[linux-audio-dev] Best road to audio programming happiness?

[Lance Blisters]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 11:00:19AM +1000, Earle wrote:
> I was hoping someone could help me with my first newbie steps in linux audio
> programming. I finally made it over to Linux, and discovered that I arrived
> here before cubase and fruityloops did. They never did what I wanted them to
> anyway. *sob*.

  Consider finding a project which does what you want and helping it.
  Even if you merely plan to explore some of your own ideas, it might
  be easier to do it within the framework of an existing app.  And then
  when your ideas grow into a full app, you won't find that you've
  created yet another ____.  If you in interested in creating something 
  like cubase or protools, definitely check out ardour.  If you like traktor, 
  check out gdam.  Can't say offhand what is closest to fruityloops although 
  gdam (my project) isn't too far.  There are midi editors, synthesis
  networks, realtime processing engines, etc.  Check out 
  http://linux-sound.org/ for a list of existing projects.

  If you do start your own project, the best way to ensure the effort
  can be reused is to use JACK for audio.

  Considering toolkits, gtk+ is pretty nice and reasonably easy to
  extend with new widgets.  It is c, but very object oriented (there are
  other language bindings).  The biggest drawback is portability, the 
  native osx version is in early stages and the windows version required 
  cygwin or similar last time i tried.  I have written some pixmapped 
  gtk+ widgets useful for audio - scrollbars, meters, buttons, and dials
  created from your custom images.  You are, of course, free to use those.

  -geoff