A computer I built, dedicated to play music in church, is muting pieces of the
music. It used to run smoothly.
Can someone suggest a more stable music-playing distro of Linux, and/or a
better play-list manager?
Requirements;
Maintain my mp3 library and manage play-lists.
Build a play-list for an event. Play each song on cue, and stop when done.
Play a video program to a separate port (video projector), but not
simultaneously with playing music.
I had used Clementine for managing and playing the music.
Now music is not always played smoothly: some segments are muted, and an
occasional “rogue” note is played out of place.
I have tried different tests, switched some hardware, but I think my problem is
software.
The problem: Clementine has served us well for about a year.
Now, when I play a song, it mutes the first five seconds of the song!
A few songs work well, consistently. For a few other songs I get the first beat
of the song, then it plays the next five seconds silently, then turns the sound
back on. Every now and then, just a beat or two is replaced by a rogue note
from the same song; those are not reproducible.
Clementine has a feature where we can mark the last song in a group, but now
that is broken too: it stops at the end of the marked song, but spits out one
beat of the next song!
Status: I am desparate.
I could try to update from Mint 18 to 19.
I thought Linux wouldn’t jerk me around like Windows does. Maybe the wrong
distro?
Does PulseAudio have something to do with this? Should I use JACK?
I could try AV Linux — it’s 32bit not 64, but is supposed to be extremely
stable with rich audio repositories.
I could try KX Studio — supposedly very stable, with frequent tested updates of
audio tools.
I could switch to (gasp!) windows since I’m the only Linux geek in the
organization. Help me to be strong!
The problem is not just with Clementine.
I tested with some other software:
* Rhythmbox plays well, with the occasional injection of a rogue note.
* Media Player seems to run well, and SM Player & MPV likewise. But these
aren’t good for managing play lists.
* VLC sputters along continually in a sort of motorboat pattern. You can hear
the song faintly, with bits of the song alternating with muted moments several
times a second.
* I tried Audacity for an extra “player” test: I used it as the “open with”
choice for a song. As it launched, it made a nasty scratching noise that I have
not learned before. But then when I hit the play button it rendered the song
nicely, like Media Player etc.
In my research I’ve found discussions of earlier troubles in Mint, with
scratching noises and stuff. Mine seems different.
Does this sound like
Computer Configuration:
Intel Celeron CPU G3930 800.048 MHZ
MOBO Gigabyte H110M-M2-CF
Audio HDA-INTEL PCH, USB Audio CODEC
CODEC REALTEC ALC887-VD
HDA Intel PCH Line Out ALSA Driver Ver K4.10.0-38-generic
(Audio is fed from USB port to a Behringer U-Control adapter, then to the
Mackie mixer board.)
MINT 18.3 (MATE 1.18.2 Metacity Marco)
x86_64 Linux - OS Release 4.10.0-36 generic
Memory: 8 GB.
Thanks for any suggestion you might have for me.
Victor Odhner
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