Table of Contents
This section describes how to import, organize and use music, videos and photos with Xubuntu.
You can use Exaile ( → → ) and Parole Media Player ( → → ) to listen to music on your computer.
Parole Media Player may open audio files when they are double-clicked, but Exaile is better at handling large music collections.
Initially, Exaile will not automatically search for music files on your computer and you will have to manually direct Exaile to your music files by doing the following:
Click
→ → .Press the
button or click → .In the Collection Manager window, click
and choose the directory that contains your music files.Press
again.Your selection will appear in the Collection Manager window. If you wish to add other locations of music files, press
, otherwise, press .Your music collection should be visible under the Collection tab.
Exaile is also able to play audio CDs and is compatible with MP3 players. See the Exaile website for more information.
Music player applications fetch cover art and other information about songs from the Internet, Exaile attempts to retrieve cover art from Last.fm. If song names or cover art are missing, make sure that you are connected to the Internet.
Sometimes, your music player may not be able to identify a particular song or album correctly. If this is the case, you can add the correct information manually by right-clicking the music file displayed in Exaile, selecting Properties and entering the appropriate information in the corresponding fields, or use a tag editor such as Cowbell or EasyTAG since not all music players have a tag editor.
If only the album cover art is missing for an album:
Find a picture of the album cover on the Internet. Amazon and other music retailers often display pictures of the album cover; right-click the picture and click to save it to your computer.
Rename the picture to cover.jpg
and copy it into the folder that contains the songs from the album.
Exaile and most other music players should display the correct cover art when a song from the album is next played.
Exaile and some other music players allow you to drag a picture onto their cover art display area to change or add cover art for an album.
You can copy music from a CD to your computer so that you do not have to have the CD in the drive to play songs from it. You can then copy the songs to a digital audio player, such as an MP3 player.
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Exaile stores ripped files in the Home folder ( → ). |
Insert an Audio CD.
You will be prompted to choose which application to launch, select Open Exaile.
Press
.In the left hand pane, under Devices, click the CD name you want to rip.
Press
.You can change the default file format used by Exaile when copying CDs. Click → then select from section. Change the Import Format to the format of your choice. In the future, all CDs copied to your computer will be copied in this format.
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If an MP3 option is not shown in the Preferred Format list, install the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse package and restart Exaile. The option CD Quality, MP3 (.mp3 type) should appear in the Preferred Format list. |
You can create your own audio CDs by copying music from your computer onto a blank disc. CDs that you create in this way should play in any device that can play standard (manufactured) audio CDs. All that is required is a CD burner (also called a CD writer). Most computers have one of these.
To begin creating an audio CD,
Start Xfburn ( → → ).
Select
or from the main screen.Click
to search and select the songs that you want to add to the Audio composition.You will also need to select the maximum capacity/duration of the CD that you inserted (e.g. 700MB / 80min CD), which can be done by pressing the button to the left of the
button.
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Xfburn will not allow you to press the button if you have selected more files than can fit on the selected CD capacity/duration. You will have to remove files or insert a CD with a higher capacity/duration and select the corresponding capacity/duration in Xfburn. |
Finally, press
to copy the songs to a CD.See the Xfburn website for more information.
Xubuntu will work with most portable audio players, including iPods®. Normally, all you have to do is plug the player into your computer and then use Exaile to copy songs to and from the player. The audio player should appear in the Devices section of the list that is underneath the button. See the Exaile website for more information.
If you have a portable music player which can also display photos and videos, you may prefer to use Banshee, which is a music player with good support for such devices. iPod owners may also like to try specialized applications such as GPixPod and gtkpod for handling multimedia.
A number of MP3 players, such as those produced by Samsung use Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). These devices, when used with the correct driver, often appear in Windows as a media device but can be accessed as a USB device.
Xubuntu supports this protocol and your device will now be displayed in the left hand pane under Devices when connected.
When you rip or copy music from a CD
onto a computer, it must be stored in a specific audio
format. The default format used by Exaile
is the Free Lossless Audio Codec or FLAC
(.flac
file type).
Not all portable audio players are able to play files in the FLAC format; for example, iPods can not play this format. In order for your player to recognize your songs, you must convert them to a format that it supports. Nearly every player on the market supports the MP3 format, so this is usually a safe bet.
