Multiple sounds

[Dmitri Nikulin]

On 8/21/06, Petr Janda <elekktretterr at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You were correct.
Is there any way to get this done automatically? Without manually
changing all multimedia programs that make sound?
No, so FreeBSD 5+ 'solved' it as part of devfs, making the free
channels appear on demand. It's possible with other hacks beneath the
kernel surface but the less of those the better. There are probably
great ways to solve all audio problems, but meanwhile we already have
FreeBSD 6 as a decent multimedia kernel, including automatic handling
of hardware mixing and configurable generalised software mixing, well
ahead of what even Linux can do. NetBSD is following suit but not
quite there yet, give it some time, they like to do things as cleanly
as possible.
Meanwhile, give each program its own channel. You probably only have
two or three - I for one only use audio/musicpd and multimedia/mplayer
on any Unix, and never at the same time anyway. Don't forget you can
also use esound for user-land mixing, but it's a bit of a mess given
you already have it in the kernel with only minor configuration
requirements.
---
Dmitri Nikulin
Centre for Synchrotron Science
Monash University
Victoria 3800, Australia
email: dnikulin at xxxxxxxxx