Alsa Sound System

LinuxRocks · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2003 Posts: 397 Location: New Mexico

Ok, I have a question.

What does the Alsa sound system offer that OSS doesnt?

I tried Alsa on my system and I followed the instructions and got it to work, but I didnt notice any differnce in sound. The only thing I did notice was about 20 more modules loading (Eating memory and cpu cycles no doubt :wink:

) and a little slower perfrormance in games.

Is the Alsa sound system supposed to offer better quality sound?

Thanks !!!

Joe

HydroSan · Posted: Wed Jun 02, 2004 4:14 pm Post subject:

OSS is outdated and now depreciated by the Linux Kernel Dev's. ALSA is GPL (IIRC) and OSS is not. Also, you can expect Software mixing to be a little cleaner and more hardware to be supported by ALSA than OSS, since ALSA is still being actively developed.
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blaster999 · Posted: Sat Jun 05, 2004 6:47 am Post subject:

Maybe ALSA is more advanced, but...
When I was using OSS with my SB Live, I could control ALL speakers' volume by changing the master volume. Using ALSA now. The master volume controls only FRONT speakers (rear are controlled by Wave Surround). Many people have the same issue even with ALSA 1.0.5 (although ALSA developers say this is fixed long ago). Strange, isn't it?
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LinuxRocks · Guru Joined: 27 Nov 2003 Posts: 397 Location: New Mexico

Yeah, I hear ya. I tested Alsa for a while and went back to oss. Alsa seems to eat up ALOT of system resources (Loaded like 20+ modules. OSS only loads like 3 or 4). Games are much slower that with OSS.

Seems like Alsa needs to mature a bit before they are worth installing. Looks like a great idea, just needs some more fixes

Joe