Simultaneous sounds with ALSA?

[Christoph Wickert]

Am Do, den 08.04.2004 schrieb Nelson Guedes Paulo Junior um 06:21:
> On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 05:32:15AM +0200, Christoph Wickert wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > Sorry, but I think are wrong: With alsa there's no need for a
> > sounddaemon like arts or esd. Softwaremixing needs additional hardware
> > resources (CPU and Mem), so I prefer hardware mixing.
> > 
> > And (sorry:-)) I think Chadley is wrong, too. If alsa is set up with
> > oss-emulation layer it is completely transparent, you can play multiple
> > sounds at once without changing to another dsp device.
> 
> 
> I've tried, but it doesn't work.... :-(((
> 
> 
> > __BUT_(of course): Your soundcard needs to support hardware mixing. See 
> > http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/index.php3?vendor=All#matrix
> > if your card is marked with a "4" in the "Notes" column.
> 
> I though my sound card supported, but I figure I was wrong. From the
> above link I haven't found a "4" in the "Notes" column for my
> soundblaster... :-(
> 

No chance... :-( I used to have a Soundblaster 4.1 (ens1371 chipset) and
thought it was supported but you'll need at least a SB Live or something
with a emu101k chip.

So you'll need to use software mixing, I think there already were some
helpful hints on that here. In addition to that you'll have to tell the
applications to use arts/esd.

XMMS: Options -> Output plugin -> eSound Output plugin/aRts Output
The same can be done with realplayer/helixplayer, gaim and many more.

Christoph