Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

javax.sound.sampled
Interface Clip

All Superinterfaces:
DataLine, Line

public interface Clip
extends DataLine

The Clip interface represents a special kind of data line whose audio data can be loaded prior to playback, instead of being streamed in real time.

Because the data is pre-loaded and has a known length, you can set a clip to start playing at any position in its audio data. You can also create a loop, so that when the clip is played it will cycle repeatedly. Loops are specified with a starting and ending sample frame, along with the number of times that the loop should be played.

Clips may be obtained from a Mixer that supports lines of this type. Data is loaded into a clip when it is opened.

Playback of an audio clip may be started and stopped using the start and stop methods. These methods do not reset the media position; start causes playback to continue from the position where playback was last stopped. To restart playback from the beginning of the clip's audio data, simply follow the invocation of stop with setFramePosition(0), which rewinds the media to the beginning of the clip.

Since:
1.3

Nested Class Summary
 
Nested classes/interfaces inherited from interface javax.sound.sampled.DataLine
DataLine.Info
 
Field Summary
static int LOOP_CONTINUOUSLY
          A value indicating that looping should continue indefinitely rather than complete after a specific number of loops.
 
Method Summary
 int getFrameLength()
          Obtains the media length in sample frames.
 long getMicrosecondLength()
          Obtains the media duration in microseconds
 void loop(int count)
          Starts looping playback from the current position.
 void open(AudioFormat format, byte[] data, int offset, int bufferSize)
          Opens the clip, meaning that it should acquire any required system resources and become operational.
 void open(AudioInputStream stream)
          Opens the clip with the format and audio data present in the provided audio input stream.
 void setFramePosition(int frames)
          Sets the media position in sample frames.
 void setLoopPoints(int start, int end)
          Sets the first and last sample frames that will be played in the loop.
 void setMicrosecondPosition(long microseconds)
          Sets the media position in microseconds.
 
Methods inherited from interface javax.sound.sampled.DataLine
available, drain, flush, getBufferSize, getFormat, getFramePosition, getLevel, getLongFramePosition, getMicrosecondPosition, isActive, isRunning, start, stop
 
Methods inherited from interface javax.sound.sampled.Line
addLineListener, close, getControl, getControls, getLineInfo, isControlSupported, isOpen, open, removeLineListener
 

Field Detail

LOOP_CONTINUOUSLY

static final int LOOP_CONTINUOUSLY
A value indicating that looping should continue indefinitely rather than complete after a specific number of loops.

See Also:
loop(int), Constant Field Values
Method Detail

open

void open(AudioFormat format,
          byte[] data,
          int offset,
          int bufferSize)
          throws LineUnavailableException
Opens the clip, meaning that it should acquire any required system resources and become operational. The clip is opened with the format and audio data indicated. If this operation succeeds, the line is marked as open and an OPEN event is dispatched to the line's listeners.

Invoking this method on a line which is already open is illegal and may result in an IllegalStateException.

Note that some lines, once closed, cannot be reopened. Attempts to reopen such a line will always result in a LineUnavailableException.

Parameters:
format - the format of the supplied audio data
data - a byte array containing audio data to load into the clip
offset - the point at which to start copying, expressed in bytes from the beginning of the array
bufferSize - the number of bytes of data to load into the clip from the array.
Throws:
LineUnavailableException - if the line cannot be opened due to resource restrictions
IllegalArgumentException - if the buffer size does not represent an integral number of sample frames, or if format is not fully specified or invalid
IllegalStateException - if the line is already open
SecurityException - if the line cannot be opened due to security restrictions
See Also:
Line.close(), Line.isOpen(), LineListener

open

void open(AudioInputStream stream)
          throws LineUnavailableException,
                 IOException
Opens the clip with the format and audio data present in the provided audio input stream. Opening a clip means that it should acquire any required system resources and become operational. If this operation input stream. If this operation succeeds, the line is marked open and an OPEN event is dispatched to the line's listeners.

Invoking this method on a line which is already open is illegal and may result in an IllegalStateException.

Note that some lines, once closed, cannot be reopened. Attempts to reopen such a line will always result in a LineUnavailableException.

Parameters:
stream - an audio input stream from which audio data will be read into the clip
Throws:
LineUnavailableException - if the line cannot be opened due to resource restrictions
IOException - if an I/O exception occurs during reading of the stream
IllegalArgumentException - if the stream's audio format is not fully specified or invalid
IllegalStateException - if the line is already open
SecurityException - if the line cannot be opened due to security restrictions
See Also:
Line.close(), Line.isOpen(), LineListener

getFrameLength

int getFrameLength()
Obtains the media length in sample frames.

Returns:
the media length, expressed in sample frames, or AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED if the line is not open.
See Also:
AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED

getMicrosecondLength

long getMicrosecondLength()
Obtains the media duration in microseconds

Returns:
the media duration, expressed in microseconds, or AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED if the line is not open.
See Also:
AudioSystem.NOT_SPECIFIED

setFramePosition

void setFramePosition(int frames)
Sets the media position in sample frames. The position is zero-based; the first frame is frame number zero. When the clip begins playing the next time, it will start by playing the frame at this position.

To obtain the current position in sample frames, use the getFramePosition method of DataLine.

Parameters:
frames - the desired new media position, expressed in sample frames

setMicrosecondPosition

void setMicrosecondPosition(long microseconds)
Sets the media position in microseconds. When the clip begins playing the next time, it will start at this position. The level of precision is not guaranteed. For example, an implementation might calculate the microsecond position from the current frame position and the audio sample frame rate. The precision in microseconds would then be limited to the number of microseconds per sample frame.

To obtain the current position in microseconds, use the getMicrosecondPosition method of DataLine.

Parameters:
microseconds - the desired new media position, expressed in microseconds

setLoopPoints

void setLoopPoints(int start,
                   int end)
Sets the first and last sample frames that will be played in the loop. The ending point must be greater than or equal to the starting point, and both must fall within the the size of the loaded media. A value of 0 for the starting point means the beginning of the loaded media. Similarly, a value of -1 for the ending point indicates the last frame of the media.

Parameters:
start - the loop's starting position, in sample frames (zero-based)
end - the loop's ending position, in sample frames (zero-based), or -1 to indicate the final frame
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException - if the requested loop points cannot be set, usually because one or both falls outside the media's duration or because the ending point is before the starting point

loop

void loop(int count)
Starts looping playback from the current position. Playback will continue to the loop's end point, then loop back to the loop start point count times, and finally continue playback to the end of the clip.

If the current position when this method is invoked is greater than the loop end point, playback simply continues to the end of the clip without looping.

A count value of 0 indicates that any current looping should cease and playback should continue to the end of the clip. The behavior is undefined when this method is invoked with any other value during a loop operation.

If playback is stopped during looping, the current loop status is cleared; the behavior of subsequent loop and start requests is not affected by an interrupted loop operation.

Parameters:
count - the number of times playback should loop back from the loop's end position to the loop's start position, or LOOP_CONTINUOUSLY to indicate that looping should continue until interrupted

Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.