[SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

rankbeginner · 2024-03-08 19:28:43

I have an almost photographic memory for music. I've always been able to distinguish between slightly different versions of recordings.

I have used Audacious for playing music because it plays WMA Lossless, something other players did not do in the past. Recently, however, Audacious has become unreliable. What I mean by this is that a microsecond or so of sound is occasionally skipped, and often this happens a few times within a few seconds. So I switched to Celluoid, but it has an annoying side-effect of displaying an additional tab with "Opening x.wma," with it staying up for around ten seconds. Then I tried VLC, but it has the annoying side-effect of starting the song, pausing for a few microseconds, and then continuing.

I realize that Devuan developers do not have control over the behavior of music players. But does anyone know why Audacious became weird? Is there a way to eliminate Celluoid's extra tab? Can VLC's pausing be eliminated? What other music players are recommended for WMA Lossless?

The hardware is an Intel NUC with 16 GB of memory. The desktop is MATE, Daedalus.

Last edited by rankbeginner (2024-03-08 19:28:57)

stultumanto · 2024-03-09 04:23:29

The glitching sounds like it could be buffer underruns. The fact that it's happening on two different programs points to the audio system. There are different ways to adjust your buffer settings depending on which audio system/driver you're using for output; ALSA and PulseAudio both have ways to do it, for example. Unfortunately I haven't had to fiddle with that stuff for decades, so I can't give you any specifics, but at least it's a place to start.

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2024-03-09 09:43:15

had a moment so searched(duckduckgo) "linux WMA Lossless Audacious has become unreliable"

and this was one of the more recent(date-wise) results that might give/have some clues/insight:

ttps://forums.slimdevices.com/forum/user-forums/linux-unix/109213-picoreplayer-issues-with-native-playback-of-wma-lossless-and-wma-pro-files

czeekaj · 2024-03-10 03:40:25

You seem kind of picky for music player. can cmus work for your lossless files? I have it work for flak I believe,

I don't use VLC because of the metadata thing. There is mplayer.

I don't see why you would use WMA unless you had a zune or something you wanted to get some use out of.
I'd be migrating to flak and mp3 if I were you, but it's your choice. mplayer has WMA support.

Last edited by czeekaj (2024-03-10 03:46:50)

rankbeginner · 2024-03-11 22:04:45

Thanks to everyone who responded.

@stultumanto "buffer overruns" Interesting, I will look into that. Something I did not mention, and it's probably important, is that my NUC arrived with a very loose 1/8" jack, so I use a Startech plug-in audio device (ICUSBAUDIO2D). It just occurred to me that it might be adding some unwanted effects. I will investigate.

@czeekaj I never heard of cmus. I installed it via Synaptic, but then it did not show up in the list of applications, though an mpv player did. I tried the mpv player and it plays WMA Lossless files with no delay or degradation. Maybe I found a new player.

By the way, the reason I have WMA Lossless files is that I'm a Windows refugee from way back, and I still rip music via a Windows platform. MP3 is not the same in terms of quality. I have a small number of FLAC files that I acquired via the purchase of classical music for which a CD was not avaiable.

rankbeginner · 2024-03-11 22:37:51

UPDATE: The mpv player stopped working after playing a few tracks. I'll keep looking at other players. I'm losing trust in my NUC.

deepforest · 2024-03-12 20:11:17

@rankbeginner
do you tried deadbeef player?
https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/download.html

ps i am hear music only at lossy format. But if you tell me how, i can test lossless music with Audacious.

PedroReina · 2024-03-13 08:27:30

deepforest wrote:

But if you tell me how, i can test lossless music with Audacious.

There are quite a few FLAC files readly available for you to download.

You can try this: http://pedroreina.net/desarrollos/ca/ca0010.flac

rankbeginner · 2024-03-19 17:44:27

It's the StarTech sound card. When I plug my headphones directly into the NUC, Celluoid starts immediately without the silly extra tab. Thanks, Newegg, for selling me a used NUC when I bought a new one.

GlennW · 2024-03-19 22:34:36

@rankbeginner Ahh, that looks like the new quality control systems,

if someone returns an item for any reason it's put back on the shelf to test it on the next purchaser,
it's cheaper that way, the purchaser gives up, and the seller keeps the money and the seller does not have to do a return authorisation affecting reputations and sales figures.

It seems to be a corporate tactic...

Bait and switch I think it's called. I always try to be aware of tampered packets when I'm shopping live, not as much control when shopping on line.

I had a similar event with a sonic bug repellor (AC wall socket vhf emittor) was quite inexpensive, but was for a foreign country power socket and cost just as much again (plus transport) for an AC adaptor to make it work. (Bait and switch) The company offered to exchange it at my expense... Sorry for the mistake (the company was inside australia selling foreign equipment...unlawful) I try to remember those cheats.

czeekaj · 2024-03-20 07:19:21

cmus is console based music player.
Just run cmus in a terminal. You'll have to learn how to get playlists going though.

Last edited by czeekaj (2024-03-20 07:24:38)

mweishaar · 2024-03-23 19:26:19

If you are still ripping music, presumbably from CDs, then why not FLAC? It's simple to do on Linux, WMA just seems... wrong.

rankbeginner · 2024-03-26 21:07:34

Once again, thanks to everyone who responded.

@mweishaar "WMA ... wrong" I've been ripping Lossless WMA music via Windows for many years and have built a large collection. I can hear the difference between it and MP3, so that's no solution. When I buy online music, it's FLAC.

@GlennW Yes. The 1/8" jack is so loose, I knock the headphones cable out with any motion whatsoever. I looked at the NUC and concluded that I'd have to completely take it apart to get access to the jack. I'd probably never put it back together.

@czeekaj "console based," so that's it.

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#1 2024-03-08 19:28:43

[SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#2 2024-03-09 04:23:29

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#3 2024-03-09 09:43:15

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#4 2024-03-10 03:40:25

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#5 2024-03-11 22:04:45

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#6 2024-03-11 22:37:51

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#7 2024-03-12 20:11:17

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#8 2024-03-13 08:27:30

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#9 2024-03-19 17:44:27

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#10 2024-03-19 22:34:36

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#11 2024-03-20 07:19:21

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#12 2024-03-23 19:26:19

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

#13 2024-03-26 21:07:34

Re: [SOLVED] Stupid music player tricks

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