12. Listening to MP3's.

So, hopefully, you should now have some MP3 files ready to listen to, and have the choice of paying from file or stream.

12.1 Playing from File

Playing from file is reasonably straight-forward with all players. The only big difference is some are command-line based and some are X based.

Playing an MP3 file from file requires you to pass the mp3 file as a parameter, like so:

[dj@megajukebox]$ mpg123 /mp3_files/SampleFile.mp3

or

[dj@megajukebox]$ xaudio /mp3_files/SampleFile.mp3

If you want to play a series of files, pass them in as a list:

[dj@megajukebox]$ alsaplayer /mp3_files/SampleFile1.mp3 /mp3_files/SampleFile2.mp3

To play all the tracks in a directory, just wildcard the file selected, like so:

[dj@megajukebox]$ xmms /mp3_files/*.mp3

12.2 Playing from MP3 Streams

Playing from a MP3 stream is quite easy, just replace the file with the streams url and port number:

mpg123 http://localhost:8000

or

freeamp http://megajukebox:2711

12.3 Mixing

eMixer

eMixer gives you the ability to mix MP3's in a simllar manner to a DJ's mixing desk.

Newer versions support 2 sound cards so you can output your mix on one card and monitor or cue the next track on another.

As usual once untaring, read the readme on how to build the package.

You will need to create a playlist of MP3 files, do this with the find command mentioned in the Streaming section.

You will need mpg123 installed before you can run eMixer.

Here are the contol keys (taken from the readme)

KEYBOARD CONTROLS
"up, down"              scroll thru playlist
"page up, page down"    scroll thru playlist screen full at a time 
"enter"                 start/stop track
"tab"                   change channel
"}","]"                 toggle between volume and speed controls/windows 
"space"                 restart active track
"left, right"           fader controls
"insert"                decrease volume/speed in channel one  
"home"                  increase volume/speed in channel one  
"delete"                decrease volume/speed in channel two  
"end"                   increase volume/speed in channel two  
"< , / , >"             left, centre & right positions of fader
" + , = "       (NEW)   switch between faders 
" q "                   start/stop channel channel one
" w "                   start/stop channel channel two
" p "                   toggle between playmodes - single, loop, continous, random
" a "                   stop all channels
" f "                   file menu
" u "                   util menu
" h "                   help menu
" ~, ` "                cancel menu drop down
" s "                   turn SIM Play on
                        (SIM Play starts the same track in both channels
                        simultaneously )