This process will remove ESD and install polypaudio, a better and esd-compatible sound server. This process will work only on Hoary. From polyaudio site:> polypaudio is a sound server for Linux and other Unix like operating systems. It is intended to be an improved drop-in replacement for the Enlightened Sound Daemon (ESOUND). It is my ultimate ambition to get Polypaudio into Gnome as a replacement for ESOUND. First you need to enable the universe repositories. (check Ubuntu Starter Guide, if you're reading this you should have them enabled tho :D ) Now for the real deal:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install polypaudio polypaudio-alsa libesd-alsa0
sudo shutdown -r now
PS: If you used another process before to hear multiple sounds at once make sure you don't have /etc/asound.conf, your esd.conf is not configured with "-d default" and such. PS1: I'm not sure if this doesn't disable i.e.: gaim sounds. I need you to test :D