MPD by default is setup to use whatever it can output to (audio wise), even though such sources might be very inefficient. I was noticing that mpd was using upwards of 30% of my dual core CPU, and it got me to googling for an answer. Well after reading up on mpd configuration tweaks: http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Tuning I got my configuration file to use alsa, and now I’m seeing 1-3% cpu usage from mpd most the time it’s off the radar completely.

I’ve posted my whole mpd.conf below, yet the information I modified was the ‘audio_output bit.

# See the mpd.conf man page for a more detailed description of each parameter.

music_directory         "~/music"
#playlist_directory "/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
db_file "~/.mpd/mpd.db"
log_file "~/.mpd/mpd.log"
pid_file "~/.mpd/mpd.pid"
state_file "~/.mpd/mpdstate"
#
user "fsk141"
#
audio_output {
type            "alsa"
name            "My ALSA Device"
#       auto_resampler "no"
#       format          "44100:16:2"    # optional
mixer_device    "default"       # optional
mixer_control   "Master"        # optional
#       mixer_index     "0"             # optional
options         "dev=dmixer"
device          "plug:dmix"

}