[vox-tech] sound, kde, xmms, arts

[Bryan Richter]

I have no problem mixing multiple sound sources. 

Hardware:
SB Live!, scavenged from gf's old comp

lspci says: (line broken by me)
00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! 
     EMU10k1 (rev 08)

Kernel:
custom-build Linux 2.6 w/ the OSS emu10k1 driver

Distro:
Debian unstable

I would use ALSA, because it's what all the hip kids use, but after
struggling for a while I gave up because OSS just worked. :-P

Besides the custom kernel, I don't think I am using any magic. I was
very happy to have multiple sources 'just work' after I installed this
card. So, for you casual music listeners and game players, I have to
recommend this setup. SB Live!s don't cost much anymore.

-Bryan

On Tue, Feb 17, 2004 at 04:29:46PM -0800, Jonathan Stickel wrote:
> I've struggled along time with getting multiple applications to play 
> nice together with sound.  I use KDE, so generally arts likes to take 
> control of sound.  I've detested the awful latency of arts, but I had 
> begun to just accept it because it does mix sound sources well.  For 
> example, I can play mp3s with xmms (using arts) and notification sounds 
> from GAIM (using arts) will come through OK (also using arts).  However, 
> if I use ALSA (or OSS via ALSA-OSS emulation) for xmms, the sounds from 
> GAIM don't come through until I stop my music.
> 
> With my recent upgrade to KDE 3.2 (and arts 1.2), arts is broken in xmms 
>  (ver. 1.2.8):  xmms locks up when I hit "play" and I have to kill it. 
>  I can still use xmms with ALSA and OSS, but only if I completely kill 
> arts.  I was not able to find a way to fix xmms+arts.
> 
> So I tried other mp3 players, specifically juk and noatun.  In addition 
> to the familiar arts latency, I get _skipping_ when playing mp3s.  After 
> some research, I set suid for artswrapper and decreased my sound buffer 
> (via KDE's control center).  This actually got rid of the latency, but 
> my music still skips!  This did not happen when I was able to use xmms 
> with arts.
> 
> What can I do to make sound "just work"?  Is there anything else I can 
> try with arts?
> 
> I read a little about how to open more than 1 pcm channel with ALSA, but 
> it seemed a little complicated.  I may yet give it a try.  BTW:  I get 
> ALSA support through my 2.6 kernel, if that makes a difference.
> 
> Jonathan
> _______________________________________________
> vox-tech mailing list
> vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech