) pkg> add FFTW
 Resolving package versions...
  Updating `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Project.toml`
  [7a1cc6ca] + FFTW v1.0.1
  Updating `~/.julia/environments/v1.3/Manifest.toml`
 [no changes]

```

When I install FFTW. Julia gets version 1.0.1.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/6 "2019-12-05T02:08:02Z")

</div>

I discovered that Julia has a virtual env. So I tried:

```julia
(v1.3) pkg> activate teste
Activating new environment at `~/progs/virtual_env/teste/Project.toml`

(teste) pkg> status
    Status `~/progs/virtual_env/teste/Project.toml`
  (empty environment)

(teste) pkg> add FFTW
  Updating registry at `~/.julia/registries/General`
  Updating git-repo `https://github.com/JuliaRegistries/General.git`
 Resolving package versions...
  Updating `~/progs/virtual_env/teste/Project.toml`
  [7a1cc6ca] + FFTW v1.1.0

```

And installed version of FFTW was v1.1.0, and LibSndFile v2.2.0.

So as @ssfrr said. Should be something fixing FFTW. But what?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/7 "2019-12-05T02:30:02Z")

</div>

If you run

```julia
pkg> update
pkg> rm FFTW
pkg> add FFTW@1.1.0

```

What do you get? I think (though I’m not 100% sure) that this should show what is holding FFTW back. Note that if the command works then it will pin `FFTW` at version 1.1.0 forever, which you probably don’t want long-term, so you should run `pkg> free FFTW` afterwards to un-pin the version.

The other guidance here is that as you’ve discovered Julia has per-project environment support built-in. It’s good practice to have a separate environment for each thing you’re working on, so you don’t end up with a big cluster of packages, which makes this sort of thing more of a problem. That said, I realize it’s not very satisfying to run into this issue and then not have a clear path to fixing it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/8 "2019-12-05T02:34:00Z")

</div>

This:

```julia
(v1.3) pkg> add FFTW@1.1.0
 Resolving package versions...
ERROR: Unsatisfiable requirements detected for package GPUArrays [0c68f7d7]:
 GPUArrays [0c68f7d7] log:
 ├─possible versions are: [0.3.0-0.3.4, 0.4.0-0.4.2, 0.5.0, 0.6.0-0.6.1, 0.7.0-0.7.2, 1.0.0-1.0.4, 2.0.0] or uninstalled
 ├─restricted by compatibility requirements with CuArrays [3a865a2d] to versions: 2.0.0
 │ └─CuArrays [3a865a2d] log:
 │ ├─possible versions are: [0.2.1, 0.3.0, 0.4.0, 0.5.0, 0.6.0-0.6.2, 0.7.0-0.7.3, 0.8.0-0.8.1, 0.9.0-0.9.1, 1.0.0-1.0.2, 1.1.0, 1.2.0-1.2.1, 1.3.0, 1.4.0-1.4.7, 1.5.0] or uninstalled
 │ └─restricted to versions 1.5.0 by an explicit requirement, leaving only versions 1.5.0
 └─restricted by compatibility requirements with AbstractFFTs [621f4979] to versions: [0.3.0-0.3.4, 0.4.0-0.4.2, 0.5.0, 0.6.0-0.6.1, 0.7.0-0.7.2, 1.0.0-1.0.4] or uninstalled — no versions left
   └─AbstractFFTs [621f4979] log:
     ├─possible versions are: [0.3.0-0.3.2, 0.4.0-0.4.1, 0.5.0] or uninstalled
     ├─restricted by compatibility requirements with CuArrays [3a865a2d] to versions: [0.4.0-0.4.1, 0.5.0]
     │ └─CuArrays [3a865a2d] log: see above
     └─restricted by compatibility requirements with FFTW [7a1cc6ca] to versions: 0.5.0
       └─FFTW [7a1cc6ca] log:
         ├─possible versions are: [0.1.0-0.1.2, 0.2.0-0.2.4, 0.3.0, 1.0.0-1.0.1, 1.1.0] or uninstalled
         └─restricted to versions 1.1.0 by an explicit requirement, leaving only versions 1.1.0

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:47am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/9 "2019-12-05T02:47:01Z")

</div>

OK - it seems the problem is with GPUArrays.jl, which [has a fix for this in master](https://github.com/JuliaGPU/GPUArrays.jl/pull/222) but it hasn’t been released yet. I just bumped that issue to see if the maintainers can tag a release.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:48am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/10 "2019-12-05T02:48:33Z")

</div>

When I remove `CuArrays` and update.

