Help for package sonify

Version:

0.1-0

Date:

2026-10-06

Title:

Data Sonification - Turning Data into Sound

Description:

Sonification (or audification) is the process of representing data by sounds in the audible range. This package provides the R function sonify() that transforms univariate data, sampled at regular or irregular intervals, into a continuous sound with time-varying frequency. The ups and downs in frequency represent the ups and downs in the data. Sonify provides a substitute for R's plot function to simplify data analysis for the visually impaired.

Maintainer:

Stefan Siegert <s.siegert@exeter.ac.uk>

License:

GPL-2 | GPL-3 [expanded from: GPL (≥ 2)]

Encoding:

UTF-8

Depends:

R (≥ 3.0.0)

Imports:

tuneR (≥ 1.3.1)

RoxygenNote:

7.2.3

NeedsCompilation:

Packaged:

2026-10-06 21:22:19 UTC; stefan

Author:

Stefan Siegert [aut, cre], Robin Williams [aut]

Repository:

CRAN

Date/Publication:

2026-10-06 22:20:02 UTC

Data sonification

Description

Sonification (or audification) is the process of representing data by sounds in the audible range. This package provides the R function ‘sonify' that transforms univariate data, sampled at regular or irregular intervals, into a continuous sound with time-varying frequency. The ups and downs in frequency represent the ups and downs in the data. Sonify provides a substitute for R’s plot function to simplify data analysis for the visually impaired.

Usage

sonify(
  x = NULL,
  y = NULL,
  waveform = c("sine", "square", "triangle", "sawtooth"),
  interpolation = c("spline", "linear", "constant"),
  duration = 5,
  flim = c(440, 880),
  pitch_mapping = c("linear", "logarithmic"),
  ticks = NULL,
  tick_len = 0.05,
  pulse_len = 0,
  pulse_amp = 0.2,
  noise_interval = c(0, 0),
  noise_amp = 0.5,
  amp_level = 1,
  na_freq = 300,
  stereo = TRUE,
  smp_rate = 44100,
  play = TRUE,
  player = NULL,
  player_args = NULL
)

Arguments

x

The x values. Can be used when y values are unevenly spaced. Default is -length(y)/2:length(y)/2

y

The data values used to modulate the frequency.

waveform

The waveform used for the sound. One of 'sine', 'square', 'triangle', 'sawtooth'. Default is 'sine'.

interpolation

The interpolation method to connect the y-values before generating the sound. One of 'spline', 'linear', 'constant'. 'spline' and 'linear' generate continous transitions between frequencies, 'constant' changes frequencies abruptly. Note: If 'interpolation=constant', y[1] is played from x[1] to x[2], y[2] is played from x[2] to x[3], etc, and the last y-value y[n] is played for the duration x[n] - x[n-1]. Default is 'spline'.

duration

Total duration of the generated sound in seconds. Default is 5.

flim

The frequency range in Hz to which the data is mapped. Default is c(440, 880).

pitch_mapping

How 'y' is mapped onto 'flim'. '"linear"' maps linearly in Hz, so equal steps in the data give equal steps in Hz. '"logarithmic"' maps linearly in log-frequency, so equal steps in the data give equal steps in perceived pitch. Default is '"linear"'.

ticks

The location of x-axis ticks. The ticks are indicated by short bursts of a sawtooth wave (duration set by 'tick_len'). The default is NULL (no ticks).

tick_len

The duration of each tick sound.

pulse_len

Length of white-noise pulses (in seconds) to mark the individual x-values. Ignored if all (non-'NA') x-values are identical. Default is 0.

pulse_amp

Amplitude of pulses between 0 and 1. Default is 0.2.

noise_interval

A numeric vector of length (at least) 2; only the first two elements are used. White noise is overlayed whenever y is inside this interval (if noise_amp > 0) or outside this interval (if noise_amp < 0). For example, set to c(-Inf, 0) to indicate data in the negative range. Default is c(0,0) (no noise).

noise_amp

Amplitude (between 0 and 1) of the noise used for noise_interval. Negative values (between 0 and -1) invert noise_interval, i.e. noise is overlaid whenever y falls outside 'noise_interval'. Default is 0.5.

amp_level

Amplitude level between 0 and 1 to adjust the volume. Default is 1.

na_freq

Frequency in Hz that is used for NA data. Default is 300.

stereo

If TRUE a left-to-right transition is simulated, using equal power panning. Default is TRUE.

smp_rate

The sampling rate of the wav file. Default is 44100 (CD quality)

play

If TRUE, the sound is played. Default is TRUE.

player

(Path to) a program capable of playing a wave file from the command line. Under windows, the default is "mplay32.exe" or "wmplayer.exe" (as specified in '?tuneR::play'). Under Linux, the default is "mpv" if found on the PATH, otherwise "mplayer"; if neither is found, a warning is issued and no sound is played. Under OS X, the default is "afplay". See '?tuneR::play' for details.

player_args

Further arguments passed to the wav player, as a single string (e.g. '"-novideo -really-quiet"'). Ignored when 'player' is unspecified. Under Windows the default is '"/play /close"'. Under Linux the default is '"> /dev/null 2>&1"'. Under OS X the default is "". See '?tuneR::play' for details.

Value

The synthesized sound saved as a 'tuneR::WaveMC' object.

Licence

GPL (>=2)

Author(s)

Stefan Siegert s.siegert@exeter.ac.uk (please report bugs!)

Examples

obj = sonify(dnorm(seq(-3,3,.1)), duration=1, play=FALSE)
## Not run: sonify(dnorm(seq(-3,3,.1)), duration=1)

Package {sonify}