ALSAPLAYER(1)

✨ ALSAPLAYER(1) 💖

Okay bestie, welcome to ALSAPLAYER(1), the General Commands Manual entry for alsaplayer 🎧 Let's get into it! Main character energy only 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

alsaplayer — plays all kinds of sound files 🎶

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

alsaplayer [options] [ filename ...]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so this is a quick overview of the alsaplayer command. It was written for Debian GNU/Linux because the original program doesn't come with its own manual page 🥺

alsaplayer is a total all-rounder music player. It can play back a huge pile of file formats, no cap 🔥

If you pass files on the command line, those are the ones that get played. If you don't, alsaplayer picks up the playlist from its last run (if it has one) 🌈

🎵 FILENAME 🎵

Plays the file(s) you name. Each one can be a file or a URL ✨

• CD.cdda — a special filename for playing a CD 💿 It uses /dev/cdrom by default. Otherwise, AlsaPlayer uses the device set in your config file (usually ~/.alsaplayer/config).

👑 OPTIONS 👑

These programs follow the usual GNU command line style, so long options start with two dashes (--). Here's the summary, bestie 💜

• -c, --config <file> — Uses the given config file for this session.
• -h, --help — Prints the help message.
• -i, --interface <interface> — Uses the specified interface instead of the default one.
• -I, --script <file> — Specifies the script to pass to the interface plugin.
• -l, --startvolume <vol> — Starts with this volume [default=1.0].
• -p, --path <path> — Sets the path alsaplayer looks in for add-ons.
• -q, --quiet — Quiet operation, no output 🤫
• -s, --session-name name — Names this session "name".
• -v, --version — Prints the version of this program.
• --verbose — Makes the output extra chatty.
• --nosave — Doesn't save the playlist content when you exit.

🎮 Player control: 🎮

• -n, --session # — Selects session # [default=0].
• -e, --enqueue file(s) — Enqueues file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
• -E, --replace file(s) — Clears the playlist, then queues file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
• --status — Gets some info about the session.
• --volume # — Sets the software volume [0.0-1.0].
• --start — Starts playing.
• --stop — Stops playing.
• --pause — Pauses or unpauses playing.
• --prev — Jumps to the previous track.
• --next — Jumps to the next track.
• --seek <second> — Jumps to the specified second in the current track.
• --relative <second> — Jumps <second> seconds from the current position.
• --speed <value> — Sets the playback speed with -10 <= <value> <= 10. 1.0 is normal speed, and -1.0 is normal speed backwards. Be aware that alsaplayer respects your LOCALE, so the decimal point changes accordingly. For example, with a french LOCALE, a valid speed is 1,5 and not 1.5 🙈
• --jump # — Jumps to the specified playlist track.
• --loopsong <on|off> — Switches file looping on or off [default off].
• --looplist <on|off> — Switches playlist looping on or off [default off].
• -S, --shuffle — Shuffles the playlist 🔀
• --clear — Clears the whole playlist.
• --quit — Quits the session.

🔊 Sound driver options: 🔊

• -d, --device string — Selects 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 # — Sets the fragment size in bytes [default=4096].
• -F, --frequency # — Sets the output frequency [default=44100].
• -g, --fragcount # — Sets the fragment count [default=8].
• -r, --realtime — Enables realtime scheduling. To use this as a normal user, alsaplayer must be SUID root ⚠️
• -o, --output [alsa|esound|jack|nas|null|oss|sgi|sparc] — Uses the specified output driver.

🧪 Experimental options: 🧪

• -x,--crossfade — Crossfades playlist entries.

