[LAD] NEWB question - which is the best audio platform to develop an OpenSource project for?

Peter Nelson peter at fuzzle.org
Thu Feb 10 13:23:08 UTC 2011


On Thu, 2011-02-10 at 15:12 +0200, j o wrote:
> Hi all,
> Sorry for the annoying NEWB question
> I'm starting an opensource project for a softsynth
> I'd like to make it portable as possible so I'm using g++
> I tried googling around for about two weeks now and can't really make
> up my mind
> OSS/ALSA/JACK/PORTAUDIO etc...
> they all look like they have their pros and cons
> I need :
> * lowest latency possible (latency kills!)
> * easy development (I'm a decent coder)
> * portability (preferably other os's as well - os/x or even god forbid
> win)
> * Nice to have - easily deal with many different (standard) audio
> cards without actually having to develop drivers for them
> 
> I've looked at the code of some very cool OS softsynths and I each has
> it's own choice
> What would you guys recommed?
> Thanks
> Jonathan

Out of that list, only JACK and PortAudio are cross-platform. Unless you
decide to go with a plug-in system instead (DSSI or LV2), JACK is
definitely the one to go with for a synth.

JACK is the ultimate in simplicity. No sample format negotiation, no
setting up of devices, not even querying for a list of devices.

Peter.




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