Sound-playing interface for Windows in Python (winsound)

The winsound module is specific to Python installations on Windows operating systems. It provides a simple interface for playing sounds and system beeps. The module defines several functions for different types of audio playback.

Beep()

When this function is called, a beep is heard from the PC's speaker. The function needs two parameters: frequency and duration. The frequency parameter specifies the frequency of the sound and must be in the range 37 through 32,767 hertz. The duration parameter specifies the duration of sound in milliseconds.

Example

import winsound

# Play a beep at 1000 Hz for 500 milliseconds
winsound.Beep(1000, 500)

MessageBeep()

This function plays a sound as specified in the Windows registry. The type argument specifies which sound to play. Possible values are:

-1, MB_ICONASTERISK, MB_ICONEXCLAMATION, MB_ICONHAND, MB_ICONQUESTION, and MB_OK (default).

The value -1 produces a "simple beep".

Example

import winsound

# Play the default system sound
winsound.MessageBeep()

# Play different system sounds
winsound.MessageBeep(winsound.MB_ICONEXCLAMATION)
winsound.MessageBeep(winsound.MB_ICONHAND)

PlaySound()

This function calls the underlying PlaySound() function from the Platform API. The function needs two parameters: sound and flags. The sound parameter may be a filename, a system sound alias, or audio data as a bytes-like object. Its interpretation depends on the value of flags.

Available Flags

Example

import winsound

# Play a WAV file (requires actual WAV file)
winsound.PlaySound('sample.wav', winsound.SND_FILENAME)

# Play a WAV file asynchronously
winsound.PlaySound('sample.wav', winsound.SND_FILENAME | winsound.SND_ASYNC)

Using System Sound Aliases

The Windows registry keys are associated with sound names. If the registry contains no such name, it plays the system default sound unless SND_NODEFAULT is specified. All Win32 systems support the following sound aliases:

Example

import winsound

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

# Play different system sounds
winsound.PlaySound("SystemAsterisk", winsound.SND_ALIAS)
winsound.PlaySound("SystemExclamation", winsound.SND_ALIAS)

Predefined Constants

The winsound module also defines the following sound constants for use with MessageBeep():

Conclusion

The winsound module provides a simple way to play system sounds and beeps on Windows. Use Beep() for custom frequency tones, MessageBeep() for system notification sounds, and PlaySound() for WAV files and system sound aliases.