The Network Audio System (NAS)

open ("/dev/audio")? Just Say No!

Last Updated: 01/29/2022

Welcome to the NAS Homepage. The Network Audio System is a network transparent, client/server audio transport system. It can be described as the audio equivalent of an X server. Enjoy!

The current stable release version of NAS is now at 1.9.5

Much of the information on this page is out of date. See the SourceForge page.

NAS Overview

This page contains information for the Network Audio System (NAS), a network-transparent, client/server audio system originally developed at Network Computing Devices (NCD) by Jim Fulton, Greg Renda, and Dave Lemke that includes:

sample server implementations

VOXware/OSS (FreeBSD, Linux, SVR4.[02], UnixWare, Microsoft Windows using Cygwin)
HPUX (HPPA, HP-UX 10.x, 11.x)
Sun Sparc/Intel Solaris 2.x, AM79C30A Digital Subscriber Controller and Sparc 10 Dual Basic Rate ISDN Interface (SunOS 4.1.[23], Solaris 2.x)
SGI Indigo (IRIX 5.x)

an application programming interface library
a variety of sample applications

The client software can also be used with several models of NCD X terminals as well as NCD's PCXware (an X server for PCs running Microsoft Windows).

Key features of the Network Audio System include:

Device-independent audio over the network
Lots of audio file and data formats
Can store sounds in server for rapid replay
Extensive mixing, separating, and manipulation of audio data
Simultaneous use of audio devices by multiple applications
Use by a growing number of ISVs
Small size
Free! No obnoxious licensing terms

Please note that the Network Audio System has no relationship to the NetAudio products from Townshend Computer Tools.

Look at the file doc/xcon94paper.ps (Postscript) in the source distribution for a paper on the Network Audio System.

Latest News

1/29/2022

NAS 1.9.5 (stable) is now available. This version includes some patches submitted over the last 9 years or so. See HISTORY for details.

Mailing List

nas - This is a low volume general purpose discussion list for NAS. To subscribe, go to https://radscan.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nas. The mailing list archive can be found here here.

Downloading

The Release version is now 1.9.5 (1/29/2022).

Distribution information

Current Stable Release

nas-1.9.5.tar.gz (Jan 29, 2022)

GIT Source Code Repository access

To check out the latest version of the project into a subdirectory named 'nas', you would use a command like:

git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/nas/nas.git nas

Precompiled Binaries/Packages (most likely WAY out of date)

NAS binary packages for Solaris are provided by James Lee on OpenCSW

Package information

NAS packages for Debian are maintained by Steve McIntyre.

Package information

NAS Mandrake/Mandriva support provided by Per Øyvind Karlsen

NAS is shipped with Mandrake now. The libraries are installed as part of the base system. To install the nasd daemon, run 'urpmi nas' , or find it in the rpmdrake Software Manager. To install the header files (for development), install via 'urpmi nas-devel'. Latest NAS is available on Mandrake Cooker, and from their various mirror sites.

NAS packages for Fedora are maintained by Frank Büttner

Package Information