Best MPD Setup

Check out my page, I think I covered everything

I use only one active output at a time, this can be set with Minion instead of going into the script.

as seen below auto_resample is set to no so alsa will not automatically resample.  Then further down if you uncomment out the last line for mixer type MPD will not touch any type of mixing. 

to see what you are outputting use this as see in the mpd wiki under tuning, if you have more than one card you will have to change pcm0p to 1p.

cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

audio_output {

   type "alsa"
   name "my ALSA device"
        device "hw:1,0"        <

For SPDIF replace "hw:1,0" with "cards.pcm.iec958"
        auto_resample "no"
        use_mmap "yes"
period_time 0
buffer_size 4
period_size 2
}

# Volume control mixer ########################################################
#
# These are the global volume control settings. By default, this setting will
# be detected to the available audio output device, with preference going to
# hardware mixing. Hardware and software mixers for individual audio_output
# sections cannot yet be mixed.
#
# An example for controlling an ALSA, OSS or Pulseaudio mixer; If this
# setting is used other sound applications will be affected by the volume
# being controlled by MPD.
#
#mixer_type            "hardware"
#
# An example for controlling all mixers through software. This will control
# all controls, even if the mixer is not supported by the device and will not
# affect any other sound producing applications.
#
#mixer_type            "software"
#
# This example will not allow MPD to touch the mixer at all and will disable
# all volume controls.
#
#mixer_type            "disabled"
#
###############################################################################
 

As long as you have these 4 things set there is no way anything should get resampled.

1)auto_resampling set to NO Also should not be doing anything.

2)# This example will not allow MPD to touch the mixer at all and will disable
# all volume controls.
#
mixer_type            "disabled"

3)

device                  "cards.pcm.iec958"

4)remove the plug in front of plughw

Once you do the cat command you should get an output like this, feed MPD a 48K file and you should see 48 for the rate, feed it a 44.1 file you should see a 44.1 rate

access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 45
buffer_size: 22050

Any Music Player Damon users using Buffer and Period size and Period time?

If so try 0 [zero] for all of those values....

Any difference??

Anyone using the 0.16 Alpha2 version of MPD?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynobot 

Anyone using the 0.16 Alpha2 version of MPD?

I am using 0.16 Alpha 2 on my Alix. You can get a pre-compiled .deb for Voyage Linux here: http://www.voyage.hk/dists/experimental/mpd/  Should work on a standard testing/Sid Debian install as well.

Thanks are you using ecasound as well?  If so how do you get faad2/faac to work with ecasound for .aac [internet radio]?

I ended up using this PPA for MPD...

https://launchpad.net/~gmpc-trunk/+archive/mpd-trunk

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dynobot 

Thanks are you using ecasound as well?  If so how do you get faad2/faac to work with ecasound for .aac [internet radio]?

 

I ended up using this PPA for MPD...

 

https://launchpad.net/~gmpc-trunk/+archive/mpd-trunk

I don't use ecasound, and the few internet radio stations I listen to are already supported by standard mpd and its libraries. I use 0.16 alpha2 because of its
S24_3LE 24 bit packed samples support, which is needed for true 24 bit DACs when using hw:0,0 and bypassing ALSA. I also have a recent October snapshot of ALSA running on the Alix which supports USB Audio Class 2 (aka UAC2) hardware, as my Ayre QB-9 has the newer USB UAC2 board that lets me play up to 24bit 192Khz files.

My system is 2 channel only, and my design approach to an audiophile grade music server is for it to be as minimalist as possible.

I've been following this thread and found some great tips and info here. I installed the 0.16 version of mpd on a test partition with lubuntu 10.04 and listened for a bit. My main linux system is ubuntu 10.04 and there I have installed the mpd release 0.15. I've been doing the linux audio thing for about 2 weeks and believe that mpd gives the best playback of the many players I've tried. deadBeef comes close but is not quite as good, IMO.

So my question is this: Have any of you used and/or compared mpd to a Windows program called cicsmemoryplayer? I have a version installed on a dedicated Windows XP computer and find it very revealing.

cMP² = cMP + cPlay

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe_cool 

 

So my question is this: Have any of you used and/or compared mpd to a Windows program called cicsmemoryplayer? I have a version installed on a dedicated Windows XP computer and find it very revealing.

 

cMP² = cMP + cPlay

Answer = see my site

If you have a full blown cMP machine it should sound better than Ubuntu + MPD.  If you have a lean version of Linux that has been optimized like a cMP machine both players will be on more even fields. 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by nyc_paramedic 

 

My system is 2 channel only, and my design approach to an audiophile grade music server is for it to be as minimalist as possible.

Same here, both my systems are 2 channel only and I try to keep it as minimal as possible....less is more.

I'm totally happy with 0.16 as is but since it came with pipe already turned on I thought I might have a listen....

That was my reasoning when I installed mpd 0.16 on lubuntu, it's a very lean distro. I don't think pulseaudio is installed, for instance. If I was more experienced I would use a different kernel with low latency or maybe even real-time kernel. I looked at Ubunto Studio but it's rather large (>1GB) and it seems the real-time kernel is only used by Jack. Feel free to correct me if I have wrong ideas.