Sound mixing probs

[lokojones]

I've got som problems with amsn.. I use an nForce2 mobo and for the sound I use the i8x0 alsa module... I posted some days ago the same problem, thinking that it was related to mixing...
The problem is that when I use amsn and other app the uses sound hw.. the sounds that amsn tries to play, wont play (Im using dmix, so I suppose amsn uses OSS to play its sounds) till I exit the app that uses the sound... then all the sounds that couldnt be played, are played all together...

It happens with more things, like Quake3 based games... I cant start quake3 while hearing music, it only starts when I stop the music..., but it doesnt happen when to apps use alsa, because of dmix (I can use xine and alsapalyer together with sound of both)

Can I enable software mixing for apps based on OSS??
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Pure Gentoozo

[burger]

I have configured aMSN to use esdplay to play sounds... as sound or soundplay didn't work for me.

[lokojones]

i've also tried esdplay.. just only to see if it worked, because I dont use esd
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Pure Gentoozo

[EricHsu]

hi, lokojones.

This is a software mixing problem.
When we use legacy OSS or now ALSA, they are the lowest sound layers
that can only play sound of one app at a time. It's said that if we want them
to mix multiple sounds we will need a soundcard which supports hw mixing.

However, we could use software mixing instead. ESD, arts, as you've heard,
they are higher layers that 'wrap' the OSS or ALSA, they provide us the
ability to do software mixing.

If we want to play sounds of multiple apps at a time, please make sure you
have all of these apps using ESD or arts (anything else? I only use ESD:)
as there sound output.

If one of those app uses OSS or ALSA, it will block all the other apps no
matter what they use. Quake3 seems to use OSS (or the OSS emulate of
ALSA, not so sure :p), that's why you have to stop xmms to get Quake3
work.

When using ESD, we could try to 'reroute' (man esddsp) sound to esd
if the app doesn't use esd, just try:

shell$ esddsp yourapp

Hope that helps:)

[lokojones]

But.. doesn't dmix do the same in a lower level?
I mean, in alsa level, because its just a config for alsa..
I've tried before esd ant artsd, and I can't get them work.. anyway, I've heard that arts causes some games to have problems with the sounds, playing sounds later than they should...
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Pure Gentoozo

[EricHsu]

Sorry, I don't know much about dmix and artsd, since I've been using esd all
the time, and it works fine for me

It seems that people some times complain about the artsd and have to kill it
to get some other sound apps work... AFAIK, esd automatically 'kills itself'
once we quit the app which uses it...

[jkt]

yes, if you (eg) hit <tab> in Konsole, "artsd beeps" and then stays alive, blocking your default sound device as set in Control Center.