Getting started

Install

Download a package for your system from the project’s Releases page. Every file has a .sha256 next to it. To check a download, run sha256sum -c <file>.sha256 on Linux, or shasum -a 256 -c <file>.sha256 on macOS.

Linux

• Desktop integration: the packages add Fauste Player to the applications menu, and let you open .m3u, .m3u8 and .pls playlists with it, which imports them as new playlists.
• Libraries needed: the ALSA and D-Bus libraries. Every desktop has them, and the packages declare them. JACK is used when it is installed, and is never required.
• AppImage: if it does not start because FUSE is missing, run it with --appimage-extract-and-run.
• Flatpak:
  • The bundle needs the freedesktop runtime from Flathub. If the Flathub remote is not set up, run flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo first.
  • The sandbox can read your home folder (to play your music where it is).
  • It plays through PulseAudio, or through ALSA directly for bit-perfect devices.
• Desktop libraries: the window uses libxkbcommon and EGL or OpenGL, with Wayland or X11. Every desktop has them, and the .deb and .rpm declare them. On a very minimal system, install them before using the AppImage.

Windows

Run fauste-player-<version>-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.msi. It installs for all users under Program Files and adds a Start menu entry.

• Updating: run the newer installer. It replaces the installed version.
• Removing: use Settings → Apps.
• Unsigned installer: if the release is not signed, SmartScreen warns about an unknown publisher. Choose More info → Run anyway.

The .zip archive is a portable alternative: extract it and run fauste-player.exe.

macOS

Open fauste-player-<version>-macos-universal.dmg and drag Fauste Player to Applications. The same app runs on Apple silicon and Intel (macOS 11 or later).

• Updating: replace the app the same way.
• Removing: move it to the Bin.
• Unsigned app: if the release is not signed and notarised, macOS refuses the first start.
  • macOS 15 and later: open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the message about Fauste Player, choose Open Anyway, and confirm.
  • macOS 14 and earlier: right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm.
  • Or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Fauste Player.app".
• JACK on macOS: a signed and notarised app can only load a JACK library that is itself signed. Otherwise JACK shows as unavailable; use Core Audio.
• Playlists: on macOS they are imported from Settings → Playlists. Opening a playlist file with the app from Finder is not supported.

One instance at a time

Only one Fauste Player runs per data folder. Opening a playlist from the file manager while it runs imports that playlist into the running application. Starting it again with no playlist shows a message that it is already running. To run separate instances side by side (for example two studios on one computer), give each its own folder with FAUSTE_HOME.

Command line

fauste-player --version prints the version. The window’s title bar shows the name and the version, and the About button (an info icon, left of Settings) opens About, with the author, the copyright, the licence (GNU GPL version 3 or later; Read the licence online opens its text), a short disclaimer and the licence notices (Third-party licences opens the notices file installed with release packages). Close it with Close or Esc. fauste-player --help lists the options. Playlist files given as arguments are imported as new playlists.

On Windows the release program opens no console window: --version, --help and start-up errors appear in a message box instead.

When a change to the outputs waits for something on air, a Settings pending pill appears in the top bar; it says what waits (see Settings).

Closing while audio is on air

Closing the window while something is on air does not quit. The window comes to the front (even if it was minimised) and an Audio is on air dialog lists what is sounding: players that are playing or paused (P1 — title), and playing carts with their number on the page (Cart 3 — title). A player or cartwall CUE does not count. Choose Cancel (or Esc, or click outside the dialog) to keep playing, or Stop and close to stop every player on air and all carts and then quit. The session is saved as on any other exit. With nothing on air the window closes at once. The dialog takes precedence over Settings and About, and keyboard shortcuts do nothing while it is open (MIDI and remote commands still act).

First start

The window opens with four players, each showing an empty playlist. Nothing plays until you press Play: this is also true after a restart or a crash.

Add music

• Click + Add at the bottom of a player and pick files, or
• drag audio files or folders from your file manager onto a track list. Folders add the audio files directly inside them, not their sub-folders.

Supported formats: WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, MP3 (and MP1/MP2), AAC/M4A, ALAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio (APE), DSD (DSF and DFF) and Matroska audio (MKA). DSD files play converted to PCM at their rate divided by 32 (88.2 kHz for DSD64), or unchanged as DoP or native DSD on a bit-perfect device set to do so (see Bit-perfect output). Opus always plays at 48 kHz. WavPack files must be lossless and mono or stereo; hybrid and multichannel WavPack show as unreadable, as do DST-compressed DFF files. A WAV or FLAC that holds a DTS (or other encoded surround) bitstream instead of audio, as some DTS-CD rips do, also shows as unreadable (the log says why): convert it to ordinary PCM first.

Each file is analysed in the background. The analysis reads the title, artist, album and cover art, draws the waveform, and finds where the sound starts and ends and where to mix into the next track. You can play a track before its analysis finishes.

Play

• Press Play (or the number key of the player, 1 for P1) to start the next track, marked green in the list.
• Press Play again while a track is on air to fade into the next one.
• Double-click a track to make it the next one.

In CONT (continuous) mode the player mixes into the next track by itself at the MIX point. In SINGLE mode it stops at the end of every track. Continue with Players.