> As I see it, these are the basic technical issues:

1: The channels nust be byte-synchronous

This depends for example on pairs of soundcards running from a common
clock; I gather that this is the case for many of the mew multi-channel
cards now available. I have access to a Terratec EWS-XL, and have been
told that this can indeed be used to play back 4 channels, from a
possible internal 32.

 2: on the PC (Win95), a generic wave driver is needed which can
identify 4-ch hardware, so that even a Noddy program like Media Player
can play a 4 channel file.

As an interim step, when I get the chance, I will see if I can get four
channels into the Terratec using the Windows Wave API's (eg by opening
two stereo devices); if so, it should be straight-forward to add that to
Csound.

And, as John Fitch pointed out, on the SHARC card all this should be a
doddle!

If any manufacturers (Emagic?) are listening, and would like to send me
some cards to experiment with, I will be very grateful, and this list
will be the first to know.

Richard Dobson