tdebase/doc/kcontrol/arts/index.docbook

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<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride;</author>
<author>&Jost.Schenck;</author>

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</authorgroup>
	
<date>2005-02-20</date>
<releaseinfo>3.4</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>sound server</keyword>
<keyword>sound</keyword>
<keyword>aRts</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>

<sect1 id="sndserver">
<title>Sound System</title>

<para>This control module is used to configure the settings for the
&arts; sound server (the &kde; sound server).</para>

<sect2 id="sndserver-general">
<title>&arts;</title>

<para>The top option, labeled <guilabel>Enable the sound system</guilabel>,
enables (or disables) the &arts; sound server entirely.</para>

<tip>
<para>You can find out more about &arts; in general by typing
<userinput>help:/artsbuilder</userinput> into the &konqueror; location
bar, or by finding the &arts-builder; documentation in &khelpcenter;.
</para>
</tip>

<para>The rest of the panel consists of options for the &arts;
sound server.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Enable networked sound</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>If this option is enabled, then sound requests from the network
will be honored by the sound server.  If this option is disabled, the sound
server will only honor requests from the local computer.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Run with the highest possible priority (realtime priority)</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>Enabling this option will give the sound server priority over
other applications, which will help alleviate any problems delivering
uninterrupted sound.</para>
<note><para>This option may require permissions you do not have as a regular
user.</para>
<para>This option also relies on certain real time support from your
system which may not be available.</para>
<para>If you do not have the necessary permissions, or your system does
not have the real time support necessary, enabling this option will not
cause problems.</para></note></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Sound buffer:</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>This slider determines how quickly the sound server can use your
computer's resources.  The faster the response time, the higher the
<acronym>CPU</acronym> load will be.</para>
<tip><para>I would recommend that you start with the sound server set at
250 ms, and use &kde; for a while.  If you notice that the sound does
not work correctly, increase the responsiveness one step at a time until
the problems disappear.</para></tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Auto-suspend if idle after:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Normally &arts; locks the sound card device, so that other
applications cannot use it.  If you enable this option, then if &arts;
has been idle for the amount of time you set, it will suspend itself,
allowing any application access to the sound hardware.  If &arts;
receives another request, it will unsuspend, and continue as normal.
Enabling this option may cause a small delay when you start an &arts;
application.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

</variablelist>

<para>At the bottom of this page are two buttons to allow you to test your
settings, labelled <guibutton>Test Sound</guibutton> and <guilabel>Test
MIDI</guilabel> respectively.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="sndserver-soundio">
<title>Hardware</title>

<para>The first option you can configure in the
<guilabel>Hardware</guilabel> panel is <guilabel>Select the audio
device:</guilabel>.  It tells &arts; which sound system to use for input and
output of sound. Current choices are <acronym>ALSA</acronym> (Advanced
&Linux; Sound Architecture), <acronym>OSS</acronym> (Open Sound System),
<acronym>ESD</acronym> (Enlightenment Sound Daemon), no audio at all and
autodetect. In most cases <quote>Autodetect</quote> will be perfect for
you.</para>

<para>Other options are:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Full duplex</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>This option allows the sound server to play and record sound at
the same time.  This option should be enabled if you use applications (such as
Internet telephones) which require simultaneous record and
playback.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Use custom sampling rate:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Normally, the sound server defaults to using a sampling rate of
44100 Hz (<acronym>CD</acronym> quality), which is supported on almost all
hardware. If you are using certain Yamaha soundcards, you might need to
configure this to 48000 Hz here; if you are using old SoundBlaster cards, like
SoundBlaster Pro, you might need to change this to 22050 Hz. All other values
are possible too and may make sense in certain contexts (&ie; professional
studio equipment).</para> 
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Quality:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>These settings allow you to configure the quality of the sounds that
will be played.</para>
<tip>
<para>Note that a higher sound quality causes a higher <acronym>CPU</acronym>
usage.</para>
<para>If you find sound is slow, or using too much
<acronym>CPU</acronym>, try reducing this setting.</para>
</tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Override device location:</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Normally, the sound server defaults to using the device called
<filename class="devicefile">/dev/dsp</filename> for sound output. This
should work in most cases. An exception is, for instance, if you are using
devfs, then you should use <filename
class="devicefile">/dev/sound/dsp</filename> instead. Other alternatives
are things like <filename class="devicefile">/dev/dsp0</filename> or
<filename class="devicefile">/dev/dsp1</filename> if you have a
soundcard that supports multiple outputs or you have multiple
soundcards.</para>
<tip>
<para>If you often use non-&arts; aware applications, and you have a
soundcard that supports it, try setting &arts; to use a different
device than <filename class="devicefile">/dev/dsp</filename>.  This
way, other applications will be able to use the default device, while
&arts; is still running, without giving any error messages.</para>
</tip>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Other custom options:</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>There are some options offered by
&arts; which may not be available in this control module, so you can add
command line options here which will be passed directly to
<application>artsd</application>. The options will be appended, so they
will override the choices made in the
<acronym>GUI</acronym>. To see the possible choices, open a &konsole;
window, and type <userinput><command>artsd</command>
<option>-h</option></userinput>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>


</variablelist>

</sect2>

&midi-kcontrol;

</sect1>

</article>