Sound daemons

From LinuxNewbie

<cyzie> my fc3 can only output a sound in one time
<cyzie> example, when i run xmms, i cant run mplayer at the same time
<cyzie> unless i close xmms, or mplayer wont run
<cyzie> any idea to fix it?
<Revantine> It is a fluke of the system. Do you know what sound system
you are using?
<Revantine> oss, alsa, arts, esd?
<cyzie> i dont know what sounds system im using
<Revantine> The same problem used to exist with windows. You have to run
a version of the application that is compatible with your sound daemon
<cyzie> Revantine, before this pc install linux, i have installed
windows 9x, win 2k , win xp
<cyzie> has no problem on the onboard soundcard
<Revantine> It isn't a soundcard problem
<Revantine> Let me see if I can explain...
<Revantine> Sound cards only allow one connection at a time. Even for
Windows
<Revantine> Because of that, sound daemons were developed
<Revantine> The daemon gives sounds to the card, and programs give the
sounds to the daemon
<Revantine> instead of the program giving directly to the card.
<Revantine> the daemon then multiplexes the sounds
<Revantine> it receives from say, 4 sources and mixes them very quickly
so even though they are sliced together they sound like one sound