Re: esd == bad_sound

[Ian Peters <itp gnu org>]

On Fri, Mar 12, 1999 at 04:03:33PM -0500, Eric Wood wrote:
> Well, it may be poorly written drivers for the sound cards.  If I cat
> out an .au file to /dev/audio, it sounds good.  If I cat out an .au file
> to /dev/dsp, it sounds horrible.  Something to do with the different way
> is processes the sound file.  Anyway, I guess esd uses the /dev/dsp
> instead of the /dev/audio.

That's because /dev/audio is the Sun-compatible digital audio device.
It, along with /dev/dsp, are just ways to access the same hardware,
but /dev/audio takes .au file format, and /dev/dsp takes unsigned
bytes or something.  If you cat a .au file to /dev/audio, it's the
right format, so good sound.  If you cat it to /dev/dsp, wrong format,
so bad sound.

And yes, esd used /dev/dsp because .wav files are essentially (I
think) a header stuck onto raw sound data that /dev/dsp can play.

-- 
Ian Peters		"The farther you go, the less you know."
itp@gnu.org				-- Lao Tsu, "Tao Te Ching"