We're wanting to use one Debian box to play two different audio streams
to two different systems: one playing music-on-hold for our general
telephone system, and one playing tips-and-updates for our Helpdesk
phone system (for simplification purposes, you can just think of the two
streams going to two different sets of speakers located in two different
rooms).
I figure we'll need two sound cards, each driving its own set of speakers.
Not necessarily. You can reach it with just one, need only multiple outs (
e.g. terratec PHASE series...)
But how do I get the system to play one audio stream on one sound card,
and a different audio stream on a different card, at the same time?
As a first guess, I think ardour would do.
Just put the audio you are going to play on two (or more) tracks and configure two buses to send audio to separate card outputs.
Assigning tracks to the desired bus (to a specific room/line/speakers) will do the rest.
You will have full control on each audio track, meaning you can apply fx, eq, compressors and so on
Running two different apps (or even the same app) under two different
users is not a problem; I just need the audio to not mix between the two
outputs.
You don't need to run two apps, until you want to have full control on each one of them (stopping one track while playing the other one).
Thanks!
cheers
hope this helps
raffaele