[linux-audio-user] Common linux audio layer

[Christoph Eckert]

Hi Dave,


>   My laptop includes a NeoMagic 256A/V audio/video chip,
> i.e., no hardware mixing. So under normal circumstances I
> get to use one soundapp at a time. Here's my
> $HOME/.asoundrc file that gives me software audio
> multiplexing :

[...]

> An example usage might look like this:
>
>     xine -A alsa foo.mpg
>     aplay -f cd -D default foo.wav

If I understand correctly, it does create some virtual cards 
based on one hardware card.

Will ALSA assign each application a virtual card 
automatically, or does the application try all virtual cards 
until it finds a free one?

Is the number of virtual cards limitated in any way, or are 
they created automatically/dynamically?

> Performance is improved on my machine (a PII 366) if I
> change the sample rate to 32000. At 44.1 kHz the little box
> just barely keeps up whie playing a movie at the same time
> I run a major soundapp. There are probably other
> interesting tweaks, but this example might get someone
> started in the right direction.
>
> I think the Windoze system audio mixer does the same thing
> as dmix but rather transparently. It is a pain to have to
> write a specific asoundrc file, but it's not an awful
> pain...

Unfortunately, the common user will not be able to do so, and 
to be honest, I'll need many hours to create an asoundrc for 
myself.

Furthermore, it's a pity when dmix is only present on some 
single machines where the user has created an asoundrc file 
manually. There seems to be an interesting technology, but 
noone does use it.

What about creating a shell script which helps us in creating 
an /etc/asound.conf resp. an ~/.asoundrc? It'd be great even 
if distributors woult use it as a backend to install dmix on 
every machine.

> (dp thanks Takashi Iwai for explaining dmix to him over and
> over again...)

So thanks a lot for spreading his knowledge to further 
people ;-) .


 Best regards


    ce