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Found a solution to Raspberry Pi and foobar2000 integration

daws0n

pfm Member
For years I have used foobar2000 as my digital audio player of choice... It has some great DSP plugins, media library functionality and features (particularly when combined with foobarcon pro android app). Best in class IMO, and whilst my interest in Linux / Raspberry Pi has been growing over the years I've not found an ARM based audio player that compares. I've always kept a small windows based PC near the stereo to accommodate for this, but it's a little noisy and not very neat.

I tried Volumio and it works fine, but foobar2000 remains my preference of choice for a variety of reasons. It's not linux compatible however but I've found a way to "stream" playback via UPnP to native Raspbian O/S. This allows you to retain the Pi's innate functionality (e.g I can still use it browse to BBC sounds and play radio 6 via Chromium). Whilst also background listening for foobar's audio broadcasts from another device. So, I can have foobar200 running / "serving" from another part of the house on say a noisy desktop or laptop device, and the output comes through to a tiny Raspberry Pi 4 on the hifi rack. The broadcast's bit depth and sample rates and dictated within foobar's config, and all DSP functions are applied. It transcodes the audio to stream, but set to FLAC it's a lossless process. It takes a bit of delving into mpd to ensure that linux is not resampling the incoming stream, but from what I can tell it's outputting without alteration.

It's surprisingly stable over a decent LAN, and combined with an XMOS xu208 USB > SPDIF convertor gives me a fanless energy efficient transport for a very low cost.

If this pricks anyone's interest post below and I'll provide a few how-to instructions.
 
Interested to know what features/functionality does Foobar have over a native RPi streamer such as Moode or Volumio?
 
@DV
Hmm exagear looks to be pretty resource heavy, I'd prefer to off load the audio processing natively rather than trying to emulate it some show. Thanks for the link though, I use a few Pis have this could be very handy for small x86 apps that I am still dependent on.

@suzywong
To be honest, Volumio does most things well so it boils down to user preference. The biggest drawback was the lack of web browser functionality so I couldn't load BBC sounds. Sure I could piggyback off my phone via bluetooth or OTC, but why bother when the Pi can do both?

Personally I like foobar2000's crossfeed DSP implementation for headphones and the look/feel of foobarcon pro android app. Also, I like to keep my music organised in nested folder structures rather than rely on ID3 tags to create a (messy) database to browse from.

Foobar2000s's media library allows me to point to various locations and merge them into a single seamless tree. I find that very advantageous, but others may not see a need for it.
 
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Actually exgear has been discontinued for nearly 12 months... Shame, as it looked like an interesting product!
 
DawsOn I would like to know how to run foobar on the pi and control it from my android but you say its not possible?
I do like foobar and a quiet server but not too many spots I could find for the loud server except maybe the basement. Thanks.
Tom
This request is due to being an audiophile but not all that impressed with native VLC interface. Not familiar with Linux and in month 1 of pidom.
 
@suzywong
To be honest, Volumio does most things well so it boils down to user preference. The biggest drawback was the lack of web browser functionality so I couldn't load BBC sounds. Sure I could piggyback off my phone via bluetooth or OTC, but why bother when the Pi can do both?
I run Pis on moOde but then install a browser as well. Means a few extra bits and pieces to install GUI etc. and I'm not entirely sure what the playback routing is for Sounds/Bandcamp in the browser but it all works well enough.
 
If this pricks anyone's interest post below and I'll provide a few how-to instructions.

Yes I am interested!
I am using Amazon music via chromecast hdmi and it sounds very good and and is very easy to use. (although I do get an annoying random popping sound every 10mins to 60mins?)
I have been messing about with my Pi3b with limited success. I have tried lots of pi operating systems but none have got me that excited I did get picore working but have struggled with the LMS thing and using a chromebook seems to make it harder.
Have been using OSMC for music and video its OK but not what I would like.

I have used Foobar on my PC for years I to much prefer navigating via folders - really don't care about artwork, lyrics etc just gimme the music - if I could use that via my Pi I would be chuffed!
 
Hi just saw your post - here are some instructions.

Compared to native Volumio, another big plus point for integrating foobar "playback" for me is:

Replaygain support: fantastic once setup for levelling track /album gain to a standard level. Unlike conventional normaliziation it's just a piece of metadata tagging and doesn't alter the audio at all. It's great when mixing things up for parties/beer nights etc... when jumping between different albums/artists. I can keep the volume dialed where I like it and no need to adjust for quiet/loudly mastered albums.

Digital equalization: I've been faffing with amps and gear tweaking for ages trying to get my sealed cab floor standers to produce proper bass. They are fussy as hell re: room positioning and I can't get them into the ideal space domestically speaking. A simple 4dB boost on the 55hz band using foobar's eq has worked wonders - just fills out that bottom octave when needed and makes all the difference.

Anyway, here we go...

The package you need is here along with instructions:

https://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/

here are my terminal cli notes that I keep incase of reinstallation

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/upmpdcli.list

deb http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/downloads/raspbian/ buster main
deb-src http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/upmpdcli/downloads/raspbian/ buster main

then,

sudo apt-get install mpd

sudo apt-get install upmpdcli

Configure UFW firewall if it's on it accept incoming connections on UPNP port

You may also need to configure your soundcard output destination properly via

sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf

Running this command will help you identify the correct one

cat /proc/asound/cards

Also configure the mpd audio output via

sudo nano /etc/mpd.conf

e.g to utilise my USB>SPIDF convertor, mine reads:
#
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "xCORE USB Audio 2.0"
device "hw:2,0"
mixer_type "none"
auto_resample "no"
auto_format "no"
auto_channels "no"
# mixer_device "default" # optional
# mixer_control "PCM" # optional
# mixer_index "0" # optional

Using this command will help you discover your hardware details:

aplay -l

Whenever you make changes to mpd output configuration, restart the service via

sudo systemctl restart mpd

Troubleshoot logs via:

sudo nano /var/log/mpd/mpd.log
 
P.s as per original post, I recommend using foobarconpro via an android device to control foobar2000 - it has a great interface IMHO.
 
Another much easier route is to setup volumio, disable any audio processing and enable upnp support. Foobar2000 picks it up no problem as an audio output.

I like running full fat Raspbian OS however as it gives me quick access to bandcamp, soundcloud, BBC sounds etc... for streaming online.
 
Wow thanks!
On first read It is does look a little bit techie for me but I will give it a good go at the weekend.
All the best
Steve
 
As long as your comfortable dealing with plain text config, it's not hard to do.

Nano can take a bit of getting used to, so use leafpad instead for a more notepad-esque GUI.
 
I am a bit if a tinkerer so I do understand some of this stuff but I have to try really hard to make it work!
I am working the rest of this week but will have a tinker at the weekend.
Thanks again.

Steve
 
@daws0n I am using (*learning to use) an rpi 3b + volumio to stream and despite foobar seems more like an hardcore solution than the "almost ready to go" volumio for me at the moment, I might evaluate to use it for this post of yours - or at least give it a try in due course - thanks for this thread.
 
You're welcome - I hadn't tried Volumio when I came up with this. Volumio's uPNP renderer does a fine job also and is much easier to setup (literally a one click option). I may have a play with moOde as per recommendation above as it has browser support also.

It'd be great to find a free solution that also supports incoming streams over bluetooth.
 


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