ALSA

i just installed alsa and all the modules get loaded and the sound works... but doesn't alsa give u the ability to play multiple audio streams at the same time? for instance having xmms playing an mp3 file while mplayer is playing a movie (with sound).

well, even though my sound works (and i'm sure it's using the ALSA modules) i can't get it to play 2 audio streams at the same time. Can anyone tell me a bit more about this?

I'm using a Soundblaster 128 PCI (es1370) btw

That isn't the job of the driver, that's a job for your soundserver Ralinx. Use Arts Ralinx (recompile kdelibs and kdebase with --with-alsa to get general support in KDE)

actually, it's recompiling arts and kdelibs with alsa support, but apparantly kdelibs wants the alsa 0.9 (development) series, while i'm using the 0.5 series (stable)

anyway, i'm not gonna recompile any of my kde stuff cuz i only wanted to test ALSA to see how good it was. right now i don't notice the slightest bit of difference between alsa and using my regular es1370 driver that comes with the kernel.

actually, it's recompiling arts and kdelibs with alsa support, but apparantly kdelibs wants the alsa 0.9 (development) series, while i'm using the 0.5 series (stable)

anyway, i'm not gonna recompile any of my kde stuff cuz i only wanted to test ALSA to see how good it was. right now i don't notice the slightest bit of difference between alsa and using my regular es1370 driver that comes with the kernel.

ALSA doesn't sound better, but the driver design is better and they provide lower system latency. ALSA is just better drivers, not better soundcards
Oh and I use the development stuff, it's in my kernel.