SoftOSS Kernel Module?
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
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