AbstractFFTs and FFTW go to v0.5.0 and v1.1.0.

When I install LibSndFile the version installed is v2.2.0.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/11 "2019-12-05T02:50:00Z")

</div>

Great - glad you found a fix.

For future google-ability @kristoffer.carlsson wrote a script that can dump packages that are being held back, which might help debugging this sort of thing:  
[https://gist.github.com/KristofferC/7c8048e2ee9aaa465966caeb98c1446a](https://gist.github.com/KristofferC/7c8048e2ee9aaa465966caeb98c1446a)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/12 "2019-12-05T02:56:39Z")

</div>

```julia
using FileIO: load, save, loadstreaming, savestreaming
import LibSndFile
y, fs = load("FILE")

```

How to play this audio? With PortAudio?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 3:03am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/13 "2019-12-05T03:03:35Z")

</div>

@ssfrr,

I can only install PortAudio manually, as you can see:

```julia
(test) pkg> add PortAudio
ERROR: The following package names could not be resolved:
 * PortAudio (not found in project, manifest or registry)
Please specify by known `name=uuid`.

(test) pkg> add https://github.com/JuliaAudio/PortAudio.jl
  Updating git-repo `https://github.com/JuliaAudio/PortAudio.jl`
[ Info: Assigning UUID d9fd0e0d-4c11-50a6-a479-0c8901481c1e to PortAudio
  Updating git-repo `https://github.com/JuliaAudio/PortAudio.jl`
 Resolving package versions...
  Updating `~/codigos/julia/SintetizadorVoz/src/recursos/test/Project.toml`
  [d9fd0e0d] + PortAudio v0.0.0 #master (https://github.com/JuliaAudio/PortAudio.jl)
  Updating `~/codigos/julia/SintetizadorVoz/src/recursos/test/Manifest.toml`
  [9e28174c] + BinDeps v0.8.10
  [e1450e63] + BufferedStreams v1.0.0
  [2e619515] + Expat_jll v2.2.7+0
  [0862f596] + HTTPClient v0.2.1
  [d9be37ee] + Homebrew v0.7.1
  [b27032c2] + LibCURL v0.5.2
  [522f3ed2] + LibExpat v0.6.0
  [2ec943e9] + Libz v1.0.0
  [d9fd0e0d] + PortAudio v0.0.0 #master (https://github.com/JuliaAudio/PortAudio.jl)
  [f6d8bcc6] + RingBuffers v1.2.0
  [30578b45] + URIParser v0.4.0
  [c17dfb99] + WinRPM v0.4.2

```

When I put `add PortAudio` gets an error.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ronneesley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ronneesley/32/11072_2.png) [@Ronneesley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Ronneesley)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/14 "2019-12-05T03:05:25Z")

