[LAD] Suggestion for diving into audio development?

[Jeremy]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Kris Calabio <cpczk at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to the Linux Audio community.  Let me introduce myself:
>
> (You can skip to "Ok getting to the point" if you like :P )
>
> I'm primarily a rock musician and have a home recording setup with a
> Presonus Audiobox USB, Guitar Rig 3, and Reaper on a Windows system, and it
> works really well for me.  I've been using Linux ever since I started
> studying computer science in college since 2006 and immediately recognized
> it as marginally better than Windows.  I've considered switching my home
> system completely to Linux and free software (all knowledge must be free!),
> but I love Reaper too much.
>
> So I decided to dual boot on my new laptop about a month ago.  I still have
> Windows 7 to get stuff done in Reaper quickly and comfortably, and Ubuntu
> Studio to experiment with.  I must say, this last month I've learned so, so
> much about Linux, DSP, and computers in general.  The flexibility of Jack is
> awesome.  I love how all my plugins don't have to be run all in one DAW
> application.  Jack with Ardour and Guitarix rivals my Windows setup, though
> I still prefer Reaper.
>
> Ok getting to the point:
>
> Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world of open source
> development?  I've looked at some source code of applications I use but get
> pretty lost.  Are there any simple Jack applications that have easy to read
> code?  I'm all for taking baby steps.  I'm also open to reading suggestions
> (online resources, books, anything really).
>
> The lowest level of DSP programming I've ever done was with Pure Data.  (I
> made a wavetable/FM synthesizer in pd that I could post if anyone's
> interested.)  Are there other programming languages I should learn?  I know
> C, C++, and Java.  I understand that FAUST is a good DSP language.  Are
> there others?
>
> The Linux community is great and the free audio software is really
> powerful!  It's definitely THE ideal alternative for musicians on a budget
> like myself.  Unfortunately, you sort of have to be tech savvy to be a Linux
> musician.  The average musician is not.  I want to be part of the
> development of free audio software as my way of giving back to this
> wonderful community and helping the average musician.
>
>
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> Linux-audio-dev at lists.linuxaudio.org
> http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
>
>

My best advice is to pick up a project that you are objectively interested
in completing.  Pick a goal that you would be happy if *someone else* did.
That way when the novelty wears off, you'll still have some motivation to
keep working and keep learning when you otherwise might tire of it.  So ask
yourself:  What's something that you think linux audio is lacking?  Find
something small, and find something you care about.

Jeremy
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