You can convert existing audio files to other formats using Sound Converter. The output format can be selected in the Sound Converter preferences.
You can change the default file format used by Exaile when ripping CDs. Click → → → and select the encoding format from the list labelled Import Format. In the future, all CDs copied to your computer will be encoded in this format.
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If an MP3 option is not shown in the Import Format list, install the gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse package and restart Exaile. The option MP3 (VBR) and MP3 (CBR) should appear in the Import Format list. |
Podcasts are pre-recorded shows that you can download and listen to on your computer or portable audio player. Thousands of podcasts are available and most can be downloaded for free.
You can use Exaile to download and play podcasts by following these steps:
Click
→ →In the Plugin window located in the upper right is a list of the available plugins for Exaile. Select the Enabled box next to the selection to enable podcast support.
Click Close.
Click the Podcasts tab then click on the
button.Enter the URL of the podcast feeder (i.e. http://fullcirclemagazine.org/category/podcast/feed/atom) and press
.Double-click on any of the podcast selections to start listening to it.
See the Exaile website for further instructions. Alternatively, you may prefer to use a dedicated podcast manager such as gPodder or PenguinTV.
Internet Radio Stations are live audio streams, similar to standard radio but transmitted over the Internet. You can use Exaile to listen to Internet radio too.
Select the Radio tab and choose one of the many streams under the Shoutcast Radio section or search the Internet for an audio stream.
Click the
button and enter the URL.Your inputted audio stream will appear in the Saved Stations section.
See the Exaile website for more details.
RealAudio® streams, used by some Internet radio stations, are not supported by Exaile. To listen to this type of stream, refer to the section called “Installing and Configuring RealPlayer”.
Many websites that allow you to buy music online and download it onto your computer are designed to work with Microsoft Windows only. As a result, some services will not work with Xubuntu.
Xubuntu is able to play most audio formats, including MP3, WMA and AAC. However, it does not support the various DRM (Digital Rights Management) schemes that stores sometimes use to restrict access to their music. If you download audio files which are DRM-restricted, they are unlikely to work in Xubuntu. In particular, nearly all music from the iTunes® music store is DRM-restricted and so cannot be played.
Two services that offer unrestricted (DRM-free) music are Jamendo and Magnatune. You can buy songs from both of these stores online.
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Downloading music from the Internet without the permission of its copyright holder is considered illegal in many countries. You should check that you are within your rights to download a music file before saving it onto your computer. |
You can record sounds onto your computer if you have a microphone or other recording equipment connected to it.
To start a basic sound recording application, first, install gnome-media, then press → → . See the Sound Recorder manual for instructions on how to use it.
For more advanced recording needs, you may like to try a multi-track audio editor such as Jokosher or Audacity.
Many other professional-level recording tools are available for Xubuntu. See the Ubuntu Studio website for more information.
Check that the microphone is connected to the correct socket
Most computers have three or more similar-looking audio sockets, so you should check that the microphone is plugged into the correct one. It is usually colored pink and has a microphone icon next to it.
In some rare cases, sockets do not work as labeled. For example, your microphone socket may act as the “Line Out” socket and vice versa. If this is the case, use trial and error to find the correct microphone socket.
Check that the microphone is not muted in the settings
The microphone input may have been muted or its volume reduced in the system settings.
Click the speaker icon on the panel at the top of your screen to open Mixer. If you do not have a speaker icon on your panel, press → → .
Check that your specific sound card is selected in the Sound Card field.
Press the
button and make sure that all of the items related to the microphone settings are checked. Click to return to the volume control.Under the Playback tab, make sure that all of the microphone settings are unmuted and that their volume is set high enough. If a microphone is muted, a speaker icon with a red cross over it will be displayed underneath its volume slider; click that icon to unmute the microphone.
You may also find it necessary to change other settings to get your microphone to work properly. For example, the Mic Boost and External Amplifier settings under the Switches tab and the Mic Select setting under the Options tab can all affect the volume of your microphone.
Check the volume control on the microphone
Some microphones have an integrated volume control. Check that the volume control on your microphone is turned up.
Check the volume control in the recording application
Some applications allow you to change the volume of the microphone from within the application. Check the volume settings in the application that you are using.