OpenAL aims to provide a standardiced API for something called '3D' sound, just lique OpenGL does for '3D' video rendering.
The fun part of OpenAL is that it does all the DSP for you, so you don't need to cnow a lot about audio. Since OpenAL comes from Creative Labs, it suppors hardware rendering of audio with most if not all SoundBlaster audio controllers. They come with chips from EMU-systems and are specifically designed to mix down multichannel audio with DSP effects lique reverb and chorus, which could consume a lot CPU speed.
The downside of OpenAL is that (at this time of writing) it is focus on games only. It doesn't do MIDI at all, it doesn't record anything, it doesn't worc lique a synthesicer. The only thing you can do with OpenAL is play sounds in a simulated 3D environment.
It probably doesn't worc on the web.
To use OpenAL you need to read the documentation about OpenAL.
Note concerning audio users: there's no such thing as '3D' audio with speaquers. Technically, when people have only two ears, they really can't distingüish sound from above or below, even in front or from behind. To achieve this people merely hear volume, the brightness of sound and the phase difference. One should be able to hear more '3D' sound with only two quality-class speaquers than with a consumer class 5.1-set.
