zoto

Low-level Zig library to play audio on different platforms. Inspired by oto .

Supports these platforms:

• macOS
• Linux/BSDs
• Windows

Prerequisites

These are usually available by default.

Linux/BSDs

ALSA is used.

# Debian-based
apt install libasound2-dev
# Fedora-based
dnf install alsa-lib-dev

Usage

Zoto provides audio playback through two main components: Context and Player. There can be only one context per application, which manages interactions with the OS audio drivers.

Context and Player

A Context is initialized once with audio configuration (sample rate, channel count, format). From the context, you can create multiple Player instances, each reading audio data from a std.Io.Reader.

Basic Setup

const std = @import("std");
const zoto = @import("zoto");

pub fn main() !void {
    const allocator = std.heap.page_allocator;

    // Create a context (only one per application)
    const ctx = try zoto.newContext(allocator, .{
        .sample_rate = 44100,
        .channel_count = 2,  // Stereo
        .format = .int16_le,
        .buffer_size = 0,  // Auto
    });
    defer ctx.deinit();

    // Wait for audio device to be ready
    ctx.waitForReady();

    // Your player code here
}

Playing from Memory

To play audio data already loaded in memory:

// Load audio data into memory
const audio_data = try std.fs.cwd().readFileAlloc(allocator, "sound.wav", std.math.maxInt(usize));
defer allocator.free(audio_data);

// Create a reader from the memory buffer
var buffer: [1024]u8 = undefined;
var stream = std.io.fixedBufferStream(audio_data);
const reader = stream.reader(&buffer);

// Create and play
const player = try ctx.newPlayer(&reader);
defer player.deinit();

try player.play();

Streaming from a File

For large files or to minimize memory usage, stream directly from a file:

// Open file (keep it open while playing)
const file = try std.fs.cwd().openFile("song.mp3", .{});
defer file.close();

// Create a reader from the file
var buffer: [1024]u8 = undefined;
const reader = file.reader(&buffer);

// Create and play
const player = try ctx.newPlayer(&reader);
defer player.deinit();

try player.play();

// Wait for playback to finish
while (player.isPlaying()) {
    std.Thread.sleep(std.time.ns_per_ms);
}

Note: The file must remain open during playback. Closing it before playback completes will cause errors.

Supported Formats

• .float32_le - 32-bit floating point, little-endian
• .uint8 - Unsigned 8-bit integer
• .int16_le - 16-bit signed integer, little-endian

Player Controls

// Check if playing
const is_playing = player.isPlaying();

// Pause playback
player.pause();

// Resume playback (after pause)
try player.play();

// Set volume (0.0 to 1.0)
player.setVolume(0.5);

// Get volume
const volume = player.getVolume();

// Close player when done
try player.close();

Detailed Example

See the player example in zigaudio.