The sound is weird
 

I just got a program to play my Mp3s (XMMS or whatever) but the sound is weird.. its like a bad radio if you know what i mean? anyone have an idea of why? maybe a better player? if so which?

This happened to me the other day, and I found it was because my sound card wasn't supported by linux, and therefore the sound was crackly, hissed and popped. I got a new card in the end because I can't write a driver!

Obviously if you hear other sounds perfectly (like from a video clip for example), then it's not your sound card, but some setting (probably in xmms, or maybe even alsa).

Ok well then i need a new card yeez.... but i didnt like xmms is there any other that is better for mp3? something that looks like ITunes?

You probably don't need a new sound card. More likely you don't have ALSA configured correctly. IMO, there is nothing better than xmms for MP3s, but there are a ton of different players. None will probably work right if xmms does not.

If you want help, you have to give people enough infromation to help you. This ain't Windows. There are thousands of possible considerations. You might start out by saying what sound card you have and what distribution you're running.

It might be that you card is supported by linux, but not properly configured. Try running as root from a console (having closed any applications that use the sound card, such as xmms). That should load the correct kernel module, or at least its best guess. Then, if you hear nothing, as root, run and unmute any muted channels (especially master and pcm) by pressing the m key and turn the volumes up, then run to save your changes.

xmms is essentially based (in terms of look and functionality) on old winamp. Since I used winamp when I used windows, I haven't tried any other audio players. I've heard good things about amarok, which I think also has support for ipods.

Hope this helps.

edit: too much to type, too little time! rickh is right re: xmms too! :)

The card name is Intel ICH5. And i totaly new to linux. just started today so some pages of basic for me to read would be fine to :)