I've been trying hard, but audio still is deep magic to me, eg: .asoundrc. I genuinely think there is no doc abojt it, and that no one except *some* ALSA devs can actually understand how it works (they're the ones posting snippets on forums).

I've never managed to get a fully working microphone by myself, even if I know it can actually be decent (ubuntu proved it!)

For the music playing part though, Ive tried many things. mpg123 /ogg123 are nice, but too limited in terms of format. my best choice is sox to play music:


That's really all I need :)