alsa/mpd/gmpc support for 24 bit audio

[gavs]

Thanks for the suggestion tinypoodle. I created a song.wav file in S24_3LE format. Now, when I issue the command
   aplay -Dhw:0,0 song.wav
the sound plays. This is further confirmation that the dac only accepts S24_3LE format and that alsa can handle this format.

As to source for the statement that mpd version 0.15.9 handles 24_3 format, scroll down about one quarter of the way to a message submitted by mbognar on this link
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/Bit-perfect-audio-Linux-882-and-1764-now-possible
Further down on this link there is also discussion about using * in the format specification.

It appears that a recent release of Voyage MPD uses mpd version 0.16~alpha2
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=87560.0
but they are looking to push the sampling rate to 192Khz which requires the latest USB Audio Class 2 drivers (my dac does not support rates higher than 96Khz which can be accommodated by USB Audio Class 1).

I have not tried Voyage. Tiny Core, with selection of only essential modules and loading of the entire system in ram, seems well suited for building dedicated music appliances.

[gavs]

I guess the posting related to MPD version 0.15.9 was misleading. The 2 features in the format specification that I was trying are new to version 0.16 (see http://www.musicpd.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=b50a48fae4acbb60ecfcf808744b2e0c&topic=2377.0 ).

Thanks to all for the suggestions to sort this out.

[hiro]

will someone pacckage this up? it is released, right?

[gavs]

MPD 0.15.15 is the latest released stable version. MPD 0.16~alpha4 is the latest released development version.

[hiro]

Oh, sorry. In the rush I missed the alpha. I guess I can wait then.

[gavs]

MPD version 0.16 was released as the latest stable version on Dec 11.

[hiro]

Ok, so who's gonna take the burden?

[TaoTePuh]

I'm going to compile version 0.16,  but there are many new libraries and dependencies ... please hold the line ...

[gavs]

Thank you for your continued interest and support. I appreciate your efforts. I am new to this and have never packaged an application. However, I will aim to learn how to do this and perhaps be able to help in the future.

[TaoTePuh]

I have just submitted mpd 0.16 and some stuff for usage.

[gavs]

I updated to TC3.4 and tried mpd 0.16. I was able to use hw instead of plughw as device. Also, I was able to specify the format using
      format   "*:24_3:2"
Reportedly, mpd 0.16 and these settings permit passing of the sound stream by mpd directly to the hardware with minimal processing (also using mixer_type   "hardware" to avoid software manipulation of volume). My initial impression is that the sound is cleaner and crisper. If there is interest, I can post my opinion after further critical listening.

Many thanks for your efforts.

As an aside, I am using gmpc as the client. The gmpc icons all appear as Xs. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a dependency I'm missing? The only apps I have downloaded and installed are ntfs-3g (for external usb ntfs drive with music), mpd (this gets the alsa dependencies) and gmpc.

[hiro]

That's cool. Although I doubt that there *should* be any difference. Did you have your volume at 100% before that?

Plughw doesn't resample, and I can't think of any other sources for noise/distortions in that comparison.

[curaga]

@gavs

If the icons it uses are generic (not distributed with the app), you'll need an icon theme that has them. The Gnome one is fairly complete.

[hiro]

Well, then it *should* work as gmpc has these icons as a dependency:

$ grep icon *dep
gmpc.tcz.dep:hicolor-icon-theme.tcz

[curaga]

The hicolor theme is a placeholder - its size is 8kb.