</div>

@ssfrr,

When I use the PortAudio, I get:

```julia
julia> using PortAudio
[Info: Precompiling PortAudio [d9fd0e0d-4c11-50a6-a479-0c8901481c1e]
ERROR: LoadError: syntax: extra token "PortAudioDevice" after end of expression
Stacktrace:
 [1] top-level scope at /home/ronneesley/.julia/packages/PortAudio/GCzTX/src/PortAudio.jl:49
 [2] include at ./boot.jl:328 [inlined]
 [3] include_relative(::Module, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1105
 [4] include(::Module, ::String) at ./Base.jl:31
 [5] top-level scope at none:2
 [6] eval at ./boot.jl:330 [inlined]
 [7] eval(::Expr) at ./client.jl:425
 [8] top-level scope at ./none:3
in expression starting at /home/ronneesley/.julia/packages/PortAudio/GCzTX/src/PortAudio.jl:49
ERROR: Failed to precompile PortAudio [d9fd0e0d-4c11-50a6-a479-0c8901481c1e] to /home/ronneesley/.julia/compiled/v1.3/PortAudio/cmSSf_4TLhK.ji.
Stacktrace:
 [1] error(::String) at ./error.jl:33
 [2] compilecache(::Base.PkgId, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1283
 [3] _require(::Base.PkgId) at ./loading.jl:1024
 [4] require(::Base.PkgId) at ./loading.jl:922
 [5] require(::Module, ::Symbol) at ./loading.jl:917

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![baggepinnen](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/baggepinnen/32/693_2.png) [@baggepinnen](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/baggepinnen)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 6:08am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/15 "2019-12-05T06:08:31Z")

</div>

I use this small utility function to play audio I have in memory, may be useful to someone, replace `totem` for your audio player of choice

```julia
using WAV
function WAV.wavplay(x::AbstractArray,fs)
    path = "/tmp/a.wav"
    wavwrite(x,path,Fs=fs)
    @info "Wrote to file $path"
    Threads.@spawn run(`totem $path`)
end

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/16 "2019-12-05T13:55:19Z")

</div>

While LibSndFile has been updated for 1.3, PortAudio is still in-progress. There are a number of issues with binary packaging that I’ve been working through, but haven’t had time to get it fully wrapped up. It should more-or-less work on the `julia1` branch (do `pkg> add PortAudio#julia1` but it’s been in-progress for a while.

If you use the Atom editor with Juno (which I recommend in general because it’s a really nice experience for editing/running julia code), then LibSndFile will display as playable audio:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/2/d/2d9eec2833696f1d02b37314b0de8dd864469b26.png)

I think you should get something similar if you use Jupyter, though I haven’t tested.

On Linux and OSX, WAV.jl has some functionality to do playback, but I haven’t used it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AshtonSBradley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ashtonsbradley/32/11140_2.png) [@AshtonSBradley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AshtonSBradley)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/17 "2020-04-16T00:46:40Z")

</div>

it seems to be unmaintained… i.e. there is a long standing issue about playback that has had no attention

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ssfrr](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ssfrr/32/3736_2.png) [@ssfrr](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ssfrr)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/18 "2020-04-16T00:57:56Z")

</div>

Yeah, progress has been sporadic, though things have moved along a bit. Now folks can use `master` rather than a random branch, and it also uses the new BinaryBuilder-based C binaries. Which issue are you referring to?

There are still some segfaults I need to work through and some build-system issues to add support for various audio backends (most notably PulseAudio devices don’t seem to be recognized by the ALSA backend for some reason).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AshtonSBradley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ashtonsbradley/32/11140_2.png) [@AshtonSBradley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AshtonSBradley)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 3:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/19 "2020-04-16T03:43:32Z")

</div>

I was meaning this one:

[https://github.com/dancasimiro/WAV.jl/issues/77](https://github.com/dancasimiro/WAV.jl/issues/77)

is there any work around?

also, thanks for the tip about LibSndFile, it works great!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AshtonSBradley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/ashtonsbradley/32/11140_2.png) [@AshtonSBradley](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/AshtonSBradley)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 4:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881/20 "2020-04-16T04:24:44Z")

</div>

I think I spoke too soon: there was a recompile, and now the example you gave above doesn’t produce a sound player in Juno anymore. I instead get some type information:

 ![Screen Shot 2020-04-16 at 4.23.27 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/c/1/c188d8dfe3bed6c2ba063c5274e1a07f6f10746d.png)

Also, I checked and it doesn’t produce a player in jupyter.

[Next page](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-to-play-an-audio-in-julia/31881.md?page=2)