Thanks to all who responded to my question. I should have read the sox manual a little more carefully because the stat function along with the -e flag is exactly what I needed. There is a lot of good information in that manual but it is easy to overlook. Here is a message I received from a list member who has trouble posting to the list. I do use Debian Linux, but it appears that the play program uses sox routines so either application yields similar results. Again, many thanks to all. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group ------- Forwarded Message Date: Sun, 07 May 2006 23:55:22 EDT From: Lorenzo Taylor <lorenzo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: Timing Sound Files - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi. You may forward this to the list if you like. I am sending this message off list because my messages never make it. I'm not sure about your distribution, but in Debian, the play command shows the elapsed and remaining time as well as the total time of any compatible file format. I have used this method to setup both trims and fades as well as to test them. HTH, Lorenzo - - -- Communicate! It can't make things any worse. - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFEXsEqG9IpekrhBfIRAiuOAJ9Fjqcs0540xfeXMol20CiMxKkvngCdEAe7 iddlAL3U1Y8fpPtCQrc+IG4= =Jq25 - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------- End of Forwarded Message _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list