Linux For Music

[Ech0]

Rubyripper for ripping CD's or EAC w/wine. K3B for burning stuff. XBMC's music player mostly or Amarok.

 

[thread]

Quote:

You should try banshee, its the best music player for gnome envo, imo. If you like foobar, you can still use it via WINE. Happy listening!

I tried running Foobar 2000 under Wine recently when I wanted to try the Head-Fit Foobar plugin for crossfeed, and I didn't have such good results. The audio was all skippy... overall terrible quality. I don't think Wine's audio output is really up to the task.
 
I'm a long-time mpd user. It turns my linux server into another squeezebox... so that's what I'd recommend, though I very often just use mplayer on the command line under (gnu) screen. (screen the terminal tool, so I can disconnect and even control it with my Droid.)
 
I've really enjoyed mocp, too. Really simple way to do your music. Only hurdle is learning a few hotkeys. (h lists them.)

 

[java]

Also have a look at Exaile for replay ...

 

[jipan]

Quote:

I tried running Foobar 2000 under Wine recently when I wanted to try the Head-Fit Foobar plugin for crossfeed, and I didn't have such good results. The audio was all skippy... overall terrible quality. I don't think Wine's audio output is really up to the task.
 

Yeah, foobar2000+wine is a no no no. I tried this once, and regret it.
Until now there aren't any software as good as foobar2000 on linux. Some aregood, but its sooo heavy (I'm looking at you, Amarok, Rhythmbox!). Some are good, and light, but the scanning system is just... terrible (Exaile). And the most coveted feature which very, very rare is ability to read CUE file. Amarok has simple ability to read CUE, but then its so bloated I simply hate it. Right now I'm using foonix. Its pretty good, has CUE support, lyric search, music collection (its folder-view based, not tag-based). Not as good as foobar2000 but much more better than those bloatware. Other alternative is DeaDBeeF, although DeaDBeeF didn't have any music collection scanner.

 

[java]

Not familiar wit FOONIX or DEADBEEF ..., thanks for the tip off, will check them out ...

 

[ninjikiran]

I think the weakest source for music on Linux is freaken Alsa

.  I decided to do a little bit of experimentation on my main machine and Alsa is not behaving bit-perfectly from the direct digital output.  Apparently I am not alone, of course with another problem with my sound card transport which turns the digital output into a mono single speaker stream.  A patch which fixes it is great, patching Alsa is simple enough, but installing I assume kills the kernel. (on load no monitor signal, can't see if there is any errors, keyboard locks up)
 
I had assumed maybe I could patch it into Ubuntu 10.10 but at this point and time but it is running slow as a snail.  Even terminal is slow.
 
Only thing that works for me ATM is Lubuntu's 64-bit mini-iso.  But can't fix the issues I have in alsa with it, I also think its based off their previous release rather then the new 10.10.

 

[zest]

Quote:

Not familiar wit FOONIX or DEADBEEF ..., thanks for the tip off, will check them out ...

It's Foobnix and not Foonix, but you can also try Clementine or the lightweight Guayadeque.

 

[Dynobot]

For bit-perfect Alsa you must use either hw: or iec958 as your digital out.  plughw: is resampled.
 
Not sure if you have a spdif connection to use the iec958 for your digital out, but you can also create a asoundrc file to direct also to your hw: instead of the default plughw: which resamples with dmix.
 
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/DigitalOut
Quote:

I think the weakest source for music on Linux is freaken Alsa

.  I decided to do a little bit of experimentation on my main machine and Alsa is not behaving bit-perfectly from the direct digital output.  Apparently I am not alone, of course with another problem with my sound card transport which turns the digital output into a mono single speaker stream.  A patch which fixes it is great, patching Alsa is simple enough, but installing I assume kills the kernel. (on load no monitor signal, can't see if there is any errors, keyboard locks up)
 
I had assumed maybe I could patch it into Ubuntu 10.10 but at this point and time but it is running slow as a snail.  Even terminal is slow.
 
Only thing that works for me ATM is Lubuntu's 64-bit mini-iso.  But can't fix the issues I have in alsa with it, I also think its based off their previous release rather then the new 10.10.

 

[ninjikiran]

yea iec958 is a bit broken atm in two ways, its not bit perfect and the driver for my sound card spits it out single speaker mono.  There is a patch for alsa which I compiled successfully but applying the alsa installation ends up forcing me to reinstall.  My only idea is since alsa is so linked into the kernel its breaking it whenever I try to install it.(I tried non-patched latest alsa install as well, same problem)
Quote:

For bit-perfect Alsa you must use either hw: or iec958 as your digital out.  plughw: is resampled.
 
Not sure if you have a spdif connection to use the iec958 for your digital out, but you can also create a asoundrc file to direct also to your hw: instead of the default plughw: which resamples with dmix.
 
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/DigitalOut

 

 

[java]

Quote:

It's Foobnix and not Foonix, but you can also try Clementine or the lightweight Guayadeque.

AHHH!!!!! ... , explains why I have been swearing at Goole ...

 

[revolink24]

I can't believe no one else here has mentioned Bluemindo. Give it a shot. http://bluemindo.codingteam.net/

 

[java]

Quote:

I can't believe no one else here has mentioned Bluemindo. Give it a shot. http://bluemindo.codingteam.net/

Didn't know about this one either ... , seems there are a lot of "toys" to play with ... , thanks

 

[joe_cool]

Quote:

yea iec958 is a bit broken atm in two ways, its not bit perfect and the driver for my sound card spits it out single speaker mono.  There is a patch for alsa which I compiled successfully but applying the alsa installation ends up forcing me to reinstall.  My only idea is since alsa is so linked into the kernel its breaking it whenever I try to install it.(I tried non-patched latest alsa install as well, same problem)

You may be having trouble with alsa/pulseaudio bridge. Or maybe your hardware is kaput. What versions of Linux and alsa are you using? What is the type of sound card? On Linux audio "aplay" is your friend.

 

[ninjikiran]

on the version of Lubuntu(64-bit mini iso) that words its 1.0.22, nor does it happen in windows so my sound card is just fine.  I jsut have to deal with Alsa's horrible implementation of the X-Fi drivers for my prelude.
 
It happened in Ubuntu 10.10 as well the same bug with Alsa and I am willing to bet the version in proper 10.10 is 1.0.23.  Using the standard digital output rather than the IEC works fine in the sense that audio outputs both L/R in stereo fashion rather than single speaker full mono.  But it is far from bit perfect.  Lubuntu doesn't come with pulse audio pre-installed, where I know on Ubuntu it was installed but still same problem.
 
Regardless Ubuntu 10.10 is really really slow for me, even their nightly builds command line installer is massively slow.  Probably a piece of hardware causing the massive slowdown but theres no indication of what it is. 
 
Lubuntu 64-bit mini-iso is probably based off of 10.04 and is rather fast for me.
 
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/view.php?id=5147 (thats the bug)
Quote:

You may be having trouble with alsa/pulseaudio bridge. Or maybe your hardware is kaput. What versions of Linux and alsa are you using? What is the type of sound card? On Linux audio "aplay" is your friend.

 

[joe_cool]

Yes, I thought 10.10 was a little shaky compared to 10.04.
My experience with alsa is limited to envy24 so I can't help with your x-fi issues.
I am familiar with Lubuntu and feel it's a very lean and fast distro.
Just my opinion but I see no reason to use an X-fi sound card unless you are playing games in Windows, it's just too proprietary for other purposes.
If you want to play music in Linux I recommend a card that uses the ICE1712 or ICE1724 drivers. They are well documented and well supported.