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Jim Rosetti — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 23:39:48 -0000

Welcome to Aumus!

About

Aumus is a server that accepts commands over TCP from clients. It's very similar in capability to mpg123 or mpd.

Why copy mpd?

The first reason is I decided to learn Java and I needed an application to develop. In fact my first Java program was a JavaFX client to control mpd! But, I realized I needed a bigger application to develop if I was really going to learn Java.

The second reason was, well, to be honest, there were a few things I didn't really "love" about mpd. But, before I go on, please don't get me wrong--it's an excellent application. I've been running it for years.

A while back I ran into an issue with mpd and my collection of Christmas music. I noticed it wasn't playing some of the songs. Either the file names or mp3 tags (can't remember which) had Unicode characters and it was messing things up and the database couldn't find quite a few music files . I had to go and manually change each one that didn't play by making sure the names only contained ASCII characters. Add to this the fact I was getting ready to finally add my Classical music collection (just imagine all those Unicode characters). It didn't matter what was at fault (mpd or the file itself)--I didn't want to go through that again.

The second thing is, well...I'm lazy. I don't like having to maintain lists, config files, etc. With mpd, there's a database that has to be kept in sync with the music files. And then you have the playlists that need to be updated when you buy new music. It's annoying. I wanted something that had zero maintenance when I added new music files. Frankly, it's bad enough I have to rip the darn things. :)

The third, and least important, was the setup--in particular having to deal with things like ALSA vs. Pulse and the configuration files. Some of this is the not mpd's fault. It's trying to deal with the fact we have with an open source project and two overly complicated and competing sound systems.

Features of Aumus

I touched on some of them. Here's a list:
* Simple to setup (on my Windows PC, there's no setup whatsoever for the server)

Playlists can have folder names in them. That way you can add music to a folder and not have to update the playlist.
Aumus can play entire folders of music with a single command selecting the folder to play
You can add music randomly throughout the playing set of songs. This is handy if you have a party and people bring their own music.
While you are listening to a collection of music, if you're in the mood to listen to a particular song or album, you can interrupt that an listen to that. When it's done, Aumus will go back to playing your collection.

More Information

You can find plenty of documentation about the Aumus server and the various client applications in the zip file (look in the docs folder).

Home modified by Jim Rosetti

Jim Rosetti — Sun, 04 May 2014 21:55:38 -0000

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