From owner-freebsd-questions Mon May 31 16:50:16 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from control.colossus.dynip.com (pm4-8.sba1.avtel.net [207.71.218.208]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 46EE914F5F for ; Mon, 31 May 1999 16:50:05 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr@control.colossus.dynip.com) Received: (from dburr@localhost) by control.colossus.dynip.com (8.9.3/8.9.2) id QAA21647; Mon, 31 May 1999 16:49:28 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.3 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <7iujne$jh2$1@mips.rhein-neckar.de> Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 16:49:27 -0700 (PDT) Organization: Computer Help From: Donald Burr To: (Christian Weisgerber) Subject: RE: Sound card? Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (actually, it was on 31-May-99), the great prophet Christian Weisgerber once wrote: > I'm considering adding a sound card to my FreeBSD/i386 box. Now, I know > roughly zilch about sound cards. There are absurd numbers of different > models, with similar names, almost identical technical data, different > chipsets, product lifetimes of a few months at most, and varying support > throughout the operating system world. > > For example, opening up the latest leaflet from a local computer chain > store, I see: > > Soundblaster 16 PnP Value ISA, Vibra 16XV > Soundblaster PCI 64V PCI, Ensoniq > Soundblaster 16 PCI PCI, Ensoniq 1373 > Soundblaster PCI 128 PCI, Creative 5507 > Soundblaster Live! Value PCI, EMU 10K1 > Soundblaster Live! PCI, EMU 10K1 > > The latter two are a bit expensive. > > Looking at /sys/i386/isa/{snd/CARDS,sound/Readme.cards}, it appears that > of all these only the "SoundBlaster 16 PnP Value" is supported. In fact, > there seem to be no supported PCI sound cards at all!? > > Can anybody recommend an inexpensive, not too trashy sound card, that is > supported under FreeBSD and still available on the market? (I'm asking > for a lot, ain't I?) Take a look at OSS -- the Open Sound system http://www.opensound.com/ It is a commercial sound driver that supports many systems, including FreeBSD. However it is quite inexpensive ($20) and gives you free updates and techsupport through the year 2003 (now that's what I call service!) It is extremely easy to configure (in fact, it pretty much auto-configures itself) and supports a whole host of sound cards, including many PCI cards. It also supports the "special features" of many sound cards, such as the Wavetable chips on many modern sound cards. --- Donald Burr | PGP: Your *NEW* WWW HomePage: http://more.at/dburr/ ICQ #16997506 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message