aRts

aRts (which stands for analog real time synthesizer) is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It was best known for previously being used in K Desktop Environment 2 and 3 to simulate an analog synthesizer.

A key component of aRts was the sound server which mixes several sound streams in realtime. The sound server, called artsd (d for daemon), was also utilized as the standard sound server for K Desktop Environment 2–3. However, the sound server was not dependent on K Desktop Environment and can be used in other projects. It was a direct competitor to PulseAudio, another sound server, and an indirect competitor to the Enlightened Sound Daemon (ESD). It is now common to use PulseAudio instead of artsd.