Xmms

Xmms is a popular audio player, installed on many Linux distributions and available on the main menu. For instance, on the Fedora main menu, you can start xmms by selecting Sound & Video->Audio Player. If you don't find it on your distribution, you can install it from www.xmms.org, as discussed in Chapter 10.

NOTE

On Fedora, xmms is installed but doesn't include MP3 support. You can download and install xmms from the project Web site with MP3 support.

When you start xmms, it opens the window shown on the right, with all the expected buttons, such as play/pause, stop, next track, etc. When a sound file is playing, its name, length, and other information displays. The left slider under the window is the volume control. The right slider controls the balance between speakers. Xmms has other functions that are not displayed until needed. If you click EQ, an equalizer, as shown on the left, opens under the xmms main window, allowing you to adjust the sound as needed.

The PL button opens the play list editor window shown on the right. You can add and remove songs located anywhere on your hard disk. You can create and save different play lists and use whichever play list you want. In the main xmms window, you can check SHUFF to play tunes randomly from the play list or select REP to have the play list repeat endlessly.

Much of the xmms functionality is provided by plug-ins. A few are installed by default. Many more are available. You can add plug-ins for your needs. For instance, each type of sound file format has its own plug-in. The plug-in for MP3 is not included by Fedora. One input plug-in plays music from a CD. There are output plug-ins that change the sound, such as an echo plug-in.

If you right-click on the xmms window, you can open a window that allows you to configure many settings, such as which information displays when xmms is playing and the format of the information displayed.