Sound cards, multiple access, device busy

Hello all,

I'm trying to run a mp3 encoding application (darkice) against /dev/sound.

On freebsd, I was able to run two copies of the application against the
single /dev/dsp device. It's reading the input, both were able to read
concurrently.

On NetBSD, after one copy of darkice opens the sound device it becomes
busy.

I notice only one system utility can open the device at a time (strings
/dev/audio > /tmp/crap.txt&, do it again, device is busy).

Any way to get around this?