🎛️ JACK OUTPUT PLUGIN 🎛️

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

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

🧚 DAEMON INTERFACE 🧚

With the daemon interface, you have to add the -s option. It's mandatory, no skipping! You'll need two steps to get sound. First, launch the daemon:

alsaplayer -i daemon -s <name>

Then add a song:

alsaplayer -e <some.song>

⌨️ GTK+ INTERFACE ⌨️

The gtk+ interface comes with 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 for tuning the song to you instead of the guitar when you're playing along and listening at the same time 🎸)
• i — Speed Down one comma.
• r — Volume Up
• w — Volume Down
• l — Loop

⚙️ PREFERENCES ⚙️

AlsaPlayer has a preferences file at ~/.alsaplayer/config. If you want to change settings by hand, you have to exit the running program and edit this file. The default value is listed in each description when it's relevant 🫶

🌷 General settings 🌷

• main.default_interface=gtk2 — Specifies the default interface.
• main.default_output=alsa — Specifies the default sound server.
• main.multiopen=true — Specifies whether you can 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 — Starts playing at launch time.

🔌 Output settings 🔌

• jack.output1=alsa_pcm:playback_1 — Output device 1 when using the JACK sound server.
• jack.output2=alsa_pcm:playback_2 — Output device 2 when using the JACK sound server.

💿 Input settings 💿

• cdda.cddb_servername=freedb.freedb.org — The server the cdda input module uses to retrieve cddb information.
• cdda.cddb_serverport=80 — The port the cdda input module uses to retrieve cddb information.
• cdda.device=/dev/cdrom — The device the cdda input module uses to retrieve the CD.
• cdda.do_cddb_lookup=true — Whether AlsaPlayer retrieves cddb information or not.
• http.buffer_size=1048576 — Size of the input buffer when <filename> is a URL.
• mad.parse_id3=true — Whether or not to parse the Id3 tags.

🪟 GTK+ interface settings 🪟

• gtk2_interface.background_colour=#000000 — Default background color of the interface. The playlist windows 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 use the font color from your gtk+ theme.
• gtk2_interface_font= — Default font of the interface. The playlist windows use the font from your gtk+ theme. The main window also uses that font if none is specified.
• gtk2_interface.height=118 — Default height of the interface.
• gtk2_interface.loop=0 — Starts in loop mode.
• gtk2_interface.play_on_add=false — Jumps to playing a new song when it's added.
• gtk2_interface.play_on_title=false — Shows the song title in the title bar.
• gtk2_interface.playlist_active=false — Launches the playlist window at startup or not.
• gtk2_interface.playlist_height=0 — Default height of the playlist window. This value combined with the default value of gtk2_interface.height corresponds to no visible playlist.
• gtk2_interface.sopeswindow_active=false — Launches the scopes selector window at startup or not.
• gtk2_interface.smooth_transition=false — Whether 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.outline_color=black — Colour used by the XOSD interface outline. Colors can be given in hexadecimal notation prefixed by #, or by their name as listed in the rgb.txt file from your X11 distribution.
• xosd_interface.font=-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
• xosd_interface.shadow=1 — Shadow offset.
• xosd_interface.outline_offset=1 — How wide the outline is.
• xosd_interface.h_offset=20 — Horizontal offset of the display from the left of the screen.
• xosd_interface.timeout=5 — Sets how long the display stays up.
• xosd_interface.v_offset=20 — Vertical offset of the display from the top of the screen.

📊 Scopes settings 📊

• blurscope.active=false — Launches the blurscope plugin at startup or not.
• fftscope.active=false — Launches the fftscope plugin at startup or not.
• levelmeter.active=false — Launches the levelmeter scope plugin at startup or not.
• logbarfft.active=false — Launches the logbar scope plugin at startup or not.
• monoscope.active=false — Launches the monoscope scope plugin at startup or not.
• opengl_spectrum.active=false — Launches the spectrumgl scope plugin at startup or not.
• opengl_spectrum.height=480 — Height of the spectrumgl scope plugin.
• opengl_spectrum.width=640 — Width of the spectrumgl scope plugin.
• spacescope.active=false — Launches the spacescope plugin at startup or not.
• synaescope.active=false — Launches the synaescope plugin at startup or not.

📚 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 anyone can use it). The FILENAME, GTK, DAEMON INTERFACE and PREFERENCES sections were added by Dominique Michel <dominique_libre@sourceforge.net> from the Alsaplayer team 🫶

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That's the tea, bestie! 🍓 This page was last updated on 29 March 2008, and ALSAPLAYER(1) is signing off with love 💜✨