audiostreamer — MATLAB Audio Device I/O (R2025a+)

audiostreamer — MATLAB Audio Device I/O (R2025a+)

audiostreamer is the unified replacement for audioDeviceWriter, audioDeviceReader, and audioPlayerRecorder. It provides player-only, recorder-only, or full-duplex modes with callbacks, pre-buffering, transport control, and measurement helpers.

Version requirements: audiostreamer requires Audio Toolbox R2025a or later. The start and write methods were added in R2026a.

When to Use

• Playing audio through a sound card or USB audio device
• Recording audio from a microphone or audio interface
• Full-duplex playback + recording (e.g., acoustic measurements, loopback tests)
• Listing or selecting audio devices and drivers
• Any workflow that involves audio hardware I/O in MATLAB

When NOT to Use

• Playing a single isolated sound — sound or soundsc is fine for one-shot playback of a short clip with no sequencing. For sequential playback (e.g., before/after comparison), use audiostreamer — its play() calls queue automatically, whereas overlapping sound calls play simultaneously.
• Code generation (codegen) — audiostreamer does not yet support codegen; use legacy APIs if targeting codegen
• Simulink models — Simulink still uses the existing audio I/O blocks, not audiostreamer
• Audio Toolbox not available — fall back to sound/soundsc, audioplayer/audiorecorder, or audioDeviceWriter (DSP System Toolbox) if the user lacks Audio Toolbox
• File I/O only — reading/writing audio files without device playback or recording uses audioread/audiowrite, not this skill
• DAQ hardware — National Instruments or similar data acquisition devices use DAQ Toolbox and the daq object
• MIDI-only devices — MIDI control uses mididevice/midicontrols, not audiostreamer

Construction

Use Name-Value pairs for Mode and SampleRate (positional shorthand exists but does not support tab-completion):

The default Mode is "player". You MUST set Mode explicitly if recording — either Mode="recorder" or Mode="full-duplex". Mode is not inferred from other properties like Recorder or RecorderChannels.

as = audiostreamer                                          % default: player mode, 44100 Hz
as = audiostreamer(Mode="player", SampleRate=fs)            % player at fs Hz
as = audiostreamer(Mode="recorder", SampleRate=fs)          % recorder at fs Hz
as = audiostreamer(Mode="full-duplex", SampleRate=fs)       % simultaneous play + record
as = audiostreamer(Mode="full-duplex", SampleRate=48000, Driver="ASIO", ...
    Player="Focusrite USB ASIO", Recorder="Focusrite USB ASIO", ...
    PlayerChannels=[1 2], RecorderChannels=[1 2])