Sound blues in Linux

[Alejandro Diaz Infante]

I noticed that in certain soundcards (including mine, a SB Live! with OSS
driver), using "play somesound.au" or "play audioclip somesound.au" results a
garbled audio output. There's nothing wrong with the audio files, and I can 
even play them perfectly in a console or terminal emulator, using "xanim
somesound.au" or "play somesound.au".

Curiously, the only way I had found to play correctly those files in MetaCard 
is using something like "start player somesound".

Does somebody know why the play command does not work well in MetaCard with
some soundcards, even though when 'xanim' is up and running? Is there a
way to solve it without having to create a player for each audio file?