:Linux Journal: Introduction to Sound Programming with ALSA
Linux Journal: Introduction to Sound Programming with ALSA Sep 9, 2004, 07 :45 UTC (2 Talkback[s]) (5868 reads) (Other stories by Jeff Tranter)
"ALSA stands for the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. It consists of a set of kernel drivers, an application programming interface (API) library and utility programs for supporting sound under Linux. In this article, I present a brief overview of the ALSA Project and its software components. The focus is on programming the PCM interfaces of ALSA, including programming examples with which you can experiment.
"You may want to explore ALSA simply because it is new, but it is not the only sound API available. ALSA is a good choice if you are performing low-level audio functions for maximum control and performance or want to make use of special features not supported by other sound APIs. If you already have written an audio application, you may want to add native support for the ALSA sound drivers. If your primary interest isn't audio and you simply want to play sound files, using one of the higher-level sound toolkits, such as SDL, OpenAL or those provided in desktop environments, may be a better choice. By using ALSA you are restricted to using systems running a Linux kernel with ALSA support..."
