I've had a number of folks request a more "updated" audio sample for use
with the audiotest application. I'm not strongly opinionated one way or
the other, but I'd like to post an RFE for some better sample(s) to test
with. Those of you on this list who are musically inclined can view
this as a chance to get your material integrated into OpenSolaris for
posterity.
Here's what I'd like:
0) The sample needs to carry a free-for-use-and-redistribution (both
commercial and non-commercial) license. I'm happy to include a one-line
attribution in the output of audiotest, or a license file in the
directory where the audio file exists, but any restrictions on use
beyond attribution will not be acceptable. (This means that you can
also reuse someone else's suitably licensed music, or just resubmit it,
if you think you've found a good candidate.)
1) The sample needs to be 48 kHz, 16-bit linear PCM, and monophonic, so
that it can be played separately on left and right channels.
Alternatively, if the sample is truly stereophonic you may submit the
sample with both stereo and mono variants. (I'm willing to consider
other options, like muting one side of a stereo sample, but I'll still
need a monophonic version to play on the "extra" channels that are found
in multichannel -- 5.1 and 7.1 -- configurations.)
If you have a true 7.1 or even 5.1 recording, let me know and I'll see
what I can do to accommodate it, if it fits well.
2) The sample needs to be suitably sized. We'd like something about
5-10 seconds long. (5 is a good target.) This isn't a masterpiece
recording, its a short sample that is going to be played over and over
again. If you have a short snippet and a longer sample of music to
match it, we can supply both. (In this case we'd offer a "long" and a
"standard" test.)
3) Ideally the sample would be recorded at levels that are appropriate
at default mixer settings, and should cover some range of harmonics.
The samples should be "clear" enough to make it easy to hear any
distortions that are not part of the sample itself.
4) Login and logout (or startup and shutdown) theme music samples
probably are good examples of music that would probably work reasonably
well.
5) Vocals are discouraged, only because we want audio that will not need
to be translated.
6) The choice of which audio sample(s) are used will remain the decision
of the Solaris Boomer team. (That mostly remains me, as the final
arbiter, but I'll be taking opinions from some of the other audiophiles
in our group as well.)
7) The samples must be in .WAV or .AU format. No mp3's please.
I'm also looking for someone with a "pleasant voice" to perform record
some brief vocal samples for me. (Recording the names of each of the
channels, such as "front left" and "side right", "center", etc.)
Initially this will be in English, but we'll probably want other
languages for localization later as well. If you think you have a
broadcast quality voice, please let me know. You can e-mail me some
sample recordings of the above text in .wav or .au format.
If I don't get suitable vocal recordings, I'll probably just record them
myself, but I don't regard my voice as particularly "pleasant".
-- Garrett
