DeadBeef plugin install?

[Rob Sayer]

I've installed deadbeef because it has direct to soundcard capability (Ie. hopefully avoid resampling).

However, it doesn't have file tree based playlist support without a plugin. This is essential to me.

Tried make/install the fp plugin. Copied all to /usr/lib/deadbeef/. No joy ... it does not appear on the plugin list.

I generally stick to canonical ppa software, so I'm a bit weak with this stuff. And, as usual, all the docs I've found on installing deadbeef plugins are pretty much written assuming you already know how to to it.

Can anyone point me towards a more understandable guide?

I am getting tired of dealing with the lack of control of linux audio resampling and am this close to using the windows version of vlc under wine or vbox.

[tgalati4]

Perhaps describe your resampling problem in more detail so that we understand what you are trying to achieve. For a file tree and minimal processing, install moc and play with mocp.

[Rob Sayer]

Well, from what I can see, I can get pulseaudio to default to 44.1k but not ALSA, and pulse will just output to alsa, which defaults to 48Khz..

The vast majority of my audio files are 44.1KHz. I do not want these resampled.

Video file audio streams are almost always 48KHz. If those were resampled to 44.1 and the audio files left alone I'd actually be happy. I don't care that much about the audio quality of video files, but for music, yes.

Frankly, alsa configuration stinks.

I don't have any idea what moc and mocp are, but I'll look them up.

Thanks for the response.

[Yellow Pasque]

What kind of sound card do you have? If you output directly to the sound device (e.g. hw:0,1), then you should get what you want (you may need to add your user to audio group in /etc/group). Of course, you can only get one sound stream at a time that way unless your card has a hardware mixer. A good test:

speaker-test -c 2 -r 44100 hw:0,0

^Modify hw:0,0 appropriately..

[tgalati4]

Most sound cards will auto adjust otherwise you would hear pitch differences between 44.1 and 48kHz. If the music sounds OK, then I wouldn't worry about it. Music will only get resampled if you have a music server and you set up a transcription service that translates on-the-fly. Otherwise music files get sent directly to the hardware as PCM (straight digital stream) after being decoded (mp3, ogg, etc).

Install audacity and use the tone generator and record 5 seconds of a 1000 kHz test tone at different rates 44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz. Then play each one back. They should all sound the same. If they don't then you have a rate problem, otherwise you don't and I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm not convinced (yet) this is a real problem.

[Rob Sayer]

Lots of good responses here. Thanks. I use audacity but haven't tried that trick.

Actually, last night I was playing with deadbeef's output directly to sound card options. There's one option that does so with no software processing.

Sorry if I'm not explaining this well, but I'm sitting in a cafe right now on a different machine that I haven't installed deadbeef on.

Plus deadbeef has an option to output to alsa w/o sample rate conversion, and to reset alsa at program exit.

I'm pretty convinced so far it sound better that way. Haven't a/b'ed it with really good recordings yet but I'm optimistic. I'm dead set against resampling audio. It's why serious audio geeks running windows use ASIO/wasapi drivers.

Now I'll try some of the above suggestions, and hopefully get that dang deadbeef file tree plugin to work.

[Rob Sayer]

Haven't tried any of the above suggestions yet, but I'm now trying to install the file tree plugin. With no success. Tried the tar/makefile approach. No good. I may have been doing something wrong.

Tried d/ling the version with the .so file zipped, copied it to /usr/lib/deadbeef/. No good either.

When I go into edit/preferences/plugins, there is no file tree plugin in the list.

This is extremely frustrating. There is apparently zero developer support ... no forum, contact, docs ... though there IS a link for donations. If it didn't sound as good as it does I wouldn't waste a minute on it.

Are there any users here experienced with this?

[Yellow Pasque]

When deadbeef changes its plugin API, the plugin needs updated, but deadbeef devs don't update third-party plugins. You either have to prod the original author to do it or do it yourself (or find someone sympathetic and knowledgeable enough to do it for you). It's something that happens with all media players...

I personally use Audacious and send audio directly to my soundcard device (I run Debian sid with no pulesaudio and I'm lucky enough to have a sound card with a hardware mixer). I don't hear a difference with deadbeef, but I consider myself a pseudo-audophile at best.

[shantiq]

Rob Deadbeef is a great player but the sound is nowhere near crystalline treat yourself and install xmms if you like great sound or Audacious with crystallizer plugin but xmms even better thn that

[Rob Sayer]

Thanks for the response.

I realize that 3rd party plugins aren't supported by the program devs. That's why I wouldn't use foorbar2000 in windows ... most features you'd want in foobar are 3rd party.

The way I organize my music library, I absolutely have to have a file tree browser. So audacious is out most of the time. But it is extremely fast loading, so I use it as default for individual files.