Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

Zulfe · 2015-01-27 08:43:27

I've just finished setting up ncmpcpp with MPD, and it works great for playing my music and displaying it in the program. I really like the visualizer feature that comes with ncmpcpp, so I looked at the Wiki guide on activating it. On the wiki page, it uses 'mpd.fifo' to send data about the song file (I presume) to enable the visualization. By following the wiki page, I got the visualization working fine, but my audio was no longer working. According to XFCE's Audio Mixer program, I'm using ALSA. I don't really know what this means or why I can't get the visualization working, or if there's another package I could install to bridge the non-working ALSA with the working FIFO (in terms of ncmpcpp's visualizer). How can I enable the visualizations with ALSA?

Thanks!

Last edited by Zulfe (2015-01-27 08:44:26)

th3voic3 · 2015-01-27 13:23:54

Could you post your mpd.conf? Remember to put it in code tags.

frank604 · 2015-01-27 17:52:25

I'm confused. First of all, how do you not know what you installed? Did you run an install script? Next is, did you get the visualization working? Post your ncmpcpp config.

Zulfe · 2015-01-27 18:08:43

th3voic3 wrote:

Could you post your mpd.conf? Remember to put it in code tags.

MPD

 music_directory "/home/damon/Music/"  
 playlist_directory "/home/damon/.mpd/playlists"   
 db_file      "/home/damon/.mpd/mpd.db"  
 log_file      "/home/damon/.mpd/mpd.log"  
 pid_file      "/home/damon/.mpd/mpd.pid"  
 state_file     "/home/damon/.mpd/mpdstate"  

audio_output {
     type    "alsa"
     name    "My Audio"
     path    "/tmp/mpd.alsa" #I just assumed that you could replace mpd.fifo with mpd.alsa to use ALSA with the visualizer
     format  "44100:16:2"
}

ncmpcpp

 mpd_music_dir = "/home/damon/Music/"  
 mpd_connection_timeout = "5"  
 mpd_crossfade_time = "5"  
 playlist_disable_highlight_delay = "0"  
 playlist_display_mode = "columns"  
 browser_display_mode = "columns"  
 incremental_seeking = "yes"  
 autocenter_mode = "yes"  
 header_visibility = "yes"  
 statusbar_visibility = "yes"  
 fancy_scrolling = "yes"  
 follow_now_playing_lyrics = "yes"  
 display_screens_numbers_on_start = "yes"  
 ignore_leading_the = "yes"  
 lyrics_database = "1"  
 song_columns_list_format = "(10)[blue]{l} (30)[green]{a} (30)[magenta]{b} (50)[yellow]{t}"  
 colors_enabled = "yes"  
 main_window_color = "white"  
 header_window_color = "cyan"  
 volume_color = "red"  
 progressbar_color = "cyan"  
 statusbar_color = "white"  
 color1 = "cyan"  
 color2 = "cyan"  
 active_column_color = "cyan"  
 active_window_border = "blue"


#visualizer stuff
visualizer_fifo_path = "/tmp/mpd.alsa" #matching the directory configured in ~/.mpd/mpd.conf, visualizer_alsa_path is not a field
visualizer_output_name = "My Audio"
visualizer_sync_interval = "30" 
visualizer_in_stereo = "yes"
#visualizer_type = "wave" (spectrum/wave)
visualizer_type = "spectrum"

frank604 wrote:

I'm confused. First of all, how do you not know what you installed? Did you run an install script? Next is, did you get the visualization working? Post your ncmpcpp config.

I know that I installed ncmpcpp and configured it to work with MPD. MPC is also active and managing my local database. I'm only unsure of what I've installed in terms of the ALSA audio driver. When I went through setting up my system, I downloaded all of the dependencies to get Arch up and running, and I therefore may have installed ALSA in the process when it was instead FIFO that I needed to make this work. The visualization worked fine when I set it up with mpd.fifo, but that cancelled out my audio. I could no longer hear my music. Config above.

Last edited by Zulfe (2015-01-27 18:09:28)

jasonwryan · 2015-01-27 18:11:32

Read the comments in your mpd.conf: it is pretty clear where you enable visualisation and where you enable audio ouptut...

Zulfe · 2015-01-27 18:15:11

I'm dumb. I found another thread and learned that you're supposed to have both your ALSA audio output and FIFO for the visualizer, not one or the other. I added another output for the visualizer, and I can now both listen to my music and see the visualization.

*facedesk*

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-27 08:43:27

Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

#2 2015-01-27 13:23:54

Re: Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

#3 2015-01-27 17:52:25

Re: Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

#4 2015-01-27 18:08:43

Re: Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

#5 2015-01-27 18:11:32

Re: Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

#6 2015-01-27 18:15:11

Re: Using ALSA with MPD for the NCMPCPP VIsualizer?

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