Open Sound System

Hi!
I wanted to try out a media player called Audacious. It is a fork of XMMS and has a focus on high audio quality output. I was expecting OSS support out of the box because it's a fork of XMMS and I read it in several sources (Wikipedia, their website ...).

Unfortunately - at least on ArchLinux, this doesn't appear to be the case. I can select the output plugin in the preferences, but the only "sane" option I can find for OSS is SDL output. This however can, by no means, be optimal. Screenshot

My question is now: Does it work for you guys on your distros, or has OSS support been possibly removed from Audacious? Or did the the Arch devs simply compile Audacious without OSS support?
I did see that @Michał has written an output plugin for OSS, but a the link is dead, and b I would have expected native OSS support (like in deadbeef).
Or

Thanks in advance!

best regards
nuc

nuc wrote:Hi!
I wanted to try out a media player called Audacious. It is a fork of XMMS and has a focus on high audio quality output. I was expecting OSS support out of the box because it's a fork of XMMS and I read it in several sources (Wikipedia, their website ...).

Unfortunately - at least on ArchLinux, this doesn't appear to be the case. I can select the output plugin in the preferences, but the only "sane" option I can find for OSS is SDL output. This however can, by no means, be optimal. Screenshot

My question is now: Does it work for you guys on your distros, or has OSS support been possibly removed from Audacious? Or did the the Arch devs simply compile Audacious without OSS support?
I did see that @Michał has written an output plugin for OSS, but a the link is dead, and b I would have expected native OSS support (like in deadbeef).

It is not difficult to recompile Audacious with ABS _https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Abs
There is also a special forum of Arch Linux community where you can ask questions about such things.

My main question was if Audacious in general has native OSS support. The Arch community isn't really helpful when it comes to OSS issues. "Get an ALSA!"
But yeah I just needed to recompile Audacious, add 'oss' as makedep and remove pulse and alsa. Looks like some over-motivated user couldn't stand to have Audicious compiled with OSS support: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/37100

Btw it appears that Michał's oss plugin is being used in the upstream Audacious version, because he is mentioned in the credits. But I suppose you know this already
EDIT: Or is this a different version?
EDIT2: I noticed that when I uncheck "Enable format conversions by OSS" there is a bug that plays tracks to fast. But this might also be a result of my codec being unsupported...

nuc wrote:EDIT2: I noticed that when I uncheck "Enable format conversions by OSS" there is a bug that plays tracks to fast. But this might also be a result of my codec being unsupported...

"Enable format conversions by OSS" means VMIX and/or COOKEDMODE

Try to disable VMIX and COOKEDMODE in osscore.conf



Then reboot (or soundoff/soundon), and test your soundcard.

Disabling VMIX and COOKEDMODE fixes it. Why doesn't it work out of the box? If setting those options is necessary, what's the point of the setting in Audacious?
Also I have found out that the bug only occurs when the vmix setting is on "High" or "OFF", but not when it's on "Fast". Any explanation for this?
BTW I don't think setting those options in the config file is really needed. Simply unchecking "vmix0-enable" in ossxmix does the job, too. Doesn't it?

What is actually the difference between disabling format conversions by OSS and the "exclusive mode"? Sounds like the same to me.

nuc wrote:Disabling VMIX and COOKEDMODE fixes it. Why doesn't it work out of the box? If setting those options is necessary, what's the point of the setting in Audacious?
Also I have found out that the bug only occurs when the vmix setting is on "High" or "OFF", but not when it's on "Fast". Any explanation for this?
BTW I don't think setting those options in the config file is really needed. Simply unchecking "vmix0-enable" in ossxmix does the job, too. Doesn't it?

What is actually the difference between disabling format conversions by OSS and the "exclusive mode"? Sounds like the same to me.

nuc wrote:Simply unchecking "vmix0-enable" in ossxmix does the job, too. Doesn't it?

1. VMIX is an "open source crap". Therefore, simply unchecking vmix-things in OSS Mixer GUI does not always work. You have to reload OSS to ensure that it works.

2. VMIX is a kind of PulseAudio. If it is disabled, some problems may disappear: "surround sound" begins to work as it should, etc.

3. COOKEDMODE is a sort of "secret PulseAudio".

The "exclusive mode" of Petrov's plugin is similar to the option "-R" of "ossplay"

Re: New OSS4 output plugin for Audacious
Postby Michal » Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:05 am

Petrov's plugin has "exclusive mode" which opens device exclusively (omits virtual mixer) and disables cooked mode.
I decided to give more freedom to user, that's why these are separate options. You may want to disable format converter builtin OSS, but still be using virtual mixing. Be aware that if you disable "cooked mode" you need to enable plugins for resampling/channel mixing, otherwise some files won't be played.
_http://www.opensound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3834#p19282

Thanks. However I don't have my crystal ball here. You will need to help me out:

igorzwx wrote:2. VMIX is a kind of PulseAudio. If it is disabled, some problems may disappear: "surround sound" begins to work as it should, etc.

You mention PulseAudio and compare it to vmix. This comparison is useless to me because I have never used PulseAudio and therefore am not able to judge it's deficits nor it's abilities or advantages. I don't use surround sound but this is certainly interesting.
Also, I guess vmix is there for a reason? Is it correct when I when compare disabling vmix to ASIO on Windows (direct sound)? Is it correct that vmix can't be disabled in ALSA? (Please keep in mind that I have never really used ALSA either; maybe a week)

igorzwx wrote:3. COOKEDMODE is a sort of "secret PulseAudio".

See above.

Re: New OSS4 output plugin for Audacious
Postby Michal » Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:05 am

Petrov's plugin has "exclusive mode" which opens device exclusively (omits virtual mixer) and disables cooked mode.
I decided to give more freedom to user, that's why these are separate options. You may want to disable format converter builtin OSS, but still be using virtual mixing. Be aware that if you disable "cooked mode" you need to enable plugins for resampling/channel mixing, otherwise some files won't be played.
_http://www.opensound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3834#p19282

Yes I read this. Do I understand correctly that this option is useful if you want to use an alternative (to) "vmix"? Is it correct that this option is useless in conjunction with "exclusive mode"?

igorzwx wrote:

nuc wrote:Simply unchecking "vmix0-enable" in ossxmix does the job, too. Doesn't it?

1. VMIX is an "open source crap". Therefore, simply unchecking vmix-things in OSS Mixer GUI does not always work. You have to reload OSS to ensure that it works.

I cannot fully agree with this. Unchecking "vmix0-enable" in ossxmix, fully omits volume control in ossmix , also those "colored" indicators (whatever their name is) are inactive. Secondly, the mentioned "bug" is gone, too. Therefore I conclude, that vmix is being fully omitted.
Moreover it is not needed to restart oss (again - at least in my case), but the current playback has to be stopped and played again (also cesium mentioned this).
Prove me wrong. Why should it not disable vmix? Is "it" evil?

Could you attempt to answer those questions, please:

nuc wrote:If setting those options is necessary, what's the point of the setting in Audacious?

nuc wrote:Also I have found out that the bug only occurs when the vmix setting is on "High" or "OFF", but not when it's on "Fast". Any explanation for this?

They are kind of important to me.


On a side note: I'm really impressed by the OSS plugin in Audacious! It's much more responsive than it's counterpart in deadbeef (default and also Petrov's plugin). Latency is not noticable at all. In deadbeef it is. Michał has done a great job here!


Thanks again.

regards
Philip

PS: Please excuse me for so many questions. I am here to learn

VMIX is a kind of "software mixer", it reduces sound quality.

By default most OSS drivers will attach virtual mixer to the primary audio device of the sound card (or motherboard audio chip) when the device is attached. However ... professional audio devices will be attached without vmix because mixing may cause some unwanted distortion to the signal
_http://manuals.opensound.com/usersguide/vmixctl.html

You may want to read documentation:
_http://manuals.opensound.com/usersguide/vmix.html
_http://manuals.opensound.com/usersguide/vmixctl.html

To understand the nature of your "strange problems with latency", you may need to try something that works as it should. Perhaps, a kind of "computer with Linux pre-installed"...

I just recently upgraded from Audacious 3.4.1 to 3.5 and noticed that Petrov's effect plugin
or Scientific Re sampler does not load up the settings GUI. I assume this is because it is not
compatible to the newer version of Audacious.

Does anyone have an updated version of the Petrov's effect plugin for the newer version of Audacious
3.5?

tarik2cyprian wrote:Does anyone have an updated version of the Petrov's effect plugin for the newer version of Audacious
3.5?

I am sorry I have tried to contact the author of the software via E-mail but so far he didn't respond :/
I am awaiting his answer and will post here as soon as he does.

Thanks for the info nuc

Regards

Tarik