[Klug-general] Surround Sound

[Peter Childs]

On 22 April 2011 18:42, James Morris <jwm.art.net at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 22 April 2011 18:37, James Morris <jwm.art.net at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 22 April 2011 14:18, Paul Littlefield <info at paully.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> If I have to use PulseAudio, I'll use that but ALSA seems to be more widely
>>> used these days and if jumping to an unstable PPA to get 1.0.24+ fixes it
>>> then I will jump.
>>>
>>
>> It's not so much a choice between ALSA or PulseAudio, more of a choice
>> between ALSA, or, PulseAudio on top of ALSA, where, ALSA is the kernel
>> level sound driver providing Input/Ouput to the hardware, and
>> PulseAudio does all the stuff that as a user (of a desktop environment
>> usually) you'll find useful, like the ability for to be notified that
>> an application hasn't crashed by playing tada.wav without interrupting
>> the undoubted listening pleasure of kajagoogoo in your favourite media
>> player.
>
> That being said, ALSA can actually handle simultaneous playback of
> audio by different applications via it's DMIX plugin which is
> configured by default these days, so I'm not entirely sure what the
> benefits of PulseAudio actually are. I couldn't try it out even if I
> wanted to because Pulse doesn't work on my sound card.
>
> James.
>
> PS the description above is of a fictitious user and any relation to
> any real person, or fictional person, or imaginary person, is purely
> coincidental.
>
> PPS sorry for taking a thread in a ridiculous direction again,
> especially when I know this has been discussed before.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Kent mailing list
> Kent at mailman.lug.org.uk
> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/kent
>

hmm, If you have ever dared to look at doing anything with sound from
a development point of view forget it.

The are about 7 (probably more) linux sound api all of which have
different ways of talking to each other, emulating each other, taking
to the hardware, all have advantages and disadvantages depending on
what you are trying to do and what your app talks.....

Maybe we should give a prize to anyone who can write a sound app that
uses a different api depending on the day of the week and a spare on
bank holidays...

Hmm where did I leave that list....

nas
alsa
oss
jack
gstreamer
esd
arts
pulse


Peter