Learning to work with audio in C++ [closed]

Answer 1

C might be a better choice than C++ for audio, particularly if you want to do any DSP.

• Most practical audio and DSP reference books use C for code examples
• Most audio/DSP libraries are written in C (or at least have a C API)
• C++ greatly increases the learning curve compared to C but doesn't add a lot of benefit for audio/DSP work (OOP is not particularly relevant for low-level/real-time code)

There's nothing "wrong" with learning C++ of course and it won't stop you understanding and using C code (since C++ is mostly a superset of C) - it's just that you'll be up and running a lot quicker with C, and you can always move on to C++ later if you decide to.

Answer 2

If you already learnt the basics of DSP, I would recommend Analog Devices Blackfin Processors. You can use both C and C++, and they provide a number of Audio examples to get you started. They supply enough code to read audio into the board, process it, and play it back out.

From this you can apply any types of filters or other processing you wish. I used the BF533 Ez-Kit Lite in combination with a serial LCD Panel to make an Audio Equalizer for a project once. Was a great learning experience and a lot of fun!

Answer 3

It really depends on what kind of audio work you want to do, If you want to implement audio for a game, C++ is sure the right language. There are many libraries around, OpenAL is great, free and multiplatform. I also used DirectSound and Fmod with great sucess. Check them out, it all depends on your needs.

Answer 4

On windows look up tutorials on DirectSound.

On Linux there are a variety of libraries and methods to access sound cards, the easiest of which is simply open a file to the device, and use ioctrl to set the speed, etc.

If you give more information on the environment, we might have better recommendations.

-Adam

Answer 5

I don't have all that much experience in creating audio apps for myself - but if I was in your position I'd play around with creating VSTi's first (virtual studio technology instrument). As far as I know, Steinberg have released a C++ SDK for this and I reckon it would be a good starting point if you'd like to get into sound design applications

Answer 6

You can use a .wav file using some command.

That command is PlaySound("C:\\SOUNDS\\example.WAV", NULL, SND_ASYNC);