Software mixing : Audio chip VT1708S
 

Hello

Starting over, based on this thread :
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...stream-799674/
...And my problem which is the same!

I have the same audio chipset and experienced the same issues...
I hope there is nothing about that chip. I tried with XFCE4 on Slackware 13.1 and now KDE4 on Debian, I found a workaround on XFCE by installing gstreamer and using it instead of xine as the phonon backend.
That workaround apparently doesn't work on KDE.

Something interesting (also in the original thread) :
Software mixing through alsa DOES work since I can play several files in aplay (command line) or xine (gui standalone) simultaneously.

I don't have another soundcard so I need to fix this since the problem explained in the thread is very annoying.

Should I install pulseaudio anyway ?
Switching to OSS ?

I avoid kde like the plague. BloatWare. TakeOverWare. Slothware. That said, the first thing I would take out is ESD. Alsa plays the noises, if it's let. What is ESD doing?