22.3 `winsound` -- Sound-playing interface for Windows

Availability: Windows.

New in version 1.5.2.

The winsound module provides access to the basic sound-playing machinery provided by Windows platforms. It includes two functions and several constants.

Beep(frequency, duration): Beep the PC's speaker. The frequency parameter specifies frequency, in hertz, of the sound, and must be in the range 37 through 32,767. The duration parameter specifies the number of milliseconds the sound should last. If the system is not able to beep the speaker, RuntimeError is raised. Note: Under Windows 95 and 98, the Windows Beep() function exists but is useless (it ignores its arguments). In that case Python simulates it via direct port manipulation (added in version 2.1). It's unknown whether that will work on all systems. New in version 1.6.

PlaySound(sound, flags): Call the underlying PlaySound() function from the Platform API. The sound parameter may be a filename, audio data as a string, or None. Its interpretation depends on the value of flags, which can be a bit-wise ORed combination of the constants described below. If the system indicates an error, RuntimeError is raised.

SND_FILENAME: The sound parameter is the name of a WAV file. Do not use with SND_ALIAS.

SND_ALIAS

The sound parameter is a sound association name from the registry. If the registry contains no such name, play the system default sound unless SND_NODEFAULT is also specified. If no default sound is registered, raise RuntimeError. Do not use with SND_FILENAME.

All Win32 systems support at least the following; most systems support many more:

PlaySound() name Corresponding Control Panel Sound name

'SystemAsterisk' Asterisk
'SystemExclamation' Exclamation
'SystemExit' Exit Windows
'SystemHand' Critical Stop
'SystemQuestion' Question

For example:

import winsound
# Play Windows exit sound.
winsound.PlaySound("SystemExit", winsound.SND_ALIAS)

# Probably play Windows default sound, if any is registered (because
# "*" probably isn't the registered name of any sound).
winsound.PlaySound("*", winsound.SND_ALIAS)

SND_LOOP: Play the sound repeatedly. The SND_ASYNC flag must also be used to avoid blocking. Cannot be used with SND_MEMORY.

SND_MEMORY: The sound parameter to PlaySound() is a memory image of a WAV file, as a string.
Note: This module does not support playing from a memory image asynchronously, so a combination of this flag and SND_ASYNC will raise RuntimeError.

SND_PURGE: Stop playing all instances of the specified sound.

SND_ASYNC: Return immediately, allowing sounds to play asynchronously.

SND_NODEFAULT: If the specified sound cannot be found, do not play the system default sound.

SND_NOSTOP: Do not interrupt sounds currently playing.

SND_NOWAIT: Return immediately if the sound driver is busy.

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22.3 winsound -- Sound-playing interface for Windows

22.3 `winsound` -- Sound-playing interface for Windows