Exaile plays m4a ALAC AAC with loud hiss

**crimsontime** · April 27th, 2008

I've just installed Exaile on Hardy and really love it.. the problem is that it plays my ALAC m4a files with loud hisses that frequently interrupt the playback. I have a lot of these files from when I used to use iTunes. I can play these files just fine in Totem and Rhythmbox so I'm not sure what is causing this. Does anyone know a solution? Forgive me for not providing more technical details as I am still a n00b.

**crimsontime** · April 28th, 2008

Anyone, Anyone? Bueller?

**theacoustician** · April 28th, 2008

Can't offer any assistance, but I can say I've noticed a similar problem with Exaile and some playback issues with mp3s. Played through Exaile, there's a terrible SNR and some overloading it sounds like. Played through Mplayer, the same mp3 is fine. So its not just you.

**crimsontime** · April 30th, 2008

Just in case anyone runs into this problem... It has been solved. I posted the question to exaile dev and got this very helpful hint:

"the only difference between Exaile and Rhythmbox in terms of
playback is in Exaile's use of the GStreamer equalizer. Try running
"exaile --no-equalizer" and see if that solves the problem."

**theacoustician** · April 30th, 2008

Originally Posted by crimsontime

Just in case anyone runs into this problem... It has been solved. I posted the question to exaile dev and got this very helpful hint:

"the only difference between Exaile and Rhythmbox in terms of
playback is in Exaile's use of the GStreamer equalizer. Try running
"exaile --no-equalizer" and see if that solves the problem."

I will have to try this when I get home. What's the deal with the equalizer? The sound isn't overloaded, like one might expect if the settings were pegged too high. Its more like corruption.

**tc7** · May 11th, 2008

I had exactly the same issuel with Exaile 0.2.11 playing mp4 files. It took me some time to realise it was only with the aac format as I often play my whole collection in random mode. I haven't noticed any issues with mp3 files.

Running with --no-equalizer works perfectly. Of course it would be nice to be able to used the equalizer ...

thanks very much crimson.
Otherwise Exaile is a great player - keep up the good work.