[linux-audio-user] So confused, need some good documents about sound in linux!

Hi all, Does anybody know where i can get some good/clear/concise explanations about how sounds works under linux? I'm a programmer and a musician myself. I'm so confused between midi, alsa, oss, oss emulation, arts, sound servers artsd, esd, etc...etc... midi ports "a la alsa" or "a la oss" /dev/midiXXX /dev/sound /dev/sequencer or 72:0 73:0 or whatever softsynth, hardsynth........................... All this gets me CONFUSED! I want to develop some kind of band-in-a-box-like stuff with TSE3 The app won't need a midi card (i want to use a softsynth) But first I want to have a clear, global, vision of sound architecture on linux (if not so much precise) I've abandoned window$ years ago and the only thing i really miss is band in a box and i don't want to fall back into microsoft! But i must admit i can't find a unique place that explains the way sound works in linux. I find loads of stuff but can't have a satisfactory global vision of the whole stuff. Has anybody written somewhere a real digest i could use as good starting point? For instance, what REALLY makes the difference between alsa and oss and arts? What are midi ports in each of those architecture? How to adress them? How to to build something for ANY sound architecture? Things about sound deamonds also (what are they for, and how to use them)? Well have been working too hard today , i think my brain is about to burst out ;-) I think sound programming under linux is very complicated because of the different architectures. But developing sound apps like you guys do is a necessary step to convince people to use linux! Maybe my goal is too hard for me but anyway i want to give it a try... But what a MESS!! So any hint on where i can get a thorough, clear, concise explanation of the whole stuff is welcome! Thanks