[LAD] starting out with tux audio

I'm a newbie to audio in linux. I can code in C, and I know that if you $cat /dev/dsp you can see your microphone feeding weird shit into this sound device. I've also read that this device is encoded as 8-bit unsigned, and I know the binary math of that format. I'm currently coding on Ubuntu Hardy. I'm looking for some helpful tips on two simple processes, for which I'll be very grateful: 1. What are these weird "{{PP--"characters in /dev/dsp and how do I convert them to some numerical form that I can understand and play with? Are they ASCII representations of 8-bit unsigned numbers? How do I convert this to samples? (I know a "little" DSP theory, but kindly assume that I'm not very good). 2. I'd like to feed a pure sine wave to /dev/audio, and then another wave and mix them together to hear some beats. Basically, I want to try out raw additive synthesis using C and feeding cool arrays to either /dev/audio or /dev/dsp. Any help would be appreciated, and as for karma, you know you're only going to profit. ta-da, fadereu ------- -.- 1/f ))) --. ------- ... http://www.algomantra.com