Arch Linux

zoqaeski

Member

From: /earth/australia/.

Registered: 2009-09-30

Posts: 132

Alternatives to Pulseaudio with similar capabilities

Hey all

When I used Ubuntu I got used to Pulseaudio as it has a nifty little application that lets you adjust the volume of each program playing sound, and generally gives really good control over your sound output/input. But lately I've found that a number of applications are seriously bugging up, so I'm looking to alternatives to Pulse that have a similar degree of control; from my experience ALSA doesn't have these features available, but I might be wrong.

Most notable issue is that VLC fails to have sound most of the time. Second is that the pavucontrol app kills sound on MPD, which is a bit dumb for a supposed volume control. Thirdly is that I use Skype with multilib, and as far as I know, Skype depends on Pulse for some of its sound output.

What other ways are there of controlling sound on Arch?

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,356

Re: Alternatives to Pulseaudio with similar capabilities

You're most likely doing it wrong. Fix those apps which are exhibiting problems. The 'alternatives' are OSSv4 and Jack, go search up about them.

I use mpd and vlc regularly with pulseaudio. Make sure you have their pulse equivalents (vlc should 'just work', just make sure to actually select the pulse output in the options). mpd needs configuring in mpd.conf (as well as installing the -pulse patch from the AUR).

---

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jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
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ehlo

Member

From: England

Registered: 2010-04-04

Posts: 66

Re: Alternatives to Pulseaudio with similar capabilities

Most notable issue is that VLC fails to have sound most of the time

Is output set to Pulseaudio rather than ALSA in VLC settings?

Thirdly is that I use Skype with multilib, and as far as I know, Skype depends on Pulse for some of its sound output.

The Skype dependency on Pulseaudio is optional

I have quite a few skype problems on one machine that are mainly shown when switching tracks on rhythmbox. It seems to be because of a hardware problem though!

zoqaeski

Member

From: /earth/australia/.

Registered: 2009-09-30

Posts: 132

Re: Alternatives to Pulseaudio with similar capabilities

I've set the outputs on MPD, VLC and Skype to pulseaudio, did that right from the start. It seems that the problem occurs when I run pavucontrol: as soon as I start that, the sound dies until about 10s after I've quit it. It's a bit of a nuisance as pavucontrol is the application used to individually adjust the volume of each output.