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Chapter 18. Linux Multimedia (If Music Be the Food of Love . . .)

Playing music on your Linux system is only the beginning of the multimedia experience. After all, multimedia isn't about just music. It represents a cornucopia of sensory experience delivered digitally, comprising text, audio, video, and endless combinations of the three.

Most modern Linux installations offer an impressive selection of programs to satisfy your cravings for the multimedia experience, from audio to video and everything in between. These programs include sound control systems, CD players, recorders , MIDI programs of varying flavors, music synthesizers, video players, music notation programs, and . . . the list goes on.

In this chapter, I cover some of the more popular multimedia tools for your Linux system. So, as old Will Shakespeare might have said, "If music be the food of love, then multimedia must represent the smorgasbord."

Adjusting the Levels

Think back for a moment to those days of old when Mom or Dad would yell into your bedroom to "TURN THAT NOISE DOWN!" Doesn't that bring back memories? In particular, it brings back my memory that sometimes you just have to crank the tunes.

Most music or multimedia players you are likely to use under Linux have some kind of a volume control. Your speaker system likely has one as well. There is, however, a third set of controls you should know about—KMix, the master mixer controls on your system (Figure 18-1).

Figure 18-1. KMix controls.

The various sliders correspond to various levels, from that of your CD player itself to the PCM output, microphone inputs, and so on. Pause your mouse pointer over the sliders, and a tooltip will tell you what that slider does. The left-to-right slider at the bottom is for your left-to-right speaker balance.

Note

The number of sliders and controls will vary from sound card to sound card. Your KMix likely won't look exactly like mine (unless you have the same type of sound card).

If you close KMix now (click the x in the top right-hand corner), you'll still have quick access to probably the most important item, the master volume control. Look down at the system tray at the bottom right corner of your screen, and you should see an icon that looks like a speaker. Click on that speaker icon, and a simple volume slider will appear (Figure 18-2). This provides a fast means of making volume-level adjustments.

Figure 18-2. A volume control in your system tray.

Quick Tip

If you find that the levels are still a bit low, you may want to check out the global system settings. This is controlled by a program called aumix , which you can call from the command line or via your <Alt+F2> quick launch. This is a simple graphical user interface (GUI) from which you can drag the levels to something more to your liking. When you are done, click File on the menu bar, then Save, and then Quit.

Now that you can easily modify the level of noise coming from your speakers , it's time to get some music on.

KsCD, the KDE CD Player

You might remember that I mentioned KsCD earlier on in this book, when I was discussing command execution (Chapter 4). This is the default CD player included as part of the KDE desktop (Figure 18-3).

Figure 18-3. KsCD, the default KDE CD player.

If all you want to do is play your CDs and have a simple, easy-to-use interface, look no further. Click the application starter (the big K), and look for KsCD under the Multimedia menu (the command name is kscd ). Then push the play button, sit back, and enjoy.

Once KsCD is started, look in your system tray. You'll see a small icon that looks like a CD with a musical note across it. Left-click the icon, and the CD player disappears into the panel. Right-click it, and you'll have access to the basic CD player controls (forward, next , stop, play, etc.).

Tip

If you've minimized the players, click the KsCD icon to bring it back. Look at the bottom of the player; you'll see a button labeled Extras . I'll let you explore the features there, but first I want to direct your attention to something. PCs are sometimes built without a sound cable attached from the CD player to the motherboard. If you aren't getting any sound when you try to play a CD, this might be something to look at. Take out any CD you may have in the drive. Click the Extras button and select Configure KsCD. When the configure dialog appears, make sure you have the CD Player icon clicked in the left-hand sidebar. Now look about two- thirds of the way down, to a section titled CD-ROM device, with a checkbox beside the words Use direct digital playback . Click the checkbox, click OK, and try your CD again.