Replacement for esound?

["Andrew Post" <apost cbmi upmc edu>]

I'm curious as to whether any thought has been given to a replacement for
esound for GNOME 2. I'm sure my sentiment is shared when I say that esound's
deficiencies grow more and more frustrating by the day.

ARTs (the sound server that KDE plans to use) sounds promising, but the KDE
team seems to have quite a ways to go before it's ready for prime time. It's
hard to tell how good it'll be from its current state.

Commercial OSS also has a virtual mixer that supports 8 simultaneous sound
channels. It's main deficiency at this point is that it can't automatically
select an open sound channel.

While we're all waiting for a better esound, is there a way to shut off
esound's virtual mixing capability, while leaving its sound buffering and
network transparent sound features intact?

Thanks,

Andrew