This is starting to remind me of two things: 1) The case where this guy did a review of two different audio processors, and labeled the DAC of one as inferior to the other. He posted audio files of the resulting output from one and the other. Except he posted the exact same link for both of them. People commented about how right he was, after allegedly listening to both files. They were the same file. I'm an audiophile, but I know when to quit.
2) A la Tim Newsham and Federico Benavento, less talk more code. I have a mixerfs implementation from several years ago that Kris and I worked on. I'll fix it up once I get AC'97 on my laptop to demonstrate what I mean mixer-wise. Tim said he was working on an interface that resembles what I've discussed publicly here. This leads to: 3) James, if you don't like it, make your own, and kick our asses. --dho