ALSAPLAYER(1) General Commands Manual ALSAPLAYER(1)

alsaplayer - plays various sound files

alsaplayer [options] [ filename ...]

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.

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

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).

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

Use the given config file for this session.
Print this help message.
Use the specified interface instead of the default one.
Specify the script to pass to the interface plugin.
Start with this volume [default=1.0].
Set the path alsaplayer looks for add-ons.
Quiet operation, no output.
Name this session "name"
Print version of this program.
Be verbose about the output.
Do not save playlist content at exit.

Select session # [default=0]
Enqueue file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
Clears and queues file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
Get some information about the session.
Set software volume [0.0-1.0].
Start playing.
Stop playing.
Pause/unpause playing.
Jump to the previous track.
Jump to the next track.
Jump to the specified second in the current track.
Jump <second> seconds from current position.
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 to the specified playlist track.
Switch file looping on or off [default off].
Switch playlist looping on or off [default off].
Shuffle the playlist
Clear the whole playlist
Quit the session.

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".
Set fragment size in bytes [default=4096].
Set the output frequency [default=44100].
Fragment count [default=8].
Enable realtime scheduling. To use this as a normal user, alsaplayer must be SUID root.
Use the specified output driver.

Crossfade playlist entries.

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.

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:

The gtk+ interface provide some basic keyboard controls:

Stop
Play
Pause
Next Song
Previous Song
Seek Forward
Seek Backward
Forward Play
Reverse Play
Speed Up one musical semitone. (handy for changing the key the song is played back in)
Speed Down one musical semitone.
Speed Up one comma. (handy to tune the song instead of the guitar when playing at the same time as listening)
Speed Down one comma.
Volume Up
Volume Down
Loop

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:

Specify the default interface.
Specify the default sound server.
Specify if it is possible to run multiple AlsaPlayer instances.
Number of periods in the sound buffer
Frames per period in the sound buffer
Start playing at launch time

Output device 1 when using JACK sound server
Output device 2 when using JACK sound server

Server used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.
Port used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.
Device used by the cdda input module to retrieve the CD.
Must AlsaPlayer retrieve or not the cddb information.
Size of the input buffer when <filename> is an URL.
Parse or not the Id3 tags.

Default background color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the background color from your gtk+ theme.
Default path used by the Add file function
Default path used by the Add file function in the Playlist window
Default path used by the Load playlist function
Default path used by the Save playlist function
Default font color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the font color from your gtk+ theme.
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.
Default height of the interface.
Start in loop mode.
Jump playing to a new song when added.
Show song title in title bar.
Launch or not the playlist window at start up.
Default height of the playlist window. This value combined with the defaukt value of gtk2_interface.height correspond to no visible playlist.
Launch or not the scopes selector window at start up.
Will functions such as pause use a smooth speed transition.
Width of the interface.

Colour used by the XOSD interface.
Colour used by the XOSD interface outline. Colors can be specified using hexadecimal notation prefixed by #, or by their name as in the file rgb.txt from your X11 distribution.
Shadow offset
Wide of the outline
Display horizontal offset from the left of the screen
Set the display time.
Display vertical offset from the top of the screen

Launch or not the blurscope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the fftscope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the levelmeter scope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the logbar scope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the monoscope scope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the spectrumgl scope plugin at start up.
Height of the spectrumgl scope plugin
Width of the spectrumgl scope plugin
Launch or not the spacescope plugin at start up.
Launch or not the synaescope plugin at start up.

mikmod(1), mpg123(1).

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.

29 March 2008