🎶 aplay+: A Simple and High-Quality Audio Player

🎧 Enjoy BitPerfect audio playback with simplicity and precision!

🖼️ Screenshots

Built-in Ember — warm charcoal, copper accents, live equalizer, and BitPerfect device status

Custom Winamp Classic skin — Sapphire neon theme

Right-click controls — playback, DSP, devices, skins, and display options

These compact SVG assets contain optimized raster copies derived from captures rendered by the real Luna/OpenGL application through the headless screenshot runner in tools/screenshots. Its minimal GLFW compatibility layer uses surfaceless EGL, so regenerating the raw PNG captures does not require GLFW development packages.

💿 Supported File Formats

aplay+ supports a variety of popular audio formats:

• 🌟 FLAC: High-quality lossless compression
• 🌟 DSD (DSF / DFF): Direct Stream Digital (high-resolution 1-bit audio)
• 🌊 WAV: Uncompressed audio with crystal-clear quality
• 🎶 MP3: The most commonly used compressed format
• 🎵 Ogg Vorbis: Great compression with excellent sound
• 📱 AAC (mp4/m4a): Widely used in iPhones and YouTube
• 🎼 WMA: Windows Media Audio

Realtime extras during playback:

• 🔀 Crosstalk cancellation (XTC)
• 🎹 PCM → DSD64 (DoP) output
• ✨ Super-resolution upsampling
• 🎚️ ALSA mixer volume and live device switching
• 🔁 Playlist loop, format filter, and recursive / regex file picking

Two front ends share the same engine:

Binary	Interface
aplay+	Terminal player with live keyboard controls
aplay+ui	Multi-window Ember / Winamp-skin GUI (make ui)

🔧 How to build

Build Online

• Build easily with Google Colab:
• Build with Colab   

Build Locally

1. Install required libraries:

sudo dnf install alsa-lib-devel
# GUI also needs: glfw, OpenGL, unzip (for .wsz skins)
sudo dnf install alsa-lib-devel glfw-devel mesa-libGL-devel unzip
make

sudo apt install -y libasound2-dev rpm build-essential git
sudo apt install -y libglfw3-dev libgl-dev unzip
make

2. Clone the repository and build:

git clone https://github.com/yui0/aplay-.git
cd aplay-
make          # → aplay+   (CLI)
make ui       # → aplay+ui (GUI)

Build the graphical player

The graphical build uses ALSA, GLFW, and OpenGL. It also uses the unzip command at runtime when a compressed Winamp .wsz skin is selected.

make ui

Winamp Classic skins

Pass either a Winamp Classic .wsz file or an already extracted skin directory. A valid skin must contain MAIN.BMP and CBUTTONS.BMP (matching is case-insensitive). The original card-style interface has been removed. Without --skin, or when a custom skin is invalid, the player uses the built-in aplay+ Ember Winamp-style skin (warm charcoal + copper).

The Ember artwork is generated entirely by aplay+ui.c, contains no Winamp artwork, and is distributed under this project's MIT license. It is safe to redistribute with the player. (Earlier builds called this skin Graphite; the built-in theme is now Ember.)

./aplay+ui --skin ~/Skins/MySkin.wsz /Music
./aplay+ui -S ~/Skins/MySkin/ /Music
./aplay+ui -R ~/Skins/          # skin pack: random skin per track

The Winamp main window and transport sprites are rendered from the skin. aplay+-specific XTC, DSD, repeat, and format controls remain available from the right-click menu (and keyboard shortcuts). Text size can be cycled with T / Text size in the menu (Compact → Comfortable → Large → Extra large).

🖥️ Graphical player (aplay+ui)

make ui builds a multi-window Winamp-style shell on top of the same playback engine as aplay+:

Window	Role
Player	Transport, time, title, volume
Equalizer	Spectrum / EQ chrome
Playlist	Track list, device status, notes
Context menu	Right-click anywhere on a surface
About	Ember Edition credits

Right-click the player (or equalizer / playlist) for Play/Pause, seek, volume, XTC, DSD, super resolution, repeat, format filter, skins, text size, About, and Exit. Add folder... appends another directory to the playlist without restarting.

ALSA device — hierarchical menu

Output devices are chosen from a cascading submenu so cards stay easy to scan:

1. ALSA device ▸ in the context menu
2. Sound cards flyout (hw:N · Card name)
3. Devices flyout (hw:N,M for that card)

The active card and PCM device are marked with a check. You can still click the device label in the playlist footer for the flat picker, or pass -d on the command line. Without -d, aplay+ auto-selects the first openable hw:N,M.

🌸 How to use

Basic Commands (CLI — aplay+)

$ ./aplay+ -h
Usage: ./aplay+ [options] dir

Options:
-h                 Print this help message
-d <device name>   Specify ALSA device [default: first openable hw:N,M]
-f                 Use 32-bit floating-point playback
-r                 Recursively search directories
-x                 Enable random playback
-s <regexp>        Search files with a regex
-t <ext type>      Specify file type (e.g., flac, mp3, wma, dsf, dff...)
-p                 Optimize for Linux platforms
-l                 Loop the directory playlist
-v                 Verbose mode
-V <volume>        Set ALSA mixer volume (0.0-1.0, default 1.0)
-c                 Enable crosstalk cancellation
-D <meters>        Speaker distance for crosstalk cancellation
-T                 Enable test mode (sine wave: left, right, pan)
-e                 Start playback with real-time PCM->DSD64 (DoP)
-o <path>          Also write the raw DSD bitstream when DoP is active

During CLI playback:

