Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP1 - KDE 14-05-2007, Manual, Page: 278 / 354

The main difference between the various mixers is the outer appearance of the user in-
terface. However, there are a number of mixers that are designed for specific hardware.
One example is envy24control, a mixer for the Envy 24 sound chip. Another one is
hdspmixer, which is for RME Hammerfall cards. From the mixers available, select the
one that best suits your needs.
TIP: Starting the Mixer
Generally, it is advisable to open a mixer application before opening other
sound applications. Use the mixer to test and adjust the control settings for
the input and output of the sound card.
20.2 Playing Music Files
In Linux, find a variety of programs for playing music files, such as OGG or WAV
files. KDE offers amaroK and JuK, for example.
20.2.1 amaroK Media Player
The amaroK media player handles various audio formats and plays the streaming audio
broadcasts of radio stations on the Internet. The file types supported depend on the engine
used, currently xine or Helix.
On first start, amaroK launches a First-Run Wizard, which helps set up amaroK. In the
first step, configure your preferred look and feel for amaroK. Choose to display player
and playlist in separate windows (see
Figure 20.1, “The amaroK Media Player”
(page 267)) or combine their functionality in one single window (default). In the second
step, determine where amaroK should look for your music collection. amaroK scans
these folders for playable media. By default, amaroK is configured to scan the selected
folders recursively (to include all their subdirectories in the scan), monitor changes to
the content of the selected directories, and import any playlists located there. All the
settings made with the wizard can be modified later by starting the wizard again with
Tools > First-Run Wizard.
266 KDE User Guide