Amarok is “the” multimedia application to listen to your favorite music. You can organize your music into collections, get information about recordings such as artist, lyrics, album covers, and more. We only describe its essential features. You can safely Skip the wizard that appears the 1^st time you run Amarok.

Figure 4.1, “amaroK's Main Window” shows the main interface components of Amarok:

Browser. This displays various information depending on the function selected using the tabs at its left.

Playlist. Where the files to be played are shown. Right click on any file to access a menu allowing you to play the file, remove it from the playlist, etc.

Play Controls. Amarok's play controls are “standard” audio equipment ones: Previous/Next Tracks, Play, Stop. The Play button doubles as a Pause button too. Keep the Stop button pressed to select whether to stop playing immediately, after the current playing song has finished, or after the whole playlist has been played.

Volume Control. Slide it right to increase the volume and left to decrease it. Right click on it and select Equalizer from the menu that pops up to open an equalizer window where you can enhance bass and treble, and even select some preset equalization curves.

You access Amarok's main features by clicking on the tabs located at the left of the Browser.

The context browser which spreads out on three tabs: Music, Lyrics, and Artist, gives you various information on the music currently playing.

The Collection browser enables you to view and organize your entire music collection. To use it, you need to create a collection first: click on the button, check all the folders you want Amarok to look in for music files, and click OK to start building the collection.

The playlist browser lets you roam your playlists and podcasts. If you don't have any, you can listen to the Cool-Streams, which is a collection of online radio broadcasts. To create a playlist, simply drag tunes into the playlist, then select PlaylistSave Playlist As and give it a name. To add new podcasts, click the Add button, select Podcast and add the podcast's URL into the dialog.

The File Browser allows you to access and search your local file system. You can use it as an alternative to Amarok's Collection.

The Media Device Browser allows you to transfer songs to your portable audio device, such as an iPod.

When you insert an audio CD in your CD drive, a window pops up; if you choose to play the CD, the KsCD player starts up.

On the left, you have the typical CD player controls: Play/Pause, Stop, Eject, etc. The ones below alter the playing order. The CDDB button can be used if your CD information doesn't appear automatically, it will display the CD's title, artist and tracklist information. The Extras button lets you access more advanced configuration options.

KMix is a sound mixing application for KDE. It allows you to fine-tune your sound card's audio levels through various sliders.

When KMix starts, this quick-launch icon appears near the clock. Click on it, then click Mixer to view the full mixer window.

The Output tab controls the volume levels of the sound sources of your sound card. The most important one is the Master which controls the general volume. By right clicking on each slider, you have extra options such as Split Channels, Muted Hide, etc. Clicking on the green dot at the top of a column mutes or unmutes that sound source.

The Input tab controls the volume levels of the recording sources of your sound card. If you use videoconferencing software or are a musician, this is where you'll want to adjust your microphone and your auxiliary devices. Clicking on the green dot at the top of a column mutes or unmutes that recording source, the red dot at the bottom enables or disables it.

The Switches tab goes deeper into your sound card's configuration. Boosting your microphone, using an external amplifier: these features are for advanced users who want to really master their sound system. To activate them, simply click on the dot at the top of each column.

Finally, the horizontal slider enables you to balance your sound between the left and right speakers. Notice that if your sound card supports separate levels for master's right and left, the Output's Master controllers are be modified following the movement of the horizontal balance slider.