alsaplayer (1)

Leading comments

                                     Hey, EMACS: 
First parameter, NAME, should be all caps
Second parameter, SECTION, should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection
other parameters are allowed: see man(7), man(1)

(The comments found at the beginning of the groff file "man1/alsaplayer.1".)

NAME

alsaplayer - plays various sound files

SYNOPSIS

alsaplayer [options] [ filename ...]

DESCRIPTION

This manual page documents briefly the alsaplayer command. This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution because the original program does not have a manual page.

alsaplayer is a generic music player that can play back a large amount of file formats.

If files are specified on the command line, these files are played. Otherwise alsaplayer plays its playlist from its last run, if any.

FILENAME

Play the specified file(s). Can be a file or an URL.

CD.cdda

Special filename. Play a CD. /dev/cdrom will be used by default. Otherwise, AlsaPlayer will use the device specified in your config file (usually ~/.alsaplayer/config).

OPTIONS

These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). A summary of options is included below.

-c, --config <file>

Use the given config file for this session.

-h, --help

Print this help message.

-i, --interface <interface>

Use the specified interface instead of the default one.

-I, --script <file>

Specify the script to pass to the interface plugin.

-l, --startvolume <vol>

Start with this volume [default=1.0].

-p, --path <path>

Set the path alsaplayer looks for add-ons.

-q, --quiet

Quiet operation, no output.

-s, --session-name name

Name this session "name"

-v, --version

Print version of this program.

--verbose

Be verbose about the output.

--nosave

Do not save playlist content at exit.

Player control:

-n, --session #

Select session # [default=0]

-e, --enqueue file(s)

Enqueue file(s) in a running alsaplayer.

-E, --replace file(s)

Clears and queues file(s) in a running alsaplayer.

--status

Get some information about the session.

--volume #

Set software volume [0.0-1.0].

--start

Start playing.

--stop

Stop playing.

--pause

Pause/unpause playing.

--prev

Jump to the previous track.

--next

Jump to the next track.

--seek <second>

Jump to the specified second in the current track.

--relative <second>

Jump <second> seconds from current position.

--speed <value>

Set the playback speed with -10 <= <value> <= 10. 1.0 = normal speed, -1.0 = normal speed backwards. Be aware that alsaplayer respect your LOCALE. That implies that the decimal point will vary accordingly. I.e., with french LOCALE, a valid speed value is 1,5 and not 1.5.

--jump #

Jump to the specified playlist track.

--clear

Clear the whole playlist

--quit

Quit the session.

Sound driver options:

-d, --device string

Select the specific device for the output plugin. For the ALSA plugin, the default is "default". For the JACK plugin, the default is "alsa_pcm:playback_1,alsa_pcm:playback_2".

-f, --fragsize #

Set fragment size in bytes [default=4096].

-F, --frequency #

Set the output frequency [default=44100].

-g, --fragcount #

Fragment count [default=8].

-r, --realtime

Enable realtime scheduling. To use this as a normal user, alsaplayer must be SUID root.

-o, --output [alsa|esound|jack|nas|null|oss|sgi|sparc]

Use the specified output driver.

Experimental options:

-S,--loopsong

Loop the file.

-P,--looplist

Loop the playlist.

-x,--crossfade

Crossfade playlist entries.

JACK OUTPUT PLUGIN

For use with JACK, -F <sample_rate> is mandatory for best results. The value of sample rate must be the same as the one used by jackd.

If you forget the -F parameter, the sound can be very bad. The only remedy at that time is to restart both jackd and AlsaPlayer.

DAEMON INTERFACE

With the daemon interface, it is mandatory to add the -s option. You must process in two steps to get sound with it. First launch the daemon:

alsaplayer -i daemon -s <name>

and then add some song:

alsaplayer -e <some.song>

GTK+ INTERFACE

The gtk+ interface provide some basic keyboard controls:

v

Stop

x

Play

c

Pause

b

Next Song

z

Previous Song

g

Seek Forward

a

Seek Backward

f

Forward Play

s

Reverse Play

t

Speed Up one musical semitone. (handy for changing the key the song is played back in)

q

Speed Down one musical semitone.

h

Speed Up one comma. (handy to tune the song instead of the guitar when playing at the same time as listening)

i

Speed Down one comma.

r

Volume Up

w

Volume Down

l

Loop

PREFERENCES

AlsaPlayer have a preferences file located in ~/.alsaplayer/config. To modify the preferences setting by hand, you must exit from the running program and edit this file. The default value is put in the description below when appropriate:

General settings

main.default_interface=gtk2

Specify the default interface.

main.default_output=alsa

Specify the default sound server.

main.multiopen=true

Specify if it is possible to run multiple AlsaPlayer instances.

main.period_count=8

Number of periods in the sound buffer

main.period_size=4096

Frames per period in the sound buffer

main.play_on_start=false

Start playing at launch time

Output settings

jack.output1=alsa_pcm:playback_1

Output device 1 when using JACK sound server

jack.output2=alsa_pcm:playback_2

Output device 2 when using JACK sound server

Input settings

cdda.cddb_servername=freedb.freedb.org

Server used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.

cdda.cddb_serverport=80

Port used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.

cdda.device=/dev/cdrom

Device used by the cdda input module to retrieve the CD.

cdda.do_cddb_lookup=true

Must AlsaPlayer retrieve or not the cddb information.

http.buffer_size=1048576

Size of the input buffer when <filename> is an URL.

mad.parse_id3=true

Parse or not the Id3 tags.

GTK+ interface settings

gtk2_interface.background_colour=#000000

Default background color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the background color from your gtk+ theme.

gtk2_interface.default_play_path=~/

Default path used by the Add file function

gtk2_interface.default_playlist_add_path=/

Default path used by the Add file function in the Playlist window

gtk2_interface.default_playlist_load_path=/

Default path used by the Load playlist function

gtk2_interface.default_playlist_save_path=/

Default path used by the Save playlist function

gtk2_interface.font_colour=#ffffff

Default font color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the font color from your gtk+ theme.

gtk2_interface_font=

Default font of the interface. The playlist windows will use the font from your gtk+ theme. The main window will also use that font if none is specified.

gtk2_interface.height=118

Default height of the interface.

gtk2_interface.loop=0

Start in loop mode.

gtk2_interface.play_on_add=false

Jump playing to a new song when added.

gtk2_interface.play_on_title=false

Show song title in title bar.

gtk2_interface.playlist_active=false

Launch or not the playlist window at start up.

gtk2_interface.playlist_height=0

Default height of the playlist window. This value combined with the defaukt value of gtk2_interface.height correspond to no visible playlist.

gtk2_interface.sopeswindow_active=false

Launch or not the scopes selector window at start up.

gtk2_interface.smooth_transition=false

Will functions such as pause use a smooth speed transition.

gtk2_interface.width=529

Width of the interface.

XOSD interface settings

xosd_interface.color=#55ff55

Colour used by the XOSD interface.

xosd_interface.font=-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

xosd_interface.h_offset=20

Display horizontal offset from the left of the screen

xosd_interface.timeout=5

Set the display time.

xosd_interface.v_offset=20

Display vertical offset from the top of the screen

Scopes settings

blurscope.active=false

Launch or not the blurscope plugin at start up.

fftscope.active=false

Launch or not the fftscope plugin at start up.

levelmeter.active=false

Launch or not the levelmeter scope plugin at start up.

logbarfft.active=false

Launch or not the logbar scope plugin at start up.

monoscope.active=false

Launch or not the monoscope scope plugin at start up.

opengl_spectrum.active=false

Launch or not the spectrumgl scope plugin at start up.

opengl_spectrum.height=480

Height of the spectrumgl scope plugin

opengl_spectrum.width=640

Width of the spectrumgl scope plugin

spacescope.active=false

Launch or not the spacescope plugin at start up.

synaescope.active=false

Launch or not the synaescope plugin at start up.

SEE ALSO

mikmod(1), mpg123(1).

AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Ivo Timmermans <ivo@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). FILENAME, GTK, DAEMON INTERFACE and PREFERENCES sections added by Dominique Michel <dominique_libre@sourceforge.net> from the Alsaplayer team.