Here is the relevant section of /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound/README.OSS: Does this mean I need to buy OSS/Linux?
>4Front Technologies SoftOSS > > SoftOSS is a software based wave table emulation which works with > any 16 bit stereo sound card. Due to its nature a fast CPU is > required (P133 is minimum). Although SoftOSS does _not_ use MMX > instructions it has proven out that recent processors (which appear > to have MMX) perform significantly better with SoftOSS than earlier > ones. For example a P166MMX beats a PPro200. SoftOSS should not be used > on 486 or 386 machines. > > The amount of CPU load caused by SoftOSS can be controlled by > selecting the CONFIG_SOFTOSS_RATE and CONFIG_SOFTOSS_VOICES > parameters properly (they will be prompted by make config). It's > recommended to set CONFIG_SOFTOSS_VOICES to 32. If you have a > P166MMX or faster (PPro200 is not faster) you can set > CONFIG_SOFTOSS_RATE to 44100 (kHz). However with slower systems it > recommended to use sampling rates around 22050 or even 16000 kHz. > Selecting too high values for these parameters may hang your > system when playing MIDI files with hight degree of polyphony > (number of concurrently playing notes). It's also possible to > decrease CONFIG_SOFTOSS_VOICES. This makes it possible to use > higher sampling rates. However using fewer voices decreases > playback quality more than decreasing the sampling rate. > > SoftOSS keeps the samples loaded on the system's RAM so much RAM is > required. SoftOSS should never be used on machines with less than 16 MB > of RAM since this is potentially dangerous (you may accidently run out > of memory which probably crashes the machine). > > SoftOSS implements the wave table API originally designed for GUS. For > this reason all applications designed for GUS should work (at least > after minor modifications). For example gmod/xgmod and playmidi -g are > known to work. > > To work SoftOSS will require GUS compatible > patch files to be installed on the system (in /dos/ultrasnd/midi). You > can use the public domain MIDIA patchset available from several ftp > sites. Which ftp sites? > > ********************************************************************* > IMPORTANT NOTICE! The original patch set distributed with the Gravis > Ultrasound card is not in public domain (even though it's available from > some FTP sites). You should contact Voice Crystal (www.voicecrystal.com) > if you like to use these patches with SoftOSS included in OSS/Free. > ********************************************************************* TIA, John
