Adjust for Audacious drop-outs?

[Aere Greenway]

On 05/20/2015 03:29 PM, John Hupp wrote:
> On 5/20/2015 4:34 PM, Aere Greenway wrote:
>> On 05/20/2015 01:58 PM, John Hupp wrote:
>>> On a 14.04.2 i386 desktop with a P4 @ 3.0GHz + Hyperthreading and 
>>> 2GB, I find that Audacious skips/drops out a lot at the beginning of 
>>> a CD track (or MP3), then after the first 30 seconds or so the 
>>> problem decreases and is only occasional (perhaps 1-2x minute).
>>>
>>> Starting from the default settings for everything, I increased the 
>>> buffering from 500 ms to 1000, 1500, 2000 then 3000). There was some 
>>> improvement but the problem did not disappear.
>>>
>>> By contrast, playback by VLC Player (granted, a heavier program) was 
>>> as smooth as butter from the first note on both CD's and MP3's.
>>>
>>> Can I solve the Audacious problem with further settings changes?
>>>
>> John:
>>
>> This problem is easy to solve, but it is not obvious to do what you 
>> need to do.
>>
>> What you need to do, is within Adacious, get to its menu.
>>
>> Since I have the compact graphics 'skin' mode, I right-click on its 
>> title-bar to get its menu.
>>
>> In that menu, select "Plugin Services", and within that selected 
>> sub-menu, select "Play CD".
>>
>> If you play CDs that way, you get no drop-outs, at least, I get no 
>> drop-outs using JACK.  I used to get the drop-outs you describe 
>> before I learned this trick.
>>
>
> Thanks Aere.  I knew about Services: Play CD (there was an older bug 
> in which pcmanfm failed to launch CD playback automatically, but 
> simply opened Audacious; you had to click Services: Play CD from there).
>
> But I have not tried JACK.  I'm using the default PulseAudio output.  
> When I select JACK output, I get no output at all.  I suppose I need 
> to install a package.  Do you know which one?
>
> In the meantime, your prompt gave me the idea to try ALSA output, 
> which is already installed.  In a one-track test, I got no dropouts, 
> but the volume control had very little gradation -- went from too 
> quiet to too loud in one step.
>
John:

The package I use for JACK (giving you GUI control) is:

qjacktctl

You may have to use its "Setup" button (it assumes the first audio 
device otherwise).

I just now did a test, where I set Audacious to use PulseAudio output, 
and play the CD using the plugin service, and I got no drop-outs.  Here 
is info about my particular machine:

-Computer-
Processor        : 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2320 CPU @ 3.00GHz
Memory        : 8194MB (568MB used)
Operating System        : Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
User Name        : aere (Aere Greenway)
Date/Time        : Wed 20 May 2015 03:40:28 PM MDT
-Display-
Resolution        : 1920x1080 pixels
OpenGL Renderer        : Unknown
X11 Vendor        : The X.Org Foundation
-Multimedia-
Audio Adapter        : HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
Audio Adapter        : USB-Audio - LPK25
Audio Adapter        : USB-Audio - M-Track
-Input Devices-USB-Audio - M-Track
  Power Button
  Power Button
  PIXART USB OPTICAL MOUSE
  Microsoft Microsoft® SiderWinderTM X4 Keyboard
  Microsoft Microsoft® SiderWinderTM X4 Keyboard
  Dell Dell Multimedia Pro Keyboard
  Dell Dell Multimedia Pro Keyboard
  HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm        : 3=
  HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone
  HDA Intel PCH Line Out
  HDA Intel PCH Line
  HDA Intel PCH Front Mic
  HDA Intel PCH Rear Mic
-Printers (CUPS)-
HP-OfficeJet-7140        : <i>Default</i>
-SCSI Disks-
ATA ST31000524AS
PLDS DVD+-RW DH-16ABS
HP Officejet 7310

I'm using the USB-Audio - M-Track for my audio output, because its sound 
quality is noticeably better than the internal sound card, and it 
doesn't get the hiss typical of sound cards inside the machine box.

-- 
Sincerely,
Aere