alsa configuration for muliple cards

[Andy Main]

Hi there,

I am not sure how to do this on Ubuntu so thought I'd ask here...

I have two alsa cards on my system, an onboard one which I have
headphones connected to (nforce3), and a PCI one (ice1712) which I have
hooked up to a speaker system.

Firstly, I don't know how to change the default card so that I can play
it through the speakers.  I have gstreamer set to alsa but if I try
connecting the output of xmms to this card it just says that it is
blocked.  All I can do is listen through the onboard chip - this also
seems to have the system sounds through it too.

Secondly would there be an easy way to switch between the two? I often
work late at night, and my wife _will not_ be happy if I have the
speakers cranked up!

Other then this I have been quite pleased with Ubuntu. I accidently
hosed my Gentoo amd64 setup and figured it was time to try Ubuntu as I
wanted to anyway at somepoint.  There is one thing I miss, that is the
ability to install a 32bit Firebird - otherwise I cannot look at flash
based websites due to Macromedia's lack of a 64bit plugin.  I dare say
that it is possible, but don't ask me - I can't even get sound working!

Thanks,

Andy.