Thanks for this Paul -- sorts that out nicely. So off to get a USB soundcard for my laptop... On Fri, 16 May 2008, Paul Davis wrote: > > On Fri, 2008-05-16 at 11:20 +0100, J M Needham wrote: > > Dear all, > > > > Forgive me for not understanding this, but I've also heard conflicting > > things on Alsa-User. On my PC (old H/W, Ubuntu Hardy Heron, SB audigy) I > > can play sound through apps connected to jack and apps going direct to > > Alsa at the same time. On my Debian sid box, I cannot have two appps > > playing music at the same time. My Laptop, running Ubuntu GG (s/c HDA > > intel) also behaves like this, whereas my friend's PC can do what my > > Ubuntu HH box can do (new H/W, SB Audigy new(ish)), and > > both have been able to do this since we both switched at Edgy Eft. > > > > I don't understand this. Some people say that you cannot play sounds from > > aps connected to Jack and apps not using jack at the same time, which > > contradicts some of my experience and the experience of Joakim Hernberg > > [below] so what's the difference? What files do I need to look at to find > > the difference if there is any. > > > > Is this a h/w or s/w issue? It's clearly possible, so why is there the > > belief that it can't happen? > > its both. > > there is some audio hardware that supports "multi-open" directly in > hardware. i believe that your SB Audigy is one such device. this means > that multiple (typically somewhere from 8-32) applications can open it, > and the hardware mixes everything down to the outputs. > > this type of h/w has become massively less common as Intel-HDA has > spread, since this "specification" leaves mixing like this to device > drivers and/or some OS audio infrastructure. mixing JACK & non-JACK > applications with audio interfaces that do not provide hardware > multi-open is essentially impossible (or just so kludgy that i don't > even want to discuss it). > > --p > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
