mpg123 and ogg123: Two workhorses

I shouldn’t be too critical of programs that control audio playback from single commands at the prompt.

After all, most console “music players” are really just frontends for … commands that control audio playback at the prompt. 🙄

To wit,

 

mpg123 and ogg123 are probably two of the biggest workhorses in my stable.

Very much the same and yet very much different, both will leisurely skip their way through their associated music files, and send their results to your ears.

But the reason we use console “music players” is the same reason most people don’t just feed files straight into either one, to play music: It’s just not practical.

To fiddle with all the flags and settings, that is. Who wants to adjust all that, then leave a tty trapped with that application running, to control seeking or stopping or pausing?

Not that it can’t be done. Just that it’s not practical.

And maybe that’s the reason why I can’t jump on board with music players like mpc, or CD players like dcd. I don’t see much of a difference.

I’ll take the time to learn a proper music player, all its commands and buttons and flags and so forth.

It’s just that I’d rather have some color to look at, or a few boxes drawn on the screen, to see what is going on while I listen. 😉

P.S.: Yes, I know about mpc123. And mpg321. And flac123, and gst123, and sox, and … and. … And no, I won’t write about each one. In most cases, there’s nothing different to show. …