[LAU] Sound-Card Priorities?

[Hart Larry]

Well, some time ago we were discussing an easier mp3 editor, still looking.
Meanwhile, wondering if there are ways of having audio search for the next 
completely available sound card? Now I have 4 of them, not that I want to, but I 
can play multiple files at a time. You see, in the future, if I am listening to 
speech in a graphical setting, I still wanna rip audio in xvfb with Iceweasel. 
As of now, if speech-dispatcher is running, I can only play other audio, not 
record, so I would want that setup to pick the next empty card. Can some1 please 
inform how easy this would be to setup in Debian? Thanks so much in advance
Hart