[Alsaplayer-devel] Hello All!

[Dominique Michel]

Hi Peter,

> Nice to see some interest to this fancy audioplayer!
> I've got some things that I want to be in AlsaPlayer:
> 
> Monkey's Audio decoding plugin:
> http://lemenkov.newmail.ru/other/alsaplayer_plugins/ape/
> 
> WavPack decoding plugin:
> http://lemenkov.newmail.ru/other/alsaplayer_plugins/wv/
> 
> True Audio decoding plugin:
> http://lemenkov.newmail.ru/other/alsaplayer_plugins/tta/
> 
Thanks a lot.

The cvs is working again. And I have just applied the Debian security fixes, so
it must be safer as the last released version. I will do a new release with
this because those fixes was already waiting to long.

If you agree, I will look at your plugins and add them in the cvs and do another
release with it.

> I also want to revive python interface - that would be more important
> than old gtk1 and gtk2 interfaces.
> 
You are very welcome to do it. I don't care about which modern interface(s) will
assure the future of the alsaplayer as long at they don't break the core
functionalities and API as well as the other interfaces as the text and the
xosd interfaces.

I am not a programmer, so I cannot help you much with this issue. All will
depend on you. You can become a new progrmaer for the alsaplayer. All is
needed is an account on sourceforge and you can ask me here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/memberlist.php?group_id=249 and I will add you.

Another way will be at you send some patches of your work (or a link). so
I can test it and add it in the cvs.
   
> Maybe we should discuss the future of that player?

Of course. What I think is most needed is more input format, and yours plugins
are very welcome. 

And of course at least one modern interface.

The alsaplayer is very simple but it do the job very well, and I think at a new
interface must take more advantage of the core functionalities of the API.

As example, the speed control on the gtk interface is very funny, but almost
unusable for someone that want a fine and exact control on the speed. With
a more advanced speed control, a cursor as it is now, and some buttons with
fixed values, as example +/- 1 comma, +/- 1/2 ton, +/- 1 ton, 1 octave, the
speed control on the GUI will outperform all the other player I know.

Such a speed control will have 2 advantages:
1) For a musician, to increment the speed by steps of +/- 1 comma will re-tune
the playing, and it is much easier and faster as to re-tune a guitar.

2) The other values are musical.

You can try it from a console when the alsaplayer is running:

alsaplayer --speed 1.01364326477 # 1 comma
alsaplayer --speed 1.05946309436 # 1/2 ton
alsaplayer --speed 1.12246204831 # 1 ton
alsaplayer --speed 2 # 1 octave

I have done a fvwm-crystal recipe with such a speed control for the alsaplayer.
It use a script that call bc to calculate the resulting speed (actual speed
multiplied by one of the above values). A screenshoot and the recipe can be
found here: http://home.citycable.ch/monde-meilleur/linux/fvwm.html
If someone is interested but don't want to download the whole recipe, I can
post just the script here. It will be unusable as it, but it contain the exact
values for more intervals.

For other features, I am open to every thing. 

And for the short or the long run, any kind of positive collaboration or
patches are very welcomed.

Ciao,
Dominique