when playing a file from the play list in amarok, very often the program will hang a few seconds after beginning playback, for a few seconds, and then become responsive again. amarok hangs for about 10 seconds, and the audio stops playing in this time. this usually happens when starting playing a track when one wasn't playing before, but can also happen on track changes. it also occurs with or withour crossfade and fadeout. as can be imagined, it is highly aggravating. on looking at the cpu usage of amarok when this occurs, i noticed that the mysql daemon's cpu usage rockets when amarok freezes, then drops to zero when it unfreezes. i do have a large collection (26,000) but the database access or whatever is causing this shouldn't prioritise over the audio playback. this does not occur on my debian install on the same system (this is on gentoo). i am running amarok 1.4.5, xine-lib 1.1.3 and alsa-lib 1.0.14 rc1 with a 20.6.20 r4 kernel.

SOLVED
kind of
all my large collection was in a single directory
by organizing it into folders this behavior no longer occured

If this happens only upon playing one file, then it's probably a problem between the file, Amarok, and MySQL. If it happens with any file, it's most likely a problem with MySQL.

How long have you been using MySQL for the collection? Has it been doing it since you started? Can Amarok successfully use the database? What are Amarok's permissions to the database?

this occurs with any file. i have always used mysql and this has always occurred but i have switched between it and sq lite and the problem remains and is identical. amarok uses the database correctly and i set up the database as instructed in the amarok wiki (if there is one) or somewhere similar (documentation). i am not sure how to check amarok's permissions? however if the problem is identical with integrated sq lite i assume this is not relevant?

thanks