<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">A computer I built, dedicated to play music in church, is muting pieces of the music. It used to run smoothly.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Can someone suggest a <b class="">more stable music-playing distro of Linux,</b> and/or a better <b class="">play-list manager</b>?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">Requirements;</b><br class="">Maintain my mp3 library and manage play-lists.</div><div class="">Build a play-list for an event. Play each song on cue, and stop when done.</div><div class="">Play a video program to a separate port (video projector), but not simultaneously with playing music.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I had used Clementine for managing and playing the music.</div><div class="">Now music is not always played smoothly: some segments are muted, and an occasional “rogue” note is played out of place.</div><div class="">I have tried different tests, switched some hardware, but I think my problem is software.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><b class="">The problem:</b> Clementine has served us well for about a year.</div><div class="">Now,<b class=""> when I play a song, it mutes the first five seconds of the song!</b></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">A few songs work well, consistently. For a few other songs I get the first beat of the song, then it plays the next five seconds silently, then turns the sound back on. Every now and then, just a beat or two is replaced by a rogue note from the same song; those are not reproducible.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Clementine has a feature where we can mark the last song in a group, but now that is broken too: it stops at the end of the marked song, but spits out one beat of the next song!</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">Status:</b> I am desparate.</div><div class="">I could try to update from Mint 18 to 19.</div><div class=""><div class="">I thought Linux wouldn’t jerk me around like Windows does. Maybe the wrong distro?</div></div><div class="">Does PulseAudio have something to do with this? Should I use JACK?</div><div class="">I could try AV Linux — it’s 32bit not 64, but is supposed to be extremely stable with rich audio repositories.</div><div class="">I could try KX Studio — supposedly very stable, with frequent tested updates of audio tools.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I could switch to (gasp!) windows since I’m the only Linux geek in the organization. Help me to be strong!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">The problem is not just with Clementine.</b></div><div class=""> I tested with some other software:</div><div class="">* <b class="">Rhythmbox</b> plays well, with the occasional <b class="">injection of a rogue note.</b></div><div class="">* <b class="">Media Player</b> seems to run well, and <b class="">SM Player</b> & <b class="">MPV</b> likewise. But these <b class="">aren’t good for managing play lists.</b></div><div class="">* <b class="">VLC</b> sputters along continually in a sort of motorboat pattern. You can hear the song faintly, with bits of the song alternating with muted moments several times a second.</div><div class="">* I tried <b class="">Audacity</b> for an extra “player” test: I used it as the “open with” choice for a song. As it launched, it made <b class="">a nasty scratching noise</b> that I have not learned before. But then when I hit the play button it rendered the song nicely, like Media Player etc.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">In my research I’ve found discussions of earlier troubles in Mint, with scratching noises and stuff. Mine seems different.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Does this sound like </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">Computer Configuration:</b></div><div class="">Intel Celeron CPU G3930 800.048 MHZ</div><div class="">MOBO Gigabyte H110M-M2-CF</div><div class="">Audio HDA-INTEL PCH, USB Audio CODEC</div><div class="">CODEC REALTEC ALC887-VD</div><div class="">HDA Intel PCH Line Out ALSA Driver Ver K4.10.0-38-generic</div><div class="">(Audio is fed from USB port to a Behringer U-Control adapter, then to the Mackie mixer board.)</div><div class="">MINT 18.3 (MATE 1.18.2 Metacity Marco)</div><div class="">x86_64 Linux - OS Release 4.10.0-36 generic</div><div class="">Memory: 8 GB.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks for any suggestion you might have for me.</div><div class="">Victor Odhner</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>