10.2. Playing Digital Audio Files
Digital audio has become very popular in recent years. Users enjoy
the technology because the sound quality is excellent compared to analog
tape or records, and the files are compact (audio files can easily be
transferred across the Internet).
To take advantage of this technology, Red Hat Linux includes the powerful
X Multimedia System
(XMMS), a cross-platform multimedia player
which allows you to play several digital audio file formats.
XMMS can be used for more than just
playing digital audio files. By default XMMS
can play Ogg Vorbis, RIFF wave, and most module formats. Additionally,
XMMS can be extended via plugins to play a
number of other digital multimedia formats.
To launch XMMS, go to => =>
.
To launch XMMS from a shell prompt, type
the command xmms.
10.2.1. Using XMMS
To play an audio file with XMMS, click
the Open button 
and choose a file from the Load
File(s) window.
In Figure 10-4, you see that there are
several files to choose from. The files that end in
.ogg are Ogg Vorbis files,
a popular new audio file format; the .pls file is
an audio playlist file. You can use
XMMS to add audio files into a list and
then save it as a playlist. This can be convenient if you have several
audio files and you want to categorize them (for example, by genre or
artist). Highlight the file you wish to play (if you have multiple
files, click and hold the mouse button and drag it over all of the
files you want to open) and click OK. Notice
that XMMS begins to play your audio files
immediately. To adjust the volume click the volume slider (the long
slider above the Open button) to the left to
lower the volume or to the right to increase it like a CD
player. There are also buttons to stop, pause, and skip (backward and
forward) your audio files.
To learn more about using XMMS and its
many options, refer to the man page by typing man
xmms at a shell prompt.
