Implementation Guides

Linux for Desktop: Audio on the Desktop

PCQ Bureau

28 Feb 2004 09:31 IST

New Update

Multimedia on Linux! Sounds a bit far fetched? Absolutely not! There are so many multimedia applications for Linux that we specifically created an installer labeled Multimedia Workstation. This includes various applications for audio, video, graphics and 3D. We will discuss the audio part of the same here.

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While KDE comes with its set of multimedia tools, we also installed a couple of things that would make encoding and playing audio on your Linux system easier. On the KDE front you have NoAtun, KsCD and Kaboodle

as the players, while KaudioCreator comes as a CD ripping application. You can use mencoder to encode the ripped audio to other formats.

Encoding

If you like ripping music and keeping it in your repository, KaudioCreator is the application that you are looking for. With an idiot-proof and intuitive interface, it makes life easier for people who are scared of the command line.

For using this application you would need to boot in KDE 3.2. Fire the application from the multimedia menu of KDE. Just before you start ripping your songs, you would need to choose the end format for the songs and the encoder to be used. You can do that by using Configure KaudioCreator from the settings menu. This dialog gives you various options for ripping,

CDDB and encoders. Right now we are more interested in the encoder option. Choose one of the encoders depending upon your choice of resultant audio. For example, choose the OggEnc for encoding into ogg vorbis format.

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Now, insert your audio CD in the drive. As soon as you do that, the songs would show up in the CD tracks tab. Select the songs that you want to rip and click on the ‘Rip Selected Tracks’ button at the bottom of the window. Once clicked, you will be able to see the ripping status of these files in the Jobs tab.

You can also use mencoder to convert the file formats of various audio files to your desired format.

where is xine?

Those who have been following the progress of PCQLinux 2004 would remember that we had promised to include both Xine and

mplayer.

However, due to last minute complications with the installer, we had to remove

Xine. We will include Xine on a later date.

Incidentally, you can play MP3 with

mplayer/gmplayer. Else, you can also install Winamp over Winex

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Playing audio

When it comes to playing audio, there are three basic types of players that are needed. CD player, audio player and midi players. The PCQLinux 2004 distribution has an abundance of all.

In the Gnome environment, you can use CDPlayer to play audio CDs and in KDE you can use the KCD Player. For playing you can use NoAtun and kaboodle on KDE and mplayer and gmplayer in Gnome. And if you are a real music freak, you can use the mplayer real audio codec that is installed by default.

Enough on audio, in the following pages we would see how this distro can help you edit and play video, make intuitive 3D models and animation and stream audio over your network.

Geetaj Channana

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