Key	Action
Space	Pause / resume
Tab	Pause / resume and release the ALSA device (other apps can use the card)
← / →	Seek −/+ 10s (FLAC, MP3, WAV, OGG)
↑ / ↓	Volume ±5%
C	Toggle crosstalk cancellation
+ / −	Adjust crosstalk attenuation
E	Toggle PCM ↔ DSD64 (DoP)
S	Toggle wave super resolution
F	Cycle format filter (ALL / flac / mp3 / m4a / ogg / wav / wma / dsf / dff)
D	Cycle ALSA output device (live)
B / \	Previous track
d	Skip to next directory
Q / Esc	Quit
other keys	Next track

Graphical Commands (aplay+ui)

aplay+ui accepts the same playback options as aplay+, plus skin-pack flags. A luna-ui player window opens automatically. Playback, seek, volume, Crosstalk, DSD, super resolution, format filter, repeat, device, text size, and quit are controlled from the right-click menu (and keyboard shortcuts).

$ ./aplay+ui -h
Usage: ./aplay+ui [options] dir

Options:
-h                 Print this help message
-S <path>          Use a Winamp Classic .wsz file or extracted skin directory
--skin <path>      Same as -S
-R <dir>           Skin pack folder (.wsz files and/or skin directories).
                   When set, a random skin is applied on each track change
                   (toggle from the right-click menu)
--skins <dir>      Same as -R
-d <device name>   Specify ALSA device [default: first openable hw:N,M]
-f                 Use 32-bit floating-point playback
-r                 Recursively search directories
-x                 Enable random playback
-s <regexp>        Search files with a regex
-t <ext type>      Specify file type (e.g., flac, mp3, wma, dsf, dff...)
-p                 Optimize for Linux platforms
-l                 Loop the directory playlist
-v                 Verbose mode
-V <volume>        Set ALSA mixer volume (0.0-1.0, default 1.0)
-c                 Enable crosstalk cancellation
-D <meters>        Speaker distance for crosstalk cancellation
-T                 Enable test mode (sine wave: left, right, pan)
-e                 Start playback with real-time PCM->DSD64 (DoP)
-o <path>          Also write the raw DSD bitstream when DoP is active

GUI keyboard shortcuts (also shown on the right-click menu):

Key	Action
Space	Play / Pause
Tab	Stop (release device)
B / N	Previous / Next track
← / →	Rewind / Forward 10s
↑ / ↓	Volume up / down
C	Crosstalk (XTC)
+ / −	XTC attenuation
E	DSD (DoP)
S	Super resolution
L	Repeat playlist
F	Format filter
D	ALSA device menu
T	Text size
Q	Exit

Examples

• 🔀 Random playback:

  $ ./aplay+ -rx .
  

• 🎤 Search for a specific artist:

  $ ./aplay+ -rx -d hw:7,0 /Music/ -s ZARD
  

• 🎹 Exclude instrumentals from playback:

  $ ./aplay+ -rfx -d hw:7,0 /Music/ -s '^(?!.*nstrumental).*$'
  

• 🔁 Loop a folder on a USB DAC:

  $ ./aplay+ -rl -d hw:7,0 -V 0.8 /Music/FLAC
  

• 🖥️ Graphical Ember UI with a USB DAC:

  $ ./aplay+ui -rxfp -d hw:7,0 /Music/
  

• 🎨 Skin pack (random skin each track):

  $ ./aplay+ui -R ~/Skins -d hw:7,0 /Music/
  

🌟 Linux Optimization Settings

🚀 Optimize Disk I/O

Add the following to your sysctl.conf:

vm.dirty_ratio = 40
vm.dirty_background_ratio = 10
vm.dirty_expire_centisecs = 3000
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 500
#dev.hpet.max-user-freq = 3072
vm.overcommit_memory = 1

Apply changes:

sysctl -p

⚙️ Adjust Scheduler Settings

Optimize SSDs and HDDs with the following script:

#!/bin/sh
#cat /sys/block/sd*/queue/scheduler
for FILE in /sys/block/sd*/queue/scheduler
do
	[ -f $FILE ] || continue
	echo -n none > $FILE
done

💨 Set CPU Performance Mode

Use this script to switch CPU governor to "performance":

#!/bin/sh
#cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
for CPUFREQ in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
do
	[ -f $CPUFREQ ] || continue
	echo -n performance > $CPUFREQ
done

I/O scheduler

# scheduler for non rotational, SSD
ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]|mmcblk[0-9]*", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="0", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="none"
# scheduler for rotational, HDD
ACTION=="add|change", KERNEL=="sd[a-z]", ATTR{queue/rotational}=="1", ATTR{queue/scheduler}="bfq"

fstrim -v /

Timer

#cat /sys/devices/system/clocksource/clocksource0/current_clocksource
echo tsc > /sys/devices/system/clocksource/clocksource0/current_clocksource

ulimit -a

🎶 Sample Music

• https://www.nativedsd.com/dsd-reviews/homeland-pure-dsd256-large-orchestra-recording-from-eudora-records/
• https://www.iriver.jp/products/product_94.php#5
• https://samplerateconverter.com/educational/dsd1024
• https://www.hifistatement.net/download/item/2227-pcm-384-32-dsd64-dsd128-und-dsd-256-a-trace-of-grace

📖 References

• stb
• dr_libs
• mini_al
• minilibs/regex
• parg
• Related Blog Posts
• https://kazuhira-r.hatenablog.com/entry/2021/05/22/210532
• https://github.com/nothings/single_file_libs

🎵 Experience perfect audio playback with aplay+! Start your